Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School's rugby teams ended their fall season on a high note last week.
On Thursday, Oct. 24 the senior boys, senior girls, junior boys and junior girls teams all travelled up to Williams Lake to play in an exhibition rugby jamboree. There they faced the Lake City Secondary School Falcons and an amalgamated team of Prince George players in a series of games, with 100 Mile House winning the majority of them. PSO head rugby coach Kameron Taylor said it was a good learning experience for all of his players
"We have carrying abilities with our seniors teams and I'm just trying to, from a coaching standpoint, coach them in a way that suits their ability and not trying to force something they're not capable of doing," Taylor said. "You stay within their strengths as much as possible so they succeed as a team and help each other grow."
During the jamboree the senior boys had 2-1 record, the senior girls had a 1-1 record and junior boys had a 2-0 record. Due to the fact neither Prince George nor Williams Lake had enough girls for a junior team, Taylor explained the junior girls subbed in for senior players during their two games.
For the senior boys, Taylor said he split the team into an A Team and a B Team to play against Williams Lake's A Team and B Team. While PSO's A Team beat out Williams Lake's B Team by a few tries, the B Team lost out to Williams Lake's A Team.
Against Prince George Taylor said they had a good contest back and forth with both teams scoring in the first half, while in the second the PSO Eagles tightened up their game and brought home the win. He noted that he could see their training come to the fore as they played better as a team.
"A lot of the kids are hard on themselves at this stage. They're growing up and still developing their brains. (Between) society, sports and academics they have a lot on their plates and it's all coming at them at a rapid speed when they're growing up," Taylor said.
The girls, meanwhile, beat Williams Lake by a try in their first game and then lost by a try to the Prince George mixed team. Taylor said they were both great games, bar a few injuries, and the games helped the junior girls build some confidence by playing with the seniors.
"Everyone's got to be ready to be subbed on ready to play," Taylor said.
For the junior boys, Taylor said they beat Williams Lake 25-0 in their first game while their second game was more of an education experience with only Grade 7 and Grade 8 students playing. Taylor said he and Williams Lake's coach Braden McCallum coached the two teams together as they got the younger players more experienced with how the game is played.
"We mixed up the squads and had eight players each and kind of coached them as we were going," Taylor said.
Taylor remarked that managing close to 50 students at the jamboree was a bit hectic. In addition to coaching and reffing, prior to the games he was taping up his athletes' legs, wrists, fingers and other joints and also managing any injuries that occurred. His students also ended up playing seven games in a row so he was shocked by how quickly the day passed.
"It was about five hours of playing and then back home."
Outside of one final planned practice, Taylor said the fall season for rugby is at an end, beyond individual training on a per-athlete basis. He noted he has plans to take several rugby players down to Vancouver to watch HSBC's Vancouver Sevens Rugby Tournament which will see 12 men and 12 women teams competing in three days of rugby.
"That will be watching up to 50 to 70 rugby games in three days. It's a fast and furious trip," Taylor remarked. "That is to spark the fire that rugby season spring is starting soon."
The Cariboo's spring rugby season begins in April with zones taking place in May and provincials in June.
