2017-2018

(From the Stanstead College yearbook)

Senior Girls

What do you want to build? 24 building blocks from our soundtrack.

1. Take care of the ball

2. If you don't tackle you will lose

3. I will be brave

4. I will be strong

5. I will be true for there are those who trust me.

6. Tackles, tackles, tackles.

7. These chances I'm taking sometimes might knock me down - but no, I'm not breaking.

8. Why don't you know when you make a forward pass?

9. I got all I need, when I got you - and I look around me and see a sweet life

10. Actions speak louder than words.

11. These are the moments I'm going to remember most.

12. No, I did not forget the last three Cavanagh's

13. Thunder, feel the thunder

14. Keep on moving, keep climbing, keep the faith (baby)

15. Yes, you can hit me one more time..

16. There's always gonna be another mountain; you're always gonna wanna make it move.

17. Ruck! Move your feet - drive forward!!!

18. Gotta keep trying, gotta keep my head held high

19. Dropped ball? Go back through the hedges....

20. I get the song - why is everyone crying?

21. Courage.

22. Commitment.

23. Family

24. Champions. Each of these blocks is a part of your legacy. For those of you moving on, you've got to move on, to be who you are - we understand. Thank you, and good luck.

Junior Girls

Have you met Tyrone? Here's a picture of him to the left. He looks happy now, sitting on his throne which is the ETIAC Playoff Championship Cup! He wasn't always happy... his story is our story.

When we first got together as a team in the early month of April, there was snow on the ground and we practiced in the gym. It quickly became evident that this was possibly one of the worst teams I had ever coached. Not being mean, just keeping it real. We could not pass or catch a ball, much less pass to a moving target. There were balls on the ground all over the place. It was a disaster. Until...

My wife said, "Why don't you use a baby?" Genius. I brought a baby to the very next practice. I substituted the ball with the baby. Girls said, "What are we supposed to do with this?" I said, "Pass it! You're a bad person if you drop a baby!"

Worked like a charm. Next thing you know, the baby has a name, even a name change, a backstory, a Mexican step-mom. He was even resuscitated when Simone performed CPR on him in practice. He became our team mascot travelling in my coach's bag to all our games.

You see, the thing is, Tyrone is a metaphor for our team. We started our season at The GMAA 7s tourney in Montreal where we promptly got killed. Losing every game by 40 or 50 points. It was bad. Like Tyrone, we needed CPR to be brought back to life!

But then, we got to work. Lyanne and I developed a strategy to improve our team surely and steadily day by day. We went to our first league tourney and won 2 games and lost 1. Second league tourney where we won 1 and lost 1. Third league tourney where we won 1 and tied 1. Fourth league tourney where we won all 3 games. By season's end, we had won 7 out of 10 games which put us in third place in our league. Semi-final: we beat the second place Massey Vanier team. This put us in the final for the championship. It is very rare at our school for junior and/or bantam girls to be in this position. The junior girls are the smallest demographic at our school. That means there ore very few of them and not all of them play rugby. We essentially take anyone who shows up to play rugby. Not all of them are athletes but they play anyway. It's actually a beautiful thing at our school. Rugby is the game that has a role for anyone and everyone. It's amazing. I love the game. It really is a unifying game.

Final: we were playing the league champions Richmond Regional High School who had a stud player on their team. This girl had a mean step on her and if she got into any space, she would score. We had to stop her. Lyanne and I practiced how to stop her the day before. We put a pinney on one of the girls and said, "She is their #5. We are double-teaming her with Loraly and Ella who are our best tacklers. We need you two girls to track her all day and every time she touches the ball, she gets hit! She needs to feel you." It worked. We frustrated them. We ended up tied and the difference in the game was the kick which Julia Bolinger made in the dying minutes of the game.

Champions! ETIAC Playoff Champions! You girls are champions and this is our Cinderella story. This is Tyrone's story. He had a rough start in life but he made it. So did we.

Congratulations to our award winners, you know who you are.