The fields at Frank Maddock High School were jam-packed on April 29 for the school’s 10th annual rugby tournament.
The tournament was held for Senior/Junior Boys and Girls and brought in teams from across Alberta.
Tammy Schoenthal, the assistant coach for the FMHS Senior Girls, says that despite the gloomy weather, there was no rain and they were able to keep running for the entire day.
“We started at about 10 a.m. and didn’t go home until after 7 p.m.,” she says.
The number of players on the field for each team was lowered to seven, rather than the regular 15. “Some of the teams are rebuilding right now, so some teams were small and some teams were large,” says Schoenthal.
With the pandemic preventing many contact sports, the rugby teams have lost many of their key players as they graduated. Despite this, Schoenthal says the teams at FMHS are doing well.
The Senior Girls received a lot of injuries during their first game, so Schoenthal says they were running with a skeleton crew for the remainder of the tournament. However, they’re still very happy with the results.
She says the injuries were disappointing, but everyone was excited to be out playing. “It was really a ‘good weird’ because we’re trying to make sure we’re injury-free, but we’re also trying to have a nice time,” says Schoenthal.
“The Senior Boys went home with gold and the Senior Girls went home with silver.”
Schoenthal says she was impressed with how well the team rallied when the key players were unable to play.
In total, there were five teams for both the boys and girls teams to play. The teams came from Grande Prairie, Cold Lake, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Stettler, Salisbury
She says she believes the tournament was a success. The Max Centre brought out food and the Senior Boys helped haul everything down to the field for the set-up. “Everybody helped out,” she says.
On May 6, the Senior Boys and Girls head to Edmonton to participate in the Pirate’s Tournament.
