Girl Spartans ousted by Banff; boys reflect on positives

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore High School girls rugby team did not get the result they were looking for at zones on May 28 in Calgary.
Head coach Jerry Flaws knew that Banff was a good test and that better positioning would have been key if they were to have won.
“We just needed to work on tackling, just the basics of the game,” said Flaws. “We let too many people through, we needed to get a shoulder in on our tackles not just a hands.”
However, Flaws did admit that there was some noticeable progress in some positions from the Smith Falls trip that carried over into zones.
“Our defensive positioning got way better as the year went on. The kids were in the right spots and if we were to tackle better, we would’ve been better off, but at least they were in the right position.”
Although there are some graduating players from this year’s roster, the future looks bright for the Lady Spartans.
If the core group comes back and continues to work as a tightly knit group, then there will be success.
“We have some huge shoes to fill with our Grade 12’s leaving but I think with a few of them leaving this year, it should be easier to bounce back next year than it was this year,” said Flaws.
Meanwhile, the boys Spartans rugby team played an exhibition game on the same day and were defeated by Holy Trinity Academy.
Head coach Brad Steele was enthused about his team’s play but knows that the knowledge of the game can be improved upon.
“The exhibition game at zones was a good game, our guys played hard,” said Steele.
“We scored at least one try but could not put enough phases of rugby together to score some more. A lot of good individual effort, some good tackles were made, (and)some good runs were made.”
Over the course of the season, Steele felt that a lot of the players picked up on some coaching techniques that made them better players.
“Individual players picked up on things that we’ve been coaching, running and tackling, so individual skills improved, once again it was a matter of putting it all together error free.”
His hope was that the players would be gaining some experience from the rugby festival to move up in the levels of the sport.
He added that it will be nice to get a fresh start at coaching a new group of players.