In elementary and middle school, Ilona Maher spent some of her recess time playing the game of tag with boys in her class.
In high school, Maher became a standout in three sports: Field hockey, basketball and softball.
That foundation laid the groundwork for Maher's current occupation: Olympian on the U.S. women's rugby sevens team.
"She picked up things very quickly as a child, she was very good at playing tag," said father Michael Maher. "It was obvious that she really understood the concept of giving and taking space when playing. You could see it in field hockey, it came from her basketball play and it really transferred over to rugby."
Travis Prior/Courtesy of USA Rugby
Travis Prior/Courtesy of USA Rugby
Burlington, Vermont's Ilona Maher, 24, is a starter for the U.S team aiming to medal at this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo. Maher and her teammates won their first two contests, defeating China and Japan. Against Japan, Maher raced to the game's opening try, stiff-arming her way to five points.
"Ilona’s grown a lot on and off the pitch the last (three) years. Her understanding of the game combined with her physicality has led to her not only scoring tries but also creating many opportunities for others," U.S. Coach Chris Brown said in a statement. "Ilona is constantly looking to improve and she’s a class act when it comes to leading by example. Her presence will have a huge influence on our performance at the Games."
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A member of Team USA since 2018, the 5-foot-10, 200-pound Maher said she's proud to represent her state, one of three Vermont natives set to compete in Tokyo.
Courtesy Photo of Ilona Maher, center, and parents Michael and Mieneke during a USA Rugby event in 2018.
Courtesy Photo of Ilona Maher, center, and parents Michael and Mieneke during a USA Rugby event in 2018.
"We are not known as this athletic state. No matter where you are from, they are great athletes and you can be a great athlete," Maher said. "I love Vermont and I love the community and culture of it. I cannot wait to go back to Vermont after being at the Olympics to hopefully bring rugby back to the state and grow it more there."
When did Ilona Maher start playing rugby?
In field hockey, Maher was a Free Press' first-team selection as a defender following her junior and senior seasons at Burlington High School — the newspaper's annual distinction to recognize the state's best players.
In basketball, she was a first-team pick by the Metro Division coaches in her final winter. And she made Vermont senior teams for both sports for the exhibition Twin State series with New Hampshire.
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But before she wrapped her high school career in spring 2014, Maher had a change of heart: She wouldn't return to the Seahorses' softball program.
"You can ask anyone, I never really loved softball. I never enjoyed it," Ilona Maher said. "For my own happiness, I didn’t want to do it."
Michael Maher: "She was looking for something else to do and that’s always been our rule, you have to do something."
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Ilona Maher landed on rugby — a sport in which her father has years of experience as a player, coach and official — and latched on with the cooperative squad made up of players from Burlington, South Burlington and Champlain Valley.
"She could’ve joined the track team, she could’ve joined the lacrosse team," Michael Maher said. "But she decided to join the rugby team."
Instantaneously, Ilona Maher stood out.
"Coaches called me up and said my daughter was just phenomenal. I was like, 'I know, she’s a great athlete,'" Michael Maher recalled. "And they were no like, 'No, Mike, you don’t get it, she’s really good and there are going to be college coaches calling.'
"Sure enough, she played one game and I got a call from a college coach the next day."
Why does Ilona Maher play rugby?
In a game that requires stamina, power and speed, Ilona Maher felt at home on the rugby pitch.
"I loved the physicality of it, I loved that I was moving and being able to be the athlete that I thought I’ve always been," Maher said. "When I scored a try and made some tackles, I thought, 'I could do this, I could be good at this.'"
Maher also attributed what she learned from other sports as a crucial baseline for her newfound success in rugby.
"I picked up all these different skills — field awareness, hand-eye coordination," Maher said. "When it came to rugby, I don’t know why it clicked — maybe it was something in my blood and being exposed to rugby my whole life."
From Norwich to Quinnipiac stardom
Maher initially committed to attend the University of Vermont. Early fees had been paid. Maher even went to orientation. But the lure of playing rugby at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont, then a national power, was enough for Maher to rethink her decision to go to UVM.
"(Norwich coach) Austin Hall recognized something in me," Maher said.
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In her fifth game during her fall freshman season, Maher scored three tries in a 45-38 win over Quinnipiac, Norwich's third victory over a top-10 ranked team in the country in a month.
Maher's play caught the attention of Quinnipiac coach Becky Carlson.
"I remember specifically saying, 'I would give my right arm to have the girl in a pink scrum cap,'" Carlson said. "There are many athletes who came into the sport and take to it because they have such a diverse skillset and she's just a natural.
"For her size, her speed is remarkable. There are just so many things about her that just scream elite."
When Maher decided Norwich wasn't the right fit school-wise after her first year, Quinnipiac became an ideal landing spot. The private school in Hamden, Connecticut, offered one of the country's top nursing programs while a Carlson-led rugby team was set to take off.
"I would never say Quinnipiac was her stepping stone. Ilona creating her own stepping stone," Carlson said. "She’s the one who found it and chose to walk over it."
