Shawnigan Lake School stands alone as British Columbia’s preeminent rugby institution.
The school won three provincial championships last week: the first-ever senior boys AAAA and junior boys championships, as well as the senior girls AA title.
“It’s a great accomplishment for the kids and the school,” Shawnigan head of rugby and senior boys head coach Tim Murdy said. “But it was a greater accomplishment for the whole athletic program that the girls also won the AA title, the Colts won the first-ever junior boys championship, and our senior tennis team won bronze this weekend as well. It was a really rewarding weekend for the whole school.”
Due in part to Shawnigan’s domination of the AAA division, winning six of the last seven provincial banners, the B.C. Secondary Schools Rugby Union created a new AAAA level this season. Appropriately, Shawnigan faced St. George’s — the only other school to win a AAA over the last seven years — in the AAAA final in Abbotsford on Saturday. Shawnigan prevailed 12-8 over their longtime rivals.
“Both schools put a lot of time and energy into their programs and produce great teams,” Murdy said.
As the score would indicate, the game was a close one, with neither team really able to put together a dominant stretch.
“The weather was awful,” Murdy said. “It was pouring rain, so the opportunity to play an expansive game wasn’t there. That wasn’t what anybody would have wanted for the final game of the season, but it was still exciting to watch.”
Shawnigan got tries from Carson O’Sullivan and Seth Purdey in the final, with a conversion by Nick Mouret. Co-captain Nick Chan was named to the Commissioner’s XV all-star team.
“He was a very hard-working and uncompromising player in every match that he played,” Murdy said of Chan. “[Chan and co-captain Mostyn Findlay] are both very talented players that possess leadership skills as well. They are a huge benefit to the team.”
Chan, Findlay, O’Sullivan and Purdey all played on the Canadian national U18 this year.
Part of the rationale for creating the AAAA division was the hope of preventing routs like those of past years when Shawnigan would crush its first-round opponents in the AAA tournament.
Even with the new format, Shawnigan trounced Earl Marriott 102-10 in the AAAA semifinal.
Murdy largely approved of the new setup.
“It was a good first-year experiment,” he said. “It was a positive experience for all the students involved.”
The Shawnigan coach did acknowledge, however, that with just two rounds of AAAA play as opposed to four for the AAA bracket, it was difficult for teams to feel like they were part of the tournament. Adding another round would change that.
“I think if it got to eight teams, that would be great,” he said. “If it grew beyond that, it would defeat the purpose of having a AAAA tournament.”
First win in 20 years for Shawnigan senior girls
While the senior boys were claiming their seventh B.C. title in the last eight years, Shawnigan’s senior girls were winning their first in 20 years, capping it off with a 34-7 win over Abbotsford in the provincial final in Kamloops.
“It felt awesome,” coach Laura Russell said. “The girls worked hard all season, and they totally deserved it.”
After thumping Houston 91-5 in the first round and beating local rivals Brentwood College School 64-17 in the second round, Shawnigan faced their toughest test in Abbotsford. They built their lead in the first half, then made it hold up in the second.
“We only scored one try in the second half,” Russell said. “We were on defence most of the time, but our defence was amazing. They played so well the whole game.”
Captain Holly Henderson was named to the President’s XV, and speedy Enyo Edeh also earned accolades from her coach.
“When she’s going, she can pull away pretty easily,” Russell said. “She was awesome for us. All of our back three had a fantastic tournament. The whole team played well. We have such an even balanced team.”
The Shawnigan girls are losing only five players from this year’s championship team, and the program has some talented Grade 9 and 10 players coming up the pipeline, so a repeat is certainly not out of the question, provided next year’s team works as hard as this year’s.
“For all the coaches, we are super proud of them,” Russell said. “They got better every game. They definitely deserved it.”
Colts make history with junior title
The Shawnigan Colts downed Carson Graham 29-3 in the first-ever junior boys provincial championship match last Friday, but according to co-coach Ander Monro, the game was not as comfortable as the score might suggest.
Carson tried to wear Shawnigan down, but the Colts responded with near-perfect defence.
“We scrambled well and managed to defend quite well and keep the try line intact,” said Monro, who guided the team along with Wes Plater.
The offence worked well too.
“We scored a couple of really nice tries,” Monro said. “A couple of well-worked tries and one long try as well.”
James MacDonald scored two tries, and Rhys Tudor-Jones added one despite playing with a broken finger, while Jack Shaw and Nolan Young also crossed the line. The Colts got strong performances from Kyle McCallum, who ran well with the ball, and Fernando Gutierrez and Moaman Elhendawi, who were at their best when Carson Graham had the ball.
“Those guys stood out defensively,” Monro said. “They made big hits and big tackles.”
Halfbacks Ethan Hersant and Owen Cumming also had excellent outings.
“They controlled the game well, distributing and kicking effectively and at appropriate moments,” Monro said.
Going into the game, the players didn’t concern themselves too much with the fact that they were playing for B.C.’s first junior boys championship.
“We didn’t really speak about the history side of things,” Monro said. “It was more a focus on getting the level of performance they knew they could produce.”
Murdy credited Shawnigan’s development programs with getting the players to a level where they could compete for junior and senior titles.
“The success if the senior and Grade 10 program wouldn’t happen if not for a lot of hard work done in the younger levels, Grade 8 and 9,” he said. “Teaching them the skills at an early age allows the coaches of the older levels to focus on the tactical side.”
