Spartans rugby ends short of provinical goal

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

The first South Central Zone banner for boys’ rugby will have to wait until next year.
The constant rain and downward running attacks by the Bow Valley High School Bobcats impeded the Strathmore High School Spartans of winning their way to provincials for the first time in school history, May 31 at the Calgary Rugby Union.
“We had a strong team this year and I thought we had a pretty good chance to make it to provincials this season, but it will have to wait until next year,” said Spartans Coach Brad Steele after the 53-12 loss.
The Bobcats were all over the Spartans from the opening whistle onwards.
After being down a couple of tries early, Jared Aschenbrenner put the Spartans on the board with a great run. It was nearly the perfect ending to his rugby career at Strathmore High, as he graduates this spring.
Jassjot Singh appeared to have another try in the first half, but was obstructed by the official, which resulted in the play being blown dead with the possession returning to the Spartans, but they couldn’t punch it in.
“Jass’s score would have been great to make it close and possibly change the momentum, but those things happen all the time and they did a great job of defending us after that,” said Steele.
Leading 22-7 to start the second half, the Bobcats occupied the ball deep in the Spartan zone but couldn’t touch one down for the first 10 minutes.
“Normally we start slow and pick it up in the second half to wear the other team down,” said Steele. “These guys were a big, strong team that had good skills and didn’t wear down.”
Eventually, the Spartans last wall of defence cracked and the Bobcats racked up three quick tries, stretching the lead to 49-7.
But the Spartans wouldn’t go away that easily. Vito Moon stole the ball from deep in his end, blitzed up the left sideline and was awarded a penalty try.
Returning to Strathmore High School after going to school in Okotoks to play for the Bow Mark Oilers, Joel Krahenbil was a force on both sides of the ball and he did his best with a pair of powerful runs in the second half, but couldn’t find a way to put one across.
There’s no doubt the shortened season cost the Spartans in the end. Only appearing in four Big Sky Rugby games sapped the development of some of their players.
“I think if we had two more games, that would have allowed the guys that were new to the sport to pick up the extra experience needed to beat a team like this,” said Steele. “We had a great team with great athletes and great runners that got better every game.”
The Spartans will have to deal with seeing eight players graduate the program and high school this spring to regroup for next year in order to win the first boys’ zone rugby banner in school history.