Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School's Eagles Rugby program dominated at zones last week.
Both PSO Senior Girls and Senior Boys Teams went undefeated in Vanderhoof from Thursday, May 8 to Friday, May 9. Head coach Kameron Taylor said this result comes after months of hard work and teamwork from his players.
"You can't be great without the greatness of others. There was the odd selfishness that happened, but we'd coach that right away and take a player off and put another individual in," Taylor said. "We have a game plan to stick with and as soon as we go outside that game plan, mistakes can happen."
Before Zones, Taylor noted there was a lot of anticipation from all his players that they would do well. Since the snow melted and their season resumed in April, both teams have been training, attending tournaments and playing games with other schools to hone their skills. Taylor said during this time, he and the other coaching staff did their best to maintain a sense of humble confidence in his players.
Taylor said the number of games both teams played varied. As there were only three boys' teams, the Senior Boys played only three games, once against both their opponents and then a third time against the winner of a semi-final match.
"The boys ended up scoring 79 points with only five points against in those two games. It just shows you defence wins championships, as I always said," Taylor remarked. "They went 2-0 that day and then we waited for Vanderhoof and Burns Lake to go in the semi-finals, then played Vanderhoof the next day on May 9. We ended up beating them 26 to nothing in the finals."
The overall MVP for Zones was PSO's own Oland Vickers who was voted on by all the coaches, referees and players at the tournament. Taylor said Vickers gave it his all in every game, never slowing down whether he was tackling, being tackled or scoring.
"The better defence you play, the more opportunities it's going to give you on offence. The boys let one guy break through a tackle and score five points, other than that, the other teams were not on their half of the field the whole time," Taylor remarked.
The Senior Girls, meanwhile, had to compete against five different teams, including the Lake City Secondary School Falcons and College Heights Secondary School, on May 8. Throughout the tournament, Taylor said the girls scored 77 points and had only 37 points scored against them, also going undefeated. Once again, he credited a great defence for propelling his team to victory. Against Prince George Secondary School on May 9, he noted his team won 40 to nothing.
Following this victory, Taylor said his team was prepared to face off against the winner of the semi-finals, where Williams Lake faced off against College Heights in an intense game. Taylor said Williams Lake ultimately won 19-17 before losing against the Eagles 12-0.
"We've always been quite on equal turf with Williams Lake all year. We split games with them two and two going up to this tournament and then we beat them in the pool play 28-12, which gave the girls extra confidence," Taylor said. "In the finals, we ended up winning 12 nothing, shutting Williams Lake out. Overall, every single person on that field was giving 110 per cent to make sure they didn't get through."
Taylor noted Maddie Hoskins was an especially key player in this match-up, shutting down a few potential tries after the Falcons managed to break the Eagles' lines. Even with an injured knee, Taylor noted Hoskins was able to turn on the jets to chase down her opponents.
"I had to tape up over half of our girls with injuries. Knees, quads, ankles, fingers, all over the place," Taylor remarked, noting his background as a kinesiologist came in handy.
Ultimately, a PSO player once more claimed the MVP title for the girls' side of Zones, with Joelle Kuyek receiving the trophy to go with the gold medals brought home by the rest of the team.
With their victory at Zones, both teams are now preparing to head to provincials in Abbotsford from May 29 to May 30. Taylor said the boys will be playing two final games at home on Friday, May 16, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. against Williams Lake for a 10s game. The girls, meanwhile, will just be practising until a tournament on May 23 in Kamloops, with Taylor noting he wants to give them time to heal up.
Taylor said over the next few weeks, he'll be heading out looking for sponsors to help send the team to Abbotsford. He noted that any support they can give to make this a memorable experience for the players is appreciated.
"We're always looking for support. I'm going to pitch on the resiliency and how these kids deserve the opportunity to go play," Taylor said. "The amount these kids learn and apply in a short time to compete, they're building up team chemistry and camaraderie to really hold each other accountable."
