Surrey ruggers win provincial championship
Published 10:00 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2026
A Cloverdale high school captured a provincial rugby title May 30.
The Lord Tweedsmuir rugby Panthers went 3-0 at the provincial championships in Abbotsford to take home the title in the Challenger Division. The squad dumped Heritage Woods 33-7 in their tourney opener. They downed Rutland 43-19 in Game 2. And they doubled Kelowna 20-10 to win the title game.
The championship game against the Kelowna Owls was “electric” noted head coach Walter van Halst.
“We won 20 to 10 but had a spectacular try by Jerin’The Finnish Flash’ Harinen called back on a forward pass, which wasn’t forward,” van Halst said two days after the big win. “Jake ‘The Warrior’ Johnson was our Man of the Match (in that game) and … Harinen was our tournament MVP.”
The Challenger Division is the Tier II provincial championship bracket. The top eight-ranked teams compete in Tier I with 9-through-16 competing in the Tier II field.
“We are not the number one team in the entire province because that honour goes to Collingwood who defeated Robert Bateman in the (Tier I) division,” van Halst explained. “Therefore, you could consider us the ninth best senior boys team in all of B.C. High School Rugby.”
He added he’s very proud of the “amazing athletes” in Grade 12 who formed the core of the team—and who also won a provincial championship in football this past Nov. 30.
These players include the rugby team captain, Mathew Reid, whose dad, Bruce Reid, helps coach both football and rugby at Tweedy. It includes Harinen, tourney MVP—a player van Halst said was “likely the highest scoring player of all the athletes in the provincial championships.” It includes “powerful” lock forwards, Johnson and Wil “The Punisher” Sheppard. And it includes forward pack leader Caine “Super” Maggio, who will play in New Zealand this summer after having toured there this year during spring break.
“This group of athletes achieved success as athletes because they entered Grade 8 in the fall of 2021, when sports were just coming out of COVID,” noted van Halst. “They were hungry to get off their cell phones, get away from TikTok, and return to normal life—including, and especially, involving playing every sport they could get their hands on.”
He said those Grade 8s, now Grade 12s, embodied the Lord Tweedsmuir credo that players should play multiple sports.
“Real athletes are multisport athletes, not just one-trick ponies,” van Halst noted. “In other words, they rejected the sports hucksters who tried to monopolize their whole lives by making them play only one sport all year round.”
By their actions, he added, the student athletes proved that success in one sport should never be mutually exclusive of success in another sport, or even in multiple sports.
“They symbolized the spirit of cooperation between athletes and coaches, which is necessary for any school to have a good sports program.”
Coach van Halst said the kids are the most-talented group of athletes he’s ever coached and also the most grateful and most determined.
He said coaching the boys was an “absolute honour,” revealing the provincial championship victory was bittersweet for him as he was consumed with emotion when he heard the final whistle blow.
“I was filled with joy at their accomplishment and sadness at the thought that so many of them are leaving,” van Halst explained.
“I hope that all of our graduating players continue to play the greatest sport in the world for many, many years to come.”