The Yeti Rugby Club, made up of predominately Salmon Arm Secondary students returned home from an international tournament Fullerton, Calif.
Local boys and girls teams (12 boys and 15 girls in total) made the trip to sunny and warm southern California.
The tournament consisted of 12 girls teams and 12 boys teams from across the Golden State, as well as Abbotsford and the Yetis, making for tough competition.
The Yeti Girls competed in five gruelling games over two days in 30° C heat.
Brooke Miller led the charge for the Yeti girls, who deeked and dodged her way to many tries at the tournament.
Krystine “Hammer Time” Hamre played many positions during the course of the tournament and scored a point a game.
Avia “Goldilocks” LaTosky recorded one of the tries of the tournament when she caught a long pass and outran her opposition down the sideline to score in the corner.
Mandie “Sure-foot” Schwandt also picked off a pass and scampered 60 yards before she got hauled down in a tackle.
Brianna Henderson and Hannah Froud did an incredible job in the front row taking the brunt of most scrums in the oppressive heat.
The boys joined forces with the Desert Sands Harlequins Rugby Club based in La Quinta, Cailf.
Throughout their games they rotated players but, even, so the heat, combined with the intensity of the games, wore the players down.
Josh “Cowboy” Cline stepped up his game and laid on some powerful hits, returning the favour handed out by the American teams.
Eric Bruce, played a star-studded game at fullback for the team, rarely missing an open field tackle.
Cody Jordan came up huge with some big hits causing the Yeti’s to regain the ball and score a few tries.
Nick “Big” Ough played a big part in the game, and showed off his skill.
A brilliant show-n-go move led to an uncontested 60-yard run for a try.
Jimmy Picul was easily hoisted into the air to grab any and all balls in the lineouts.
Jacob Simmonds and Adam Fiebelkorn both played hard and took several big hits, but shook them off and continued playing hard.
After the tournament, the teams travelled inland to play against the Dead Rabbits Rugby Club in San Bernardino, Calif.
The girls played very well in front of the home team.
The next day they played against the Oceanside Rugby Club.
Co-coach Jan Crerar and Jordan Klaws were equally impressed by the effort the girls team gave after playing seven games in eight days.
Coach Greg Seed was also impressed by the huge learning curve of the new players
The first home game of the season for SAS is April 9, versus D.W. Poppy from Langley. On April, 14 the girls will travel to Kelowna to face Mt. Boucherie.
