SANCHEZ ALUM TO PLAY IN USA NATIONALS

PRESS RELEASE – Joanne Alvarez, a 2021 graduate of Simon Sanchez High School and a current member of the Grand Canyon University Women’s Rugby program in Phoenix, Arizona, was recently selected to represent the Under-23 yr. old Pacific South Region in a USA National Rugby Tournament to be held in Boson this week.

She will make up a rugby team of the best under 23-year-old females from the Southern Pacific mainland region. Joanne departs for Boston on Wednesday June 26, where she will have a week full of games, practices, and will be in attendance of a Men’s Professional Major League Rugby game of the New England Freejacks vs Charlotte Anthem, where Joanne and her representative teammates will be recognized at halftime.

On May 5, 2024, Joanne and the Grand Canyon Rugby Team competed in the US Collegiate Rugby Athletic Association Division 1 National Championship, falling short in a tightly contested match against Stanford University. See article below for more details on the championship match: https://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/stanford-storms-through-craa-d1-women-title . 

Joanne has played a number of positions in her first year at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, but through the second half of the season, she found a permanent role as the 8-man of the forward pack. Joanne transferred to Grand Canyon University in the Fall of 2023, after spending her first two years at American International College (AIC) in Springfield, Massachusetts. In November 2021, Joanne was a member of the AIC Rugby Program that won the Division II National Intercollegiate Rugby Association Championship.