South Surrey secondary school’s girls rugby squad starts season 3-0
Published 10:30 am Tuesday, May 5, 2026
A South Surrey secondary school’s girls rugby squad has started out the season undefeated.
Players at Earl Marriott Secondary, which has several boys rugby teams as well as one girls team, have embraced the sport, with the girls team featuring players from Grade 8 through 12.
So far this season, the girls team has emerged victorious over Lord Tweedsmuir (17-10), Kwantlen Park (58-15), then Kwantlen Park again in a narrow 28-27 win Wednesday (April 29); the squad is set to play Lord Tweedsmuir again this Wednesday, May 6 (prior to print deadline).
The players themselves, several of whom also play club rugby with Bayside and other clubs, are enthusiastic about the sport, which they say is welcoming and inclusive, even if someone has never played rugby before.
“(Some girls) might think, ‘Oh, I don’t feel like I’m a great dancer or I don’t feel like I fit in with ballet or I don’t think I’m fast enough or tall enough to be a great swimmer,” noted Grade 12 Mariner Astrid Maynes, also co-captain of the EMS girls rugby team along with Isla Van Staveren. “So (they get into) rugby, where anyone is welcome. It runs year round … you can join any team at any point, at practically any level. I know (the) school season is what got a lot of girls to join club (rugby), and I know a lot of girls who join club, then joined in their school season.”
Maynes and Isla, also in Grade 12, have played together at both school and club rugby levels, enjoy the friendships they’ve made, the travel they’ve experienced and the bonds that they have formed with teammates while playing rugby.
“I really love the (rugby) community. I love the involvement it’s given me and the people I’ve met … I’ve known these girls for such a long time. We were in elementary school together. I really love the bonds I’ve made and the people I’ve met when we’ve been fortunate enough to go on tour,” Maynes shared.
Isla, whose father Adam Van Staveren is a former Team Canada rugger and also, her team’s head coach, grew up around the game.
“I always grew up watching him go play rugby … then once I got old enough, I was never really big into dance or swimming or anything like that … nothing I ever really stuck with, and then when I was in the third grade, my dad was like, ‘We’re going to go play rugby today.’ And I was like, ‘OK’ — I didn’t really understand what that meant. And then that was the end of it, because I started showing up on Sundays and I didn’t really stop.”
She joined Bayside Rugby and her EMS high school team as soon as she was able.
“I think that’s when I started getting more serious about rugby. I started realizing just how much I enjoy it, and it gives me an outlet to kind of take out my emotions. If I’ve ha a hard day, I get to come to practice and hang out with my friends,” she said.
Adam Van Staveren, the girls team head coach, is pleased with his players’ 3-0 start to rugby season.
“They’re doing fantastic. They’ve gelled really well as a team together,” he said last Tuesday (April 28), noting they play 7s and 15s. “They work really hard at training and we progress every game, which is all (we) can ask for.”
There’s a core group of Grade 12s who’ve excelled with leadership, he noted, and he — like Maynes and Isla — is hopeful the squad will make it to provincials.
“We hope to finish off a strong regular season and then obviously, the goal is to make to the B.C.s and then make a splash there.”
Maynes’ and Isla’s friend, classmate and teammate Cooper Marsden also enthused about the sport and its community.
“I’ve played the game for so long that it goes through phases … there’s times where I’m getting over a fear of tackling and then there’s times when I’m just enjoying myself so much,” she said, adding everyone is welcome to come and try.
Isla Van Staveren agreed.
“It can’t hurt. Come out and try it. You’re not going to get put on the field at your first practice. You’re not going to be put in a dangerous situation. We’re not barbarians,” she quipped with a smile. “A lot of rugby teams are coached by caring, smart coaches who will teach you and guide you and lead you through the game.”