Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School’s rugby teams didn’t bring home a trophy but they had the best result at provincials in years, according to coach Kameron Taylor.
Taylor said the senior girls’ team finished eighth out of 16 in the Girls 7s while the senior boys’ team were last in their division. There were 72 teams and more than 1,700 athletes competing in hundreds of games at the event in Abbotsford.
“It was a great energy to see them compete at provincials,” Taylor said. “This was the biggest high school tournament in all of Canada. There was game, after game, after game all day long.”
The PSO Eagles played six games each, split between June 2 and June 3. The boys lost all their games and ended up in the consolation bracket, while the girls had a 1-1-1 record, securing a spot in the championship bracket. The girls beat R.E. Mountain Secondary School 19-15, were shut out by Oak Bay High School 30-0 and tied Heritage Woods Secondary School 5-5.
Taylor said the girls were “jazzed” to be competing in the championships and even though they didn’t win the championship, he was “pumped for them.”
“They were really committed. The majority of them came out to every single practice and it showed that their knowledge and intelligence of the game of rugby was there,” Taylor said.
The boys’ rugby team, meanwhile, performed “to their expectations,” Taylor said. During the rugby season, the girls competed against four different teams, while the boys only one: the Lake City Secondary School Falcons. As a result, Taylor said the boys didn’t build the same level of chemistry and communication.
However, at the provincials, Taylor said the boys were positive and improved every game. During their last game against Mulgrave School, Taylor said successfully pulled off a “maul,” in which the entire team banded together to push the ball 22 yards into the endzone to score a try. They lost that game 52-16.
“Even though they lost that game it made the whole weekend worth it for them to score off that planned play,” Taylor said. “They said they’d do it all over again just for that play.”
Taylor intends to keep building a competitive rugby program at PSO. He plans to run a six-week rugby clinic over the summer and find additional coaches to help mentor and train the players. Anyone looking to coach can reach out to him at kameron.taylor@sd27.bc.ca.
“The community support is very much appreciated by all of our community sponsors. They provide us with the funds and sponsorships to play rugby at an affordable cost for our kids,” Taylor said, thanking Laura Stewart for being his assistant coach for the girls’ team. “We definitely need more coaches out there, I’ll keep preaching that, because the more coaches we have the more help we have for building a rugby program in the future.”
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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