With Spring Break over Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School’s rugby program is back on the pitch.
Last week well over 50 students, boys and girls, came out for some of the first rugby practices of 2024. Head coach Kameron Taylor said it’s already shaping up to be an exciting season, with PSO fielding two teams each of senior and junior boys and a team of junior and senior girls.
“I am an athlete at heart and I love the culture of rugby. The culture and character around these boys and girls is awesome to watch, witness and be a part of,” Taylor said.
In addition to a high number of players, Taylor is being joined this year by several assistant coaches including several PSO alumni like Emily Machado and Elias Moore, which he finds heartwarming. He said with their help he is able to take more of a macro view of the teams and assist where needed.
Moore said he came back to coach the team this season because he enjoyed it a lot when he was in high school. Coaching gives him a way to stay involved in the sport while giving back to the community.
“Coaching is a bit different because I played with a lot of these kids but they have handled it very well and treat me with respect. It’s just a good energy out here, they’re very positive,” Moore said. “They’re tracking hard and they just got a good energy.”
As the high school program continues to grow Moore said he and Taylor have discussed the possibility of getting a rugby club up and running in the community. If they’re able to get their own field and clubhouse he said they’d be able to both get an adult league going and introduce the sport to elementary-aged kids.
“In Williams Lake, they have a great rugby club field and little cabin for drinks after, so it would be pretty cool to get that down here,” Moore explained. “It’s long-term for sure, it’s not going to happen right away, but we’ll see how it goes.”
One of the players Moore is coaching this year is Xander Flett, a Grade 12 student trying rugby for the first time. Flett said he’s been encouraged by his friends for years to try the sport out and this year finally caved.
“I finally joined after much pressure and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve made new friends and it’s been a great time,” Flett said. “It’s very stress relieving and keeps your mind off things.”
Taylor remarked that he’s planning on giving his students as many opportunities to play rugby as possible this season. Barring one weekend before Zones he has games, tournaments and jamborees scheduled for each weekend for both the boys and the girls.
“We’re facing a lot of different teams this season to start out. It was going to be a full schedule weekend after weekend but I decided we needed a break so we took one weekend off,” Taylor said. “I’d rather have my students all healthy and not injured.”
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The Eagles’ first game is this Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:50 p.m. against the Lake City Secondary School Falcons’ junior and senior boys teams. Taylor said they’ll be playing 10 on 10 rather than seven on seven, which his teams are training for, because the Falcons play 15 on 15.
“We have enough kids that we could play 15 but my athletes love sevens and I’m really biased towards sevens because I like the speed, the open field and a lot of scoring,” Taylor remarked, noting the sevens format gives his players more chances to play.
Both the junior and senior girls’ teams, meanwhile, will be amalgamated to compete in a tournament in Salmon Arm from April 18-20. Taylor said the girls will get a chance to play against teams from Kamloops, Airdree, Salmon Arm and beyond.
On April 26 and 27 Taylor and the Eagles will be hosting the first annual Cariboo Rugby Sevens Invitational. So far Taylor has had 14 different teams sign up for this inaugural event including teams from Houston, Terrace, Prince George, Kamloops, Barriere and Vanderhoof, to name a few.
“Exposing the kids to different levels of rugby and not playing the same teams all the time is very beneficial as well. If you’re just playing the teams from your Zone you know how to beat them specifically but if you make it into provincials you’re playing a lot of teams who play a lot of different styles of rugby,” Taylor said.
This year Zones will be hosted in Williams Lake on May 10 and 11 with provincials set for May 29 to 31 if PSO wins at Zones. Taylor said he welcomes anyone else looking to help out on the coaching side of things or to sponsor the team to reach out to him via email at kameron.taylor@sd27.bc.ca.
