The 100 Mile Rugby Eagles showed they wouldn’t back down during a set of games played Oct. 17 in Williams Lake which were hosted by Williams Lake Secondary School (WLSS).
Both the junior and senior boys teams, coached by Matt Leclerc, lost to WLSS by a small margin and won against Columneetza Secondary School.
“Each of the games with Williams Lake were close, back-and-forth games with so many good plays and good tackles,” says Leclerc. “The juniors were competitive off the get-go against Williams Lake, one of the top ranked teams.”
He credited junior team member Ian Heales with running down an opponent and taking him down with a professional quality tackle.
“We’ve accomplished lots with a green team and people are blown away by what both these teams are doing. We have a talented pool of athletes where nobody is shying away from the plate.”
The senior and junior girls each had one game with WLSS, and while wins eluded the Eagles, scores were much closer than in the previous week when the teams met in 100 Mile House.
Jewitt says she’s happy with the strong effort her senior team made during their game and sympathizes with their reactions to a few referee calls they considered questionable. That aside, she says they have to commit to their tackles if they want to do well at zones.
Junior captain Petra Perkins and team-mate Emilie Barnbrook will be doing double-duty at zones, playing for their own team and also helping out the seniors who are slightly short on players.
“They have the skills and they fit right in,” says Jewitt who adds that the senior team will be counting on their own captain Ashley Bartch and her impressive speed to be a great asset as well.
Zone championships are Oct. 26 and 27 in Williams Lake and in addition to the pair of schools from Williams Lake, Jewitt expects to encounter Smithers, Vanderhoof and Prince George.
