SHS rugby wants competitive edge

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore High School boys and girls rugby teams are hoping to get the same consistent compete level from a season ago.
Girls head coach Jerry Flaws will get a better idea of what his team will look like once other school sports have finished.
“It’s hard to tell right now because we haven’t started, with (our) basketball teams doing well, we don’t have gym time, but we’ll know just after spring break,” said Flaws.
He is optimistic, with the players coming in, that the team will see success.
“I think with the athletes coming into the program, we’ll do well,” said Flaws. “Our goal again is to win zones and qualify for provincials and I think we have a good shot at doing that.”
Flaws admits that the players that are arriving this year will have to work hard to fill the void.
“It’ll be hard to replace, we lost eight starters graduated from last year out of our 15 in the starting line up. Hopefully, with the athletes coming in, they won’t have the rugby knowledge, but their athletics will really come around and build for the next couple,” said Flaws. “It seems like every year we’re teaching a third of the team the game, but this year we’ll be teaching half the team the game. We’ll always start slow and hopefully they’ll learn the fundamentals of the game and once they get a grasp of that then we’ll move on to bigger strategies.”
There are no tryouts as every player is welcome.
The girls will begin the season with a trip to Ontario for a rugby tournament in mid-April followed the next week with a tournament in Vulcan.
Meanwhile, boys head coach Brad Steele is very impressed with how committed the players are, coming into the season with a high fitness level.
“They’ve been enthusiastic, working out on their own a number of times a week,” said Steele. “That’s never happened before, these guys want to get in shape and they want to get started as soon as possible.”
He expects the boys to compete and earn every try they get.
“We’re in a competitive zone, but we should be winning rugby games,” said Steele. “We’re going to be a mixture of players, but because we have as many as 12 players returning – which is a lot – that’s a big deal when you start the year with that many players to know the game.”
The boys will also begin in mid-April.