DENVER — The Summit Daily News caught up with Summit High School rugby alum and Harvard University national champion rising senior Cassidy Bargell at the state championship at Cook Park on Saturday, May 1.

Summit Daily: What was your message to this year’s team before their final game today?

Bargell: Just that the Summit Rugby family is forever. I can’t remember who we played in the state final for my senior year, which wasn’t even that long ago, but I remember our pregame huddle that day. I remember the entire senior class on the team and that the feelings are more important. So it’s about playing with pride and playing for each other.

What’s the latest with your rugby career and training toward the end of this COVID-19 situation?

I made the top 51 for the American World Cup squad. But the World Cup got delayed a year. It was supposed to be in the fall, but it got pushed back until 2022. But hopefully that’s what I’m training for and that’s my goal to make that team. And I just recently got elected captain of Harvard women’s rugby, which is really exciting.

After COVID-19 canceled last spring’s 15s season and this past fall’s 7s season, what’s that latest with the Harvard rugby team?

We didn’t play in the spring, but we had some girls training together on campus (in Cambridge, Massachusetts) which is really nice to have some people together. But the plan is to be playing in the fall, hopefully. I’ve been off campus the whole time because I’ve been training in Glendale, Colorado, for (USA rugby) 15s still. I’ve been playing rugby all spring, dealing with a bit of a stress fracture in my ankle. But that’s healing up and hopefully I go back to Harvard in the fall.

What was this year like balancing rugby outside of school and a remote college education?

The training in Glendale was with the 15s senior national team. So we had like a daily training environment there, and that’s what I was doing. I was injured for part of it, but I was doing what I could. And then with school and online learning, it’s been hard, but that makes me even more excited to go back to in-person classes. I basically had a lot of classes at weird times of day. I had a lot of night classes and a lot of early-morning classes, I could work around training schedules. I think it as probably my hardest year of college so far so I’m excited for it to be over. But I’ve also learned a lot about rugby and myself as a student.

And the U.S. team is also gearing up for 7s action at the Olympics in Tokyo this summer?

Yes. But I’m in the development academy for 7s. So maybe I’ll play in the Olympics later on, but not in 2021.

What’s the latest with your fellow Summit Rugby alum and Harvard teammate PK Vincze?

She’s an injury reserve for the top 51 for 15s. I was in Chula Vista, California, January through March, training some 7s development stuff. And when I came back to Glendale for training here in Colorado, she actually took my room in Chula Vista. So that’s where she is now training, too.

How do you think this Summit 2021 rugby team will be remembered?

I think a lot of their resilience. A lot of the senior leaders had a tough junior year. And then coming in and playing through COVID your senior year, I can’t even imagine how hard that must be. And how much they love each other and pick each other up, which has always been part of the Summit Rugby culture, but I feel this group especially exemplifies that.