It’s been a whirlwind season for Williams Lake rugby product Kayla Moleschi, but a season that continues to get brighter.
Moleschi, 21, playing in her first year of an athletic scholarship as a member of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, helped back her team to a Canada West Championship, Sunday.
The Pronghorns defeated the University of Alberta Pandas decisively, 41-0, to win the title. Moleschi, who plays fullback, scored once on the opening kickoff, and again in the second half to help her club en route to the win.
“It was amazing,” Moleschi said of winning the championship. “It felt so good to bring back the title and to be a part of Lethbridge history.”
The Pronghorns are no strangers to success with this being their sixth consecutive Canada West women’s rugby banner. After this past weekend’s win the team will have an opportunity at a fourth Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) national championship, as well.
The CIS National Women’s Rugby Championships go from Nov. 4-6 in Peterborough, Ont.
Moleschi said she thinks the Pronghorns are capable of bringing home the title.
“I think if we keep playing how we’ve been playing and reduce our errors as much as possible, and penalties, we’ll be able to come out on top,” Moleschi said. “But there’s tough competition we need to face and I think that’s what we’ll focus on this week in practice is just working out the kinks.”
In addition to winning a championship banner Moleschi was also named rookie of the year and awarded a Canada West all-star for her performance in the tournament.
Over the summer Moleschi was also carded as a member of the Canadian Women’s Sevens team — a new program developed by Rugby Canada aimed at preparing athletes to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Moleschi’s ultimate goal, she said, is to play for the Canadian women’s Olympic team.
Following the CIS championships, from Dec. 2-4, she’ll travel to Dubai for a tournament as part of Team Canada’s sevens team.
She’ll also be relocating to Victoria from January to June as part of Team Canada’s centralization training for the Olympics.
“The sevens experience I’m really looking forward to,” Moleschi said.
“It’s not the only style of play I know but it’s fast-paced, it’s quick and that’s my game. I think going to this [Dubai] will help get an idea of what centralization for Team Canada in Victoria will be like in January. It will give me that much more experience to play with the girls I’m going to be playing with.”
In the meantime, Moleschi’s attempting to find time to work on a Kinesiology of Arts degree at the university.
“I’m having a lot of fun,” she said. “I really like it here. I love being back home but here I get the facilities to train and to play more rugby to better my career for Canada.
“It will only make me better in striving toward what I want to do, which is play for Canada in the Olympics.”
