Williams Lake high school rugby teams did well hosting the zones Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11.
Both the girls 7s and the boys 15s emerged the winners.
“It’s nice to see our zone getting better and better every year,” said Williams Lake Secondary School girls coach Natasha Johnson. “I want to thank everyone for travelling here. It’s so fun to host.”
Johnson said the team is excited to move on to provincials which will be in Abbotsford May 30 and 31.
Her team went undefeated in zones, and Johnson praised the players for being very committed at practices.
“They have worked together and showed up. We have a group of older girls and are graduating a lot this year. It’s kind of our peak year. We are excited to peak and then develop next year when we have a lot of new faces coming in.”
Williams Lake boys coach Braden McCallum said the 15s boys played incredible.
“Friday in particular, it really started to look like rugby.”
He said the players were in the right place, they were following their systems and making good decisions.
“We were slowing down the game when we needed to and speeding up the game when we needed to.”
The team, he added, is starting to gel as a group and he is very excited because all of the players are in Grades 10 and 11.
“Next year when they are 11s and 12s and our nines come up to be our 10s we are going to have an excellent, excellent team. The future looks very, very bright for rugby in Williams Lake.”
His team had already won the zones and took the zone berth before this tournament.
They were supposed to play against North Peace Secondary School (NPSS) from Fort St. John.
The Williams Lake boys had played against NPSS last weekend and won 38-0.
As the NPSS team picked up some injuries, they dropped out of 15s and decided to play 7s and entered the boys team in the 7s zones.
Winners of the senior boys 7s was Nechako Valley Secondary School with a score of 7-0 in the game against Peter Skene Odgen. NVSS can now go on to compete at provincials.
Whether the Williams Lake boys 15s will go to provincials is up in the air, McCallum said.
Currently there are 15 healthy players, and there has to be a min9mum of 18 players.
“We can only take Grades 10, 11 and 12 because in Williams Lake we are split into two different schools. My nines and my eights cannot be included in my senior roster. I have players but I am not allowed to take them.”
Since the Williams Lake 15s don’t have enough players, they will likely forfeit their berth at provincials and try and play in an exhibition tournament that same weekend where all of the players from Grades 8 through 11 can play.
Other teams participating in the zones were Peter Skene Odgen Secondary School, North Peace Secondary School, Prince George Secondary School and
