2018-2019

(From the Stanstead College yearbook)

Senior Girls

ABC's of Senior Girls Rugby 2019

Allez les rouges. Alta Sheldon (thanks!), Always ready!

Braids applied on the Bus, the Buzzer, Boom Chicka Boom, NOT for the Best, its for Better

Crutches :-{ Coupe (brought home to the maison!),Cavanaghs

Drop kicks, Dropped Balls, Differences that brought you together Effort you put in on good and bad days.

Everyone. Evasion (rugby is an evasion game!) Emily Norris (amazing!)

Foundation (built by you)

Go forward!

Heart. Helping. Hands and the tap on the shoulder (come on, let's go) Ice bombs!

Indoor Practices Jumpers (they put their life in your hands),

Jean the bus driver (thanks!)

Links in the chain (all 23), Llaundry (thanks!) My Bad!

Mountain you climbed together Never giving in (even on a breakaway)

Opening kickoff (and the 3 seconds where you hold your breath)

Penalties (we had some) Quickness (we had some too..)

Rucks. RugbyFest, Ready Ready Up! Reaching out to help a teammate up.

Stitches. Scrums, Sunburns (only once). Stars.

Tackles, Tries (tackles) Tag games (tackles)

Up-downs

Victory, Mr Van Dyke (thanks!)

Water. alking Tacos

X Marks the spot

Yellow suit (didn't help prevent the rain)

Zig-Zag through the hedges!

Here's the bottom line - you started out with a ball of clay - and just like life, whatever shape it takes is completely up to you! Make it amazing. Can't wait.

Junior Girls

We had 18 girls try out for the team this year. That's a lot in a small school. We play in a 7s league so we had to make a choice: enter one team (with 11 subs) or two teams in the league. The thing is, by splitting our best players equally between the two teams, that would mean foregoing any chance of winning the league or the championship because presumably another team, with all their best players on one team, would be better than both our teams. Was it a tough choice? Nope. We entered two teams and never looked back. We made the conscious choice of valuing players' experience over winning. Read that sentence again. It's important.

It was the best decision we ever made. Both teams played their hearts out all season long and we tried to stick together as a whole team as much as we could between games at tourneys. We were like sisters except when we had to play each other. which actually got a little heated at times. We ended up finishing 2nd and 3rd in a league of five teams which is remarkable when you consider that we split our best players and the teams we beat didn't. That means all 18 of our girls are the real deal and it builds a solid foundation for the future of rugby at SC whether you go on to play senior next year or come back to play junior.

The season highlight? We ended up playing each other in a hotly contested semi-final where one team scored twice before the other team came back to tie it. Remember that? We had to go to overtime to figure out a winner. You were so evenly matched and you both wanted to win so badly that we ended up in a tie. How perfect is that? It basically sums up our season.

The weather was terrible all season long: wet and cold. For two whole months! How is that even possible? The thing is. you never complained. Not once. You played 16 games and had 23 practices and worked as hard as you could all the time in stupid weather.

I talked about courage at my sports assembly speech. You are all the bravest and most courageous junior girls I have ever coached so far in my career. You girls earned my respect. You know I don't lie.

Thanks to Emma. We'll miss you. Thanks to our award winners, you know who you are. But mostly, thanks to the whole team.

(From the Clarion, May edition)

Bringing the cup home!

The first ever game for this year’s senior girls rugby team took place at Rugbyfest in New Brunswick. Before we left, we had had limited practice time due to the late winter, and only about three weeks of practice. About two weeks of those practices consisted of practice inside the gym, and never a full team since some girls had alternative practice for the play. The girls were scared for their first ever game of rugby, but as always Ms.Hessian made the experience one of the best sports trips ever.

The first night that we arrived at our hotel, on Thursday night, Ms.Hessian gave each hotel room some Play-doh, and we had to make something that we wanted to accomplish this season. One room made a chain link to represent how we need everyone in a rugby team to work hard so we can be successful. This symbolises our team throughout the whole weekend, especially since every single night the whole team ate out together. It was as if we had a team dinner every single night, which was a bonding experience that I believe this team will never forget.

Our team on the field is similar to how we were off the field. The team worked so hard, never gave up, and worked very well together. Our first game was on Friday at 2:15 against RHS, and because of our newfound team connection, we ended up winning 44-0. The rest of our games were very similar to our first game, with our games on Saturday being a 20-0 win against SSHS and a 32-0 win against SFDC. This got us into the finals on Sunday, where we beat CPA and won the tournament!

When we returned on Sunday night at 11:30, we came back with more than what we left with. We came back as a family who had won their first ever rugby tournament together! Considering that we went into Rugbyfest inexperienced as a team and with very little practice, I believe that this weekend was the foundation for the rest of our rugby season!