At Quinnipiac, Maher, a center, helped the Bobcats to three straight national championships. She also earned three All-American honors and was feted with the Sorensen Award, given to the nation's top collegiate player, following her junior season in 2017.
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"Her first game she played with us, she was running over people the way she is running over Russians and Chinese players now," Carlson said. "She’s a formidable force."
At the awards ceremony for the Sorensen, Carlson made a prediction.
"I said, 'You need to watch her now because you will see her in the Olympics and she is going to be one of the best players in the world,'" Carlson said. "People in the room knew it. You just watched her highlight film and people knew it."
Maher joined the USA squad after Quinnipiac graduation
Prior to her senior year at Quinnipiac, Maher's poured more energy and time in striving to make the U.S. national team.
Balancing the demands of school work to finish her nursing degree and ratcheting up her workouts, Maher made personal sacrifices to achieve that goal.
"It's your senior year of college and it's probably not how you want to spend it," Maher said. "But I knew I could have something greater."
Maher made her national team debut at the 2018 HSBC World Sevens Series in Paris, France. She also landed on the U.S. roster for the World Cup Sevens tournament, which was hosted for the first time on American soil. Maher and the U.S. took fourth.
Maher then helped the U.S. to its best-ever finish, second in the world, following the 2018-19 season for the World Rugby Sevens Series, booking qualification for Tokyo.
"It’s very hard to describe the feeling of observing your child’s excellence and accomplishments," said Mieneke Maher, Ilona's mother. "Pride is a part of it, but also the realization that it’s her, she did it, it’s her dedication. The things she gave up to attain this incredible tremendous honor of representing this country."
Ilona's Maher commitment to the gym signified another barrier cleared, Michael Maher said.
"When you see her work out, there is no rest, no let up," he said. "She knows why she’s in the gym, she knows there is an endpoint. It’s strength, it’s endurance, it’s stamina and it’s speed."
Training with Premier Strength & Performance in Shelburne pays off
Around the time she transferred to Quinnipiac, Maher began working with Joey Besl, owner of Premier Strength & Performance in Shelburne, Vermont.
In the years since, Maher and Besl have turned Maher into an elite athlete of fitness, power and strength.
"She is, hands down, one of the hardest-working, focused and driven individuals," Besl said. "And she does it all with such a cool class and grace."
The idea, at the start, was to make Maher stronger, faster, more explosive, quicker on the ball and more resilient to injury.
"As time has gone on, we’ve figured out exercises and movements and training style that really vibe well with the way she needs to be performing," Besl said. "She’s fantastic with feedback. She’ll tell me what works, tell me what’s not going so great."
When Maher was forced home last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Besl and Maher focused even more on explosive speed work for rugby sevens, a sport that requires physicality and bursts of energy for 7-minute halves. Think hockey without the line changes.
"For (Maher) and other athletes, you can’t hyper-fixate on only one component of athletic development. You have to think about the entire spectrum," Besl said. "This is for sport performance and a very different way to train. The focus for her is not necessarily on muscular development."
Getting it done for the home crowd 🏟️🇺🇸@ilona_maher with goal line magic we can't wait to see more of in LA. #QuestForGold7s
— USA Rugby (@USARugby) June 1, 2021
BE THERE » https://t.co/1LjufH5MBo pic.twitter.com/DldV1AUKnT
Besl gave an analogy to express his point.
"You have a factory of 10 guys and you have a factory of 100 guys, the factory of 10 guys is working at 95% capacity but the factory of 100 guys is working at 6% capacity — I’m going to take the factory of 10 guys any day until we can increase their productivity," Besl said.
"Think of those 10 workers as a smaller and more powerful athlete who is going to be a lot more successful because they are going to be able to use that muscle opposed to it just hanging of their body."
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Carlson knew Maher "had gone to this next level" when she couldn't keep up with Maher during sprint workouts.
"She was miles ahead of me and I think I threw up over my shoulder when I was working out with her," Carlson said.
Maher, Team USA chase a gold medal in Tokyo
Team USA finished fifth in the World Rugby Sevens Series standings during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. And just two starters return from the Rio squad that took fifth in 2016 during the Olympic debut of rugby sevens.
But the team's 2018-19 campaign is more of a full portrait of the potential for Tokyo.
"Every Olympian says they want to win gold," Maher said. "But we are definitely trying to medal. We saw such a boom in rugby after Rio. We have nothing to lose and we have everything to gain and we are definitely trying to put rugby on the map through our success."
Maher's parents, meanwhile, will watch from afar with fulfillment — and set their alarm clock when needed for the early games in Tokyo, 13 hours ahead of the eastern time zone.
"It’s a dream she wanted. The sevens Olympics team just seemed so far out there — and yet here she is," Michael Maher said.
Mieneke Maher is proud to tell anyone she meets of her daughter's well-earned spot on the U.S. Olympic squad.
"I’m thinking of making a tee-shirt, ‘My daughter is in the Olympics. Have I told you about it yet?’" Mieneke Maher said.
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Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.