Hokie Feature: Jetta Owens

Women’s Rugby | U.S.A. Women’s National Team | 3-Time Collegiate All-American | Virginia Tech Class of 2021

Story by Emily Dages: Rec Sports' Marketing Supervisor

IT BEGAN WITH VIRGINIA TECH RUGBY

“My whole Virginia Tech experience has been made by rugby people; I don't even know what I would do with myself at Tech without it.”

Senior Jetta Owens is a three-time All-American and a USA Women’s National Rugby Team candidate. Her introduction to the sport came when she and a dorm mate tried out for the Virginia Tech Women’s Rugby team their freshman year.

“I’ll never forget it because we were walking back from the first practice and looked at each other and said, ‘We’re going to be good at this. This is going to be great. This is it; this is our thing.’ From then on, I just loved it. And something clicked differently in this sport than other sports that I had played. I was just obsessed from the minute I started.”

“[The cohesive dynamic of the Virginia Tech team and players] is huge especially because we don’t have a coach; it’s all player run. If you’re out there, it’s a sport where you’re beating up your body; you’re literally hitting each other, so you have to really like it. No one is paying you to play, it’s not a varsity team, so it really is about the girls and how much fun we have playing with each other. And that’s why I stuck around; it’s so fun to me.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

“People making people better [has been my biggest takeaway]. We didn’t have anyone pushing us so we had to push each other. It’s the mentality of I’m going to play my best to make you play better, and you’re going to play your best to make me better. I try to live my life that way. I’m not going to hold back anything because I want you to get better and I want to get better. As a team, we’ve taken on that philosophy of we’re only getting better if we’re doing it together. You can get stuck in that mindset so easily; you’re never going to win with just one person, it has to be a team effort.”

Owens values the inclusive nature of the sport.

“The coolest thing about rugby is that you can be any body type to play the sport. It does not matter what size you are, you can play rugby. By now I’ve trained three rookie classes and I love all of them. Since we don’t make cuts, you meet some different people and you’re just like, ‘Oh my God, you’re awesome.’ The fact that we don’t make cuts means that we give you a chance. If you’re going to come out here and get hit and hit people, you can stick around. If you want to do it, you can do it.”

THREE-TIME ALL-AMERICAN

“[Being a three-time All-American] makes me feel super cool. I feel pretty badass. It always came back to the Tech team for me. I had coaches at these camps, and I’m learning all of these new drills, so I’m writing it all down -- what we did, what I learned, how can I apply this -- and I bring it back to Tech with me. I think that was a huge thing for us after my sophomore year. I brought back the drills from Trula Vista and we ended up just killing teams. I started to know what to look for. I would watch these coaches and think about how I could apply what they’re teaching me. I think that’s what really changed our program here.”

Even as a three-time All-American, Owens focus has always been to humbly grow rugby as a whole.

“I feel special being in [the rugby world], so I don’t want to disrespect that. The whole thing of rugby is very special. I touched on the community and it means a ton to me, so I’m not trying to hinder that at all; I’m not trying to mess that up. I’m just trying to be a part of it like everyone else. Luckily I get to be a big part of it.”

CURRENT TRAINING

Having attended three different All-American camps within a two-year period, Owens has gained a lot of valuable experiences and knowledge. One thing she learned while at a 15s All-American tournament in 2019 was that her niche was kicking; she is ambidextrous with her feet and didn’t know how rare that was. With this new revelation, coaches began watching Owens more closely.

Things were going really well for Owens in the spring of 2020, but unfortunately the pandemic hit. Though her plans were rerouted, the process for Owens to attend the Women’s National Team Denver Daily Training Environment worked out pretty perfectly. Prior to the pandemic, Owens was out in Trula Vista having her numbers taken for the 2024 Olympics. While there, one coach relayed something to her that changed her mentality on her progression in the rugby world.

“He said, ‘What would an Olympican do? You need to start thinking like that. If you want to do this, and I think you can, you need to start really training.’ So I start training; I’m running more, I’m sprinting more. So I told the women’s head coach this and he let me start listening in on the meetings [that decided who would attend the camp to prepare for the Rugby World Cup 2021].”

Shortly after listening to the meetings, the coaches for the Women’s National Team Denver Daily Training Environment watched and reviewed Owens’ videos and were very interested in her coming out and attending the full eight-week training camp.

“I’m out here and it’s going really well. The way it works is there are different rounds of cutting. In the first round, there were like 70 people which they cut to around 45. Those 45 will play against each other in two intersquad matches and there will be final cuts after those games. After the two matches, they will keep roughly 28 people who will play trial matches starting in May in England for the World Cup.”

FEELINGS MOVING FORWARD

“Every step is so amazing and I’m really just trying to enjoy the process because even if it ended right now, I have learned so much. I play rugby all day; that’s like a dream. It feels kind of unreal sometimes when I’m going through these processes. This happened not because I signed some contract with a team, not because a coach pushed me, but because my players and I did it and it just makes me feel great.”

Owens has taken her appreciation for a close-knit team dynamic from Virginia Tech and brought that with her to Colorado.

“I don’t know how I would play if I didn’t have that team bond. [At the camp], you’re split into groups of eight people here and the coach told me that my group is by far the happiest and most lively one here, which makes me feel really good. Even the other players have told me that it just feels different.”

“I was cooking breakfast for my group one time and one of the girls says, ‘We’re just really lucky to have Jetta.’ I’m not a serious person -- I mean I’m serious about rugby -- but I’m not mean, that’s just not my style. The other girls think I’ve had an impact on their culture, which makes me feel really good because I think that I have the same culture that I’ve had at Virginia Tech. The Tech girls call me everyday; they know I’m out here alone and in a bubble. They all take turns calling me; the support is awesome.”

The support Owens feels doesn’t solely stem from her teammates on the Virginia Tech team.

“My dad is super psyched. He played rugby in college and tells me that I’m living his dream. A lot of my mentality on things comes from my dad. He’s a high school wrestling coach who has won national championships, but he’s also never recruited people. He always took these people from the hallways and made them into champions. Getting to share this with him, knowing how much he loves rugby, we just now have this unbreakable bond.”

THE #HOKIEMOVEMENT AND FUTURE GOALS

“I feel very powerful playing rugby. Being able to tackle people and having that control over my body, with no pads no nothing, and doing it in the right way, and having that control in such an uncontrolled environment; it’s indescribable as to how it makes me feel. I love doing that and I love teaching that. Watching someone on the field for their first tackle is so rewarding. [Tackling] is not a movement that many girls know, which is why I think it’s so special. To get girls that have never done this movement, and then to teach them and get them good at it, it’s so powerful. The rules are the same; we do the same things that the men do, and we do it well. We do it technically really well, and it’s such a powerful thing.”

With her eyes set on Rugby World Cup 2021 and the 2024 Olympics, Owens remains humble to her core.

“[If my career headed toward the Olympics] that would be awesome. Like I said, I try to take it day-by-day. I’m not thinking I have to go to the olympics, but it would be really cool if that did happen. That would be an awesome goal, but I’m not going to get dead set on it; it’s not an end all be all for me. Whatever happens will be cool and I’m just going for the ride.

Owens finished out the Women’s National Team Denver Daily Training Environment camp on November 14th. She was picked for the second round and competed in the two intersquad matches that occurred on November 18 and 21.