The Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School Girls Senior Rugby team is heading to the provincials after taking silver Friday in the Zones competition in Vanderhoof.
The senior Eagles lost twice to Lake City Secondary School Falcons, in a 12-0 shutout and 24-5 in the finals, but came back to finish the tournament with a 2-1 record, beating Nechako Valley Secondary School 26-5 and Prince George Secondary School 33-0.
“Going into the Vanderhoof game, I let the girls know that if we won that game we’d unofficially get a berth at provincials,” coach Kameron Taylor said. “I told them to play like they’re going to provincials and they killed that match.”
Taylor said their second-place finish secured them a provincial berth in Abbotsford June 2-3. He said they plan to take all 11 seniors and four of their best juniors.
The girls will be joined at provincials by the Senior Boys Rugby Team, which also made the cut.
The junior Eagles, meanwhile, finished last Friday’s tournament in third place, following a 45-0 loss against Williams Lake, and 26-7 to Nechako. Taylor said the juniors were down two of their strongest players.
Nadia Kulyk and Skylinn Larson stepped up to lead the junior team.
Taylor said the provincial run has given momentum to his intent to rebuild PSO’s rugby program and he plans to run flag rugby clinics for Grade 4-6 students over the summer to introduce them to the sport.
He welcomes anyone with rugby experience who would like to coach to reach out to him at kameron.taylor@sd27.bca.ca.
“I definitely want to build 100 Mile up to the next level of rugby with development camps,” he said.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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