It\u2019s been an outstanding rugby season for all of Earl Marriott Secondary\u2019s rugby teams, with all four \u2014 senior boys, junior boys, Grade 8 boys and the senior girls \u2014 squads winning regional South Fraser championships.<\/p>\n
Provincials are next for the three of the Mariners teams, as Grade 8 boys don\u2019t go further than the South Fraser competition, with the senior boys and girls teams set to compete starting Wednesday (May 27) in Abbotsford.<\/p>\n
The junior boys team just won provincials Sunday (May 24), beating Collingwood in a close, 19-17 championship win after going undefeated all season.<\/p>\n
In fact, all of the South Surrey school\u2019s rugby teams went undefeated in league play all season, setting them up for some competitive play at provincials, which go from May 27-30.<\/p>\n
While piling up victories is always nice, all of EMS\u2019s rugby coaching staff agree that it\u2019s more about students having fun, developing news skills and enjoying themselves \u2014 and having the chance to play a sport that many never have the opportunity to try.<\/p>\n
\u201cRugby is very much on the periphery of North American sports society, but if you\u2019re fortunate enough to go to a school that offers a rugby program \u2026 this a sport that everyone would love to play \u2014 they just just don\u2019t know it,\u201d said Earl Marriott director of rugby and senior boys rugby coach Adam Roberts. \u201cSome schools just don\u2019t even offer a rugby program. It\u2019s just such a different feel \u2026 the culture and the tradition and how people are on the field. I mean, you\u2019re tough as anything on the field, but off the field, it\u2019s very social and and very, very much a lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryn Johnson, who coaches the Grade 8 boys team, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when kids come and try (rugby). I love the parents that allow their kids to try it,\u201d he said, noting the Grade 8 boys program had 40 boys by the end of the season, while the junior rugby program boasted nearly 60 players this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said (Sunday) to the juniors before their game, \u2018Go create a memory today.\u2019 I don\u2019t remember much from high school, but I remember winning my blue banner. And that\u2019s a memory that those kids will remember over probably anything else in their Grade 10 year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winning isn\u2019t necessarily the focus, Johnson maintained, but a \u201cbyproduct of the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I ask is come try it, and if you don\u2019t like it, don\u2019t do it \u2026 winning is obviously a part of it, that helps build what we try and do here. The big thing is giving (players) a positive experience and then usually the winning is a bonus, but because they buy into it, that is the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a provincial win still resonating, junior boys rugby coach Taylor Howes emphasized how \u201cincredibly proud\u201d he was of his athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a program effort and and it\u2019s been a long time coming,\u201d he said Monday (May 25), recalling provincials last year, where the junior boys upset the No. 1-ranked team in the province in pool play, but lost a \u201cheartbreaker\u201d in the the semi-final, finishing the tournament with a bronze. \u201cTo flip it back this year \u2026 was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexis Ewacha, who coaches the senior girls rugby team with head coach Adam Van Staveren, credited a core group of dedicated players for much of their success this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so proud. We\u2019ve got a really big group of girls that have been playing since Grade 8 and we have 10 graduating seniors this year \u2026 the last time we made it to provincials was when they were in Grade 8, so it\u2019s been great to see the program filled up over the years and kind of come full circle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Grade 12 players have been leaders on and off the field, she noted, and fantastic with encouraging new players to try the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone gets to try. No one gets cut. It really is such a special sport, because there\u2019s something for everybody on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of the coaches remarked on how all the teams\u2019 athletes show up for each other as well, to watch games and cheer on other players to show their support.<\/p>\n
Grade 8 rugby player Declan Johnson, who also plays club rugby with Bayside, was pleased with his teams\u2019 successful season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the community that rugby has. It really brings everybody together and it\u2019s really fun,\u201d he said at the school Monday.<\/p>\n
Ridzwan Olusesi, who plays with the junior boys team, also played for two years in South Africa before coming to Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to just be part of that squad just really brought joy to my face \u2026 it\u2019s just the game itself, like the contact and all that. It\u2019s every everything a man could ever dream of. It built me as a person and as a player in general,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Senior boys EMS player Liam De Goede concurred.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Rugby is) much bigger than the game. It brings forth personality, and you learn so much about yourself \u2026 you find discipline, and it gives you life skills you you carry on with yourself, like time management, showing up to practice on time, being respectful to peers and coaches around you. It\u2019s so much bigger than the sport,\u201d De Goede said, adding how all the teams support each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mutual thing between all teams, how we all just show up for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Astrid Maynes, who co-captains the senior girls rugby team with Isla Van Staveren, was pleased with all of the teams\u2019 success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels very historic and really important to have all four of our rugby teams \u2014 who are already known for being quite strong here at EMS \u2014 having won (all four South Fraser championships) for the first time in 20 years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re very proud of our ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maynes said rugby offers endless opportunities for those willing to try.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such an inclusive sport. Everybody is welcome. The travel opportunities as well have just been (amazing), and I would encourage anyone to try it because it\u2019s such a versatile sport and also, one that happens to be year \u2018round.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been an outstanding rugby season for all of Earl Marriott Secondary\u2019s rugby teams, with all four \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-695473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}