Local high schools capture rugby championships

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

Of all high-school sports available to area student athletes this year, the one that stood the greatest chance of being cancelled was rugby.

The reason, said Amanda Maks, who is responsible for co-ordinating recreation at

all Greater Montreal Athletic Association (GMAA) secondary schools, was because of officiating issues and insurance — or a lack of it.

“We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get insurance to cover rugby,” said Maks. “We did though, and we ended up with about 50 boys’ and girl’s teams. Considering each team carried 20-25 players, it meant a lot of kids played the sport this year.”

Including those from nine West Island schools, of which six advanced all the way to last week’s rugby finals at Ed Meagher Field in Notre Dame de Grâce. One, the St. Thomas bantam boys, captured a level-one title after shutting out Loyola 22-0 while in level-three play, championships went to Lindsay Place midget boys, who beat Westwood 19-17 in an all-West Island final and Macdonald juvenile boys, who got by Lakeside Academy 14-10.

Meanwhile, St. Thomas midget boys’ level-one side suffered a painful 24-23 defeat at the hands of Loyola while the St. Thomas level-one midget girls suffered a heartbreaking 8-5 double-overtime loss to Châteauguay Valley Regional High School.

“We had never played Loyola before, so we concentrated on doing the things we had done all year,” said St. Thomas bantam boys’ level-one head coach Fred Degraff. “That was run the ball with our big three, Evan Wiley, Andreas Crawczyk and Cameron Roy, while providing them with plenty of support.”

Winning the crown proved exceptionally sweet for Macdonald. It was the first title since 1988 for a rugby squad of any kind from the school. Yet it didn’t come easy. Lakeside fought hard in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, coming as close as the Macdonald five-metre line, but Macdonald held tight.

For their efforts, Wiley was named Most Valuable player in the bantam boys’ level-one game, Jason Rochon in the midget boys’ level-three game and Roger Desmarais in the juvenile boys’ level-three contest.쇓