The Chatelech Girls’ Rugby Team hosted a Sevens jamboree on Wednesday, April 10 in front of an appreciative home crowd, with teams from Handsworth, Rockridge, West Vancouver and Windsor Secondary Schools crossing Howe Sound for a full afternoon of sport.
The Chatelech girls, aided by a small but dedicated contingent from Elphinstone, opened their day with a closely matched game against Windsor, who managed to pull ahead with a try in the last minute of play. The game appeared to be lost until Lauren Stinson made a picture-perfect running catch from their kick-off and blitzed straight through the shocked defenders to score.
The second game was a hard-fought loss against Handsworth, a team with whom our girls have had a long but friendly rivalry and whose former coach, Mimi Appelbe, provided many opportunities to Coast girls to play and further develop their skills with North Shore club teams.
After a bye to regroup, Chatelech played Handsworth again and used this opportunity to decisively beat them with tries from Jessica Nelson, Cailey Nikodem, Paige Clucas and Tiffany Baldwin.
Chatelech then played their next three matches back to back, which is a daunting effort when playing such a cardio-intensive game as Sevens. They managed to come from behind to win their first game against West Vancouver, lost their rematch against Windsor and won their final game of the tourney, a rematch against West Vancouver.
With so many matches there was ample opportunity to get all the team members on the pitch, and Coach Clucas was rewarded with tries from 10 players, highlighting the depth of this year’s program. Hopefully this will bear fruit when they travel to the Fen Burdett pitch in North Vancouver on April 17 to compete in their qualification round for the provincial finals, which will be played at Klahanie Park in North Vancouver on April 25 and 26.
This rugby team owes much to our community. Huge thanks to the parents and fans for their support and to coaches Mike Clucas, Cameron Dezura and Brian Scarr for all their volunteered time and commitment. Starbucks kindly provided coffee for the jamboree, Heather’s Independent Grocer provided lunches for the referees and the Sechelt Downtown Business Association loaned the canopy shelters that kept everyone dry through the April showers.
– Submitted by Ron Nelson
