South Surrey school’s rugby squad starts season ranked No. 1 in B.C.
Published 9:00 am Tuesday, April 21, 2026
A South Surrey secondary school’s rugby team has started out the season at the top.
Earl Marriott Secondary’s junior boys rugby team are currently ranked No. 1 in B.C. after a massive provincial ranking win (76-7) over Vancouver’s St. George’s team Thursday (April 16).
St. George’s was the school the EMS squad upset in last year’s provincials as well, where EMS ended up finishing third in the province, head coach Taylor Howes said.
“We’ve definitely been on the other side of some of those score lines over the years past,” he said Friday. “But this year we’ve got an extremely special group … we have 58 players between Grade 9 and Grade 10 that have been coming out since the beginning of the season. We run a Grade 9 team, we run a Grade 10 team, and now we’ve been able to develop a development team for the new players who are still learning the game … and then we have our top team as well, that plays all of our provincial ranking games.”
Starting out the season ranked first in the entire province is a great experience for the players, Howes noted.
“To be able to sit at Number One in the province is pretty cool for them right now, but there’s a long season ahead still,” he shared, adding the game against St. George’s was the first ranking game so far this season.
Next up is Collingwood Secondary, another private school, this Friday, April 24.
“The league play so far in the South Fraser (region) has been quite strong, so to put up a big score line like that (April 16) was great. Now we line up against Collingwood Secondary … in our second rankings game. So they’re Number Two in the province,” he explained.
Howes noted EMS players have had the opportunity to play some club rugby with Bayside Rugby on the U16 team in the fall, and also credited rugby coach Bryn Johnson, who heads the Grade 8 rugby program.
“What’s special about this group is that they just live and breathe rugby right now,” Howes said. “Much of their lunch times are spent on the field or in the park tossing the rugby ball around. It’s been special to to work with them this year. So hopefully we can keep it going.”