The Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School rugby program is up and literally running.
Last week the PSO Eagles, known as the Spelqweqs, invited the Lake City Secondary School Falcons down to 100 Mile House for a series of exhibition games. Both the senior boys and junior boys teams lost one and won one game. Kameron Taylor, PSO athletic director and head rugby coach, said he’s excited for the coming season.
“Our actual rugby on-season doesn’t start until the spring but this is when we get some practice in and go over the fundamentals,” Taylor said. “We review what we did last year and review what are the correct safe tackling, scrum and rucking techniques.”
Taylor said it’s important to review these basic rules, especially with several of the teams’ members being new to the sport. Over the last three years the high school rugby program has grown exponentially, with enough players for a senior and junior team for both boys and girls.
In the fall, the Eagles tend to play the Sevens game, a version in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. In the summer they play the standard 15s, as their numbers grow. This fall Taylor said they have almost enough senior boys to play 15s, which he attributes to those with a love of rugby coming out to support it.
Before the snow flies Taylor plans to hone the teams’ skills and have them play a few more games. The Lake City Seconary School Falcons’ girls’ team is set to come and face PSO in the first week of October, while the entire program will be heading to Prince George for a jamboree Oct. 14.
“Going to provincials is always our goal but you have to go one game at a time, one practice at a time, and one skill at a time to get to that level,” Taylor said.
One thing Taylor continues to integrate into the team is cultural influences from the Tsq’escen First Nation (Canim Lake Band). While they’re still officially called the Eagles, he hopes to change the name to Spelqweqs, which means eagle in Secwepemc.
“I’m teaching the team about how powerful that word is; it’s a sacred animal to the First Nations,” he said. “There’s a high importance to that name and it’s one thing to know it but it’s another to honour and respect the values and beliefs of the First Nations.”
Taylor said that, as always, he is looking for anyone with rugby or coaching experience to reach out to him at kameron.taylor@sd27.bc.ca.
