Northfield, Vt. -- In a cold, steady rain and boot-sucking mud, steam rises from warm bodies as Corinne McElroy stuffs her head into a scrum. Fog wraps ribbons around the surrounding mountains. In the distance, on the other side of the railroad tracks, the public-address announcer at the Norwich University football game disperses pertinent information in a tinny, indecipherable voice.

Periodically, what follows -- for the unaware or uninitiated -- can only be described as a nerve-rattling ka-BOOM!

McElroy has dreamed for days like Saturday, although the cannon fired following Cadet football touchdowns probably didn't factor into such reveries. It still jazzes the Canaan 18-year-old and her Norwich women's rugby teammates, who had the joy of winning their third Northeast Rugby Union championship in four years with home wins over Radcliffe and Rutgers last weekend.

Ill-timed during the Cadets' soggy slog with Radcliffe on Saturday, the cannon fire -- at least a half-dozen blasts during football's rout of Mount Ida a quarter-mile away -- still generated smiles and war whoops from McElroy's mates. The Norwich freshman is where she belongs, in her element, still soaking in how far rugby has carried her in such a short time.

“It's definitely a big jump coming from high school to college,” McElroy said after Saturday's 22-7 win, her feet slowly regaining feeling after the cold and rain. “This team, everyone has a lot of good chemistry, which I've never had before in a team. Everyone knows what they’re doing, even though only six (of our) players had ever played in college before this year. There's not a lot of experienced players, but there’s a great bond within the team. It’s incredible.”

And it might require those who know McElroy to look twice before they realize what they're seeing.

While it offers a consistent level of competition at the collegiate level, New England rugby opportunity can be spotty for high school-age girls. It's a matter of where you live and who you know, and in both respects Corinne McElroy has benefited.

A graduate of Mascoma Valley Regional High School last spring, McElroy was invited to join a local club, the Upper Valley Berzerkers, while still a 14-year-old middle-schooler. That led to learning, youth-level competition and eventually notice at higher levels of the game. She has since worked with USA Rugby's developmental program, and her play as a Norwich freshman brought further recognition last week when she was named to an NRU under-19 all-star team that will play in a tournament in Florida this weekend.

“We have the Vermont Youth Rugby Association, a high school league with a couple of teams from New Hampshire and New York, but I don't think I saw her play in high school,” Norwich coach Austin Hall said.

“At college there are tons of opportunities, but in high school it's more random. You have to have a coach in the area. If a coach in a particular area wants to coach rugby, he'll get people involved. It’s luck of the draw.”

In that respect, Hall considers himself fortunate to be coaching one rather important freshman.

McElroy started every game this season for the Cadets, capped by Sunday's 42-3 rout of Rutgers for the Northeast championship. As a No. 8 -- think middle linebacker, a Brian Urlacher type -- McElroy almost never leaves the field during an 80-minute game. She'll carry the ball a few times, but she’s needed more for field coverage, direction, endurance … and, of course, the physical contact.

“That's definitely the part that riles you up,” McElroy said with a grin. “That gets you going and makes you want to hit people.”

Just ask the Radcliffe back whom McElroy flattened with an open-field tackle early in Saturday's semifinal. Or consult Norwich teammates Kelly Allenspach and Molly Patterson, between whom McElroy wedges herself in the back of each and every Cadet scrum.

McElroy's athleticism also comes into play on line-outs, rugby's version of a throw-in. The tallest of Norwich's starters, McElroy is hoisted into the air by two teammates on every line-out, with the aim of tapping the ball into Cadet possession. The responsibilities of her position don't offer many scoring opportunities, but McElroy did record her first varsity try (rugby’s touchdown) in a 44-0 blanking of Dartmouth on Sept. 14.

“Being in a varsity program is definitely a huge opportunity,” McElroy said. “With high school club, we had practice twice a week. We didn't do much conditioning; it was more like teaching people the sport. … Here, we had preseason two-a-days; we had two-, three-hour practices a day. We trained hard every day. It's an incredible opportunity to be in a varsity program.”

People who know McElroy might have been shocked at her choice of school for two reasons, neither of which has anything to do with rugby.

For one, the dreadlocks had to go. McElroy had grown her hair to near-waist length during a month-long conservation outing two years ago and opted to go for the dreads over a cut-and-dye job, the latter of which her parents, Glenn and Laurel McElroy, wouldn't abide.

The new 'do came as a requirement for the other surprising development in McElroy's life: her decision to join Norwich's corps of cadets. McElroy isn’t on any military scholarship and, as such, can choose not to become a commissioned officer when she graduates in four years. But as someone who embodies the notion of a spontaneous free spirit, she isn't ruling out the possibility.

“A lot of people saw me, especially having dreads in high school, as this little hippie kid who's probably going to go to a liberal school get, like, a poli-sci degree or something,” McElroy said. “I told them I was coming here for a mechanical engineering degree, and a lot of people were surprised by that. People didn't see me as the military-type kid.

“Rugby is definitely a huge part of why I came here; I actually hadn't even considered coming to Norwich until Coach Hall talked to me. … I knew that, if I came here, I couldn't be civilian; I’d have to go in the corps. It was just something, for me personally, that I'd have to do. I’ve enjoyed challenging myself. This is probably the biggest challenge I’ve ever came up against, coming to a military college, playing this level of rugby.”

As good as the Cadets are -- the Rutgers win capped a 15-3-1 fall campaign, with 12 consecutive victories to end it -- McElroy still represents a minority on the team. Both she and Hall said as many as three-fourth of the women on the Norwich roster arrive in Northfield interested in playing rugby but having never done so before college.

“It's changed a great deal,” said Norwich athletic director Tony Mariano, who joined a crowd of about 50 die-hards (including McElroy's mom and dad) in Saturday's downpour. “In the past, we’ve taken those students that are interested in it, who may have seen it or played in intramurals, to come here and participate. Now we're actively going out to those programs that have women’s rugby and trying to find the best players to fit our institution.

“A lot of them have an interest in the corps of cadets. That's a unique thing about rugby; most of our student-athletes, on the men's and women’s sides, are in the corps. There’s that connection between the two.”

The weekend's wins guaranteed Norwich a spot in next April's USA Rugby Division II collegiate national championships at Stanford University. So now Corinne McElroy has something else for which to thank her favorite sport and new life: a reason to train this winter.

“We'll just be standing out on the pitch, just before every match, you're just standing there ready to catch the ball, ready to chase the kickoff,” she said. “And you just think to yourself all the hard work you've done to get there. It’s why you’re there. You love the sport. It’s what drives you.”

She's having a blast. The cannon only serves as punctuation.

Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or (603) 727-3226.