For the first time in Salmon Arm Secondary history, a girls, junior boys and senior boys team participated in Rugbyfest Tournament in Kamloops.
The SAS girls came into the weekend tournament with only one game under their belt, and for some players it is their first season. The girls came out hard against Sahali on their own turf to defeat them 7 - 5. Coach John LaBoyne said the girls stepped up their game and played well at what they have practised.
The second game was a lot tougher with one tall player on the Sentinel team running havoc through some of the SAS girls. But the SAS girls never gave up and worked hard as a team but were unlucky not to score.
The Saturday game versus an Ontario school was quite a match. The Easterns have been playing together since Grade 8 and travelled to Kamloops specifically for this tournament. It was a very tough game for SAS who played their hardest but had a few injuries which affected the defence on the team, hence the Easterners won.
Last game of the day versus Valleyview is where the girls came out on top to win 15-10. Great kicking by Marin Faulkner and outstanding runs by Rebecca Howes, Hayley Fielbelkorn, Bradi Ready and Stephanie Stanton. All the girls played hard, and over the weekend they became a great team celebrating wins, and minor mistakes, no matter how hard they were hit. Assistant coach Brian Neumann was very proud of the girls rugby team this weekend.
The Junior boys came out a bit flat and shaky versus North Delta, losing 22-0. Great tackles were made by Ivor Kuzmick, who also had some great runs down the wing. Jared Fletcher made some big hits in the middle of the field causing North Delta to spit the ball out and SAS to counterattack into the North Delta end. However, SAS couldn’t get the ball over the white line.
The second game was against another North Delta team. The players played a fun style of rugby called a position appreciation game, in which players choose their new position. They boys played an awesome game to win 17-0. Tries were made by Evan Ernst. with the help of Lucas Crawford who made the pass at the right time for Ernst to score under the posts.
The third game, against South Kamloops, was too close to not win, but that is the way the knock on happens. Twice SAS Junior Golds were in the endzone with Jordan DeWinter and Will Walton, who got near the endzone with a great effort by their teammates. Cody Dodd was moved out to the wing to cover for an injury and did an excellent job shutting down the South Kamloops speedster.
The Junior Golds are coming off a great tour to Vancouver playing and learning lots against some top notch competition.
Looking forward to their first home game, the Golds and Jewels will play on Wednesday, April 20 at JL Jackson, a double header of SAS girls vs Mount Boucherie and the junior boys vs. Vernon Secondary.