Tough Enough for Bad Guys – and Rugby

At first glance, 29-year-old Corinne Heavner looks more like an actress out of Central Casting than an Atlanta police officer. From her elegant poise and even-tempered speech, you wouldn’t think she’s a Master Police Officer and a detective in the Homicide Assault Unit of the DeKalb County Police Department.

A native of New York, Corinne came to Atlanta for graduate school and stayed to pursue a law enforcement career five years ago and enjoys the demanding assignments. “I work 60-hour weeks pretty regularly. I'd work more if they’d let me.”

Corinne may be driven but ‘all work and no play’ is not her mindset as she is making time to compete in her first World Police & Fire Games (WPFG), to be hosted June 27-July 6 in Birmingham, Alabama. Of course, her favorite sport is as competitive and action-packed as her job - Rugby.

“I've been around rugby since before I was born, and I've hit the ground running and never stopped playing,” she says. She started with clinics and touch/flag games as a child and began playing full sport at 13. She hasn’t stopped since, despite often having to commute to find teams and games. Upon hearing about the WPFG, Corinne started networking with other officers to put together a Rugby 7-on-7 team.

“I don't know of many rugby-playing police officers near me, but we make connections very quickly in the rugby community,” she explains. “Most of our team members are coming from the Southeast but we have a couple outliers coming from other places.”

Participation in rugby is growing in the United States, but Corinne knows they will face stiff competition. “A lot of other countries have more established rugby teams so I feel like we're going to be a little fish in a big pond,” she says. “But it’s just getting your feet in the water, and this could become an established team for years to come. It's a great opportunity for me to get out there and play the sport I love with people who are like me.”

Besides her own competition, Corinne looks forward to the diversity of sports action involving first responders from dozens of countries. “I'm excited to see other people play sports I've never heard of. When I looked at the list of sports, I was taken aback at how many there are and how many I didn't know about.”

In retrospect, it was her tenacious pursuit of rugby that helped provide Corinne with the toughness and savvy needed to be a cop. Now married with six pets in tow, Corinne is motivated to serve her community. “I wanted to help people, which is what everybody says, but I really wanted to help people,” she asserts. “I wanted to physically chase down the bad guys myself and make the world a safer place. My life goal is to find ways I can make situations better than I found it, and I can do that every day as a police officer.”

By Del Moon