The rugby seven-aside season ended on a high note for the 100 Mile Rugby Eagles girls’ teams, Oct. 26 and 27 at zone championships.
The juniors played their way to a bronze medal and the seniors earned a hard-fought silver in the tournament hosted by Williams Lake Secondary School (WLSS).
Coach Jade Jewitt says that speed was the factor in all of the senior team’s five games, but especially in their semi final 17-10 win against Prince George.
In that game, Eagles Ashley Bartch poured on the steam, scoring three tries and nailing two kicks, despite a leg injury which prevented her from kicking without some physical help.
A fellow team-mate had to hold Bartch up with an arm around her neck in order for her to keep weight off her bad leg so she could complete the kick.
Jewitt says that Bartch was committed to the game and just pressed on.
“She has a mean kick usually, and she just figured out how to do it when she was injured. I’m super proud of Ashley. That’s perseverance.”
Injuries suffered throughout the tournament in addition to no-shows had the senior team pared down to one player by what would have been their gold medal game on Saturday against Williams Lake.
The senior squad had been using a few of the junior players to fill in up to that point but Jewitt didn’t want to risk having those younger girls injured and unable to play their own final game. She made the call to pull her team from the match for gold and settled for the silver.
Jewitt says her juniors have to be commended for stepping up to assist in the senior games and still have the ability to pull off a bronze medal for their own junior team.
“Those juniors were brave. The senior girls they played are hard teams to beat. They weren’t just giving the wins to them.”
Boys’ coach Matt Leclerc had high hopes for both his junior and senior teams going into the tournament but it fizzled fast as player after player became sidelined due to injury.
“The seniors just didn’t have enough boys so they were each playing lots of minutes and hurting. The juniors should have done better but they were injury-plagued and lost a lot of players. They all looked great in the beginning of the season but sort of flamed out at the end.”
The boys’ teams had four games apiece, playing WLSS, Columneetza, Prince George and Smithers and Leclerc says they did it with a lot of heart.
“They’re a coach’s dream. Everyone is hungry to learn and play the game. They’ve been a great bunch of guys to work with and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Zones capped off the fall rugby season but they’ll be back on the field in spring for the 15-aside session.