By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
The St. Mary Thunder senior girls rugby team wrapped up its regular season with a 26-0 loss to the undefeated Holy Cross Hurricanes from Peterborough on Friday afternoon in Cobourg.
Shawn Carmichael, coach of the St. Mary Catholic Secondary School squad, considers it to be all part of the rebuilding process, especially following a school year without rugby in 2020-21.
“They have been a powerhouse for the past four or five seasons so you know you’re dealing with a team that has experienced players and is well-coached,” Carmichael said of the visitors from Holy Cross, which improved to 5-0-0. “My big thing is trying to rebuild a program. Two years ago we only had a junior team, we didn’t have seniors. Having the year off didn’t help. Some of the players took a step back.”
There were a lot of positives in the loss for the Thunder, which completed the regular season 2-2-1. Some players are shaking off the rust and in some cases learning new positions. There are also players who are completely new to the sport, which is common at the junior level, but not senior.
“Today our success criteria was achieved,” Carmichael said. “We were focusing on organization on defence and hit that. We were coming forward on defence so I was very happy with the overall effort of the girls. It’s coming together. We are injury-plagued like no tomorrow and girls are stepping up, playing positions they’ve never played before and doing what it takes to keep the game competitive because that Holy Cross team, if you’re not focused, you’ll lose by 60 points.”
Carmichael has been impressed with his team’s work ethic in practice, listening to instruction and implementing what they’ve learned into game situations.
“They’re desperate to have my feedback on things and they can measure their own success,” he said. “It’s great as a coach to go to them at half and say ‘what are we doing wrong?’ They can self-identify. I can say ‘what are some possible solutions?’ and they can offer those solutions.”
Playoffs begin next week, but St. Mary’s season will continue well into next year. The Thunder will take a break for a couple months following the conclusion of this season, but will resume training in the new year as the school will be hosting girls and boys OFSAA provincial championships in June and gain automatic entry as the host.
For now, the building process continues and the players are certainly thrilled to be back on the field.
Senior girls Thunder team members are: Hailey Andrus, Maddie McClean, Brianna Bolton, Grace Rice, Bethany Hayward, Sydney Pipe, Grace Seto, Elizabeth Seto, Brooklyn Sleep, Kiera Martin, Grace Jenkins, Sydney Souch, Gloria Nott, Katrina McColl, Sinead O’Riordan, Adia Shaw, Brooklyn Bell-Ballard, Diya Patel, Kaycee Craig, Lachlan McLellan, Lily Wilson, Alyssa Ellis, Meghan Meade and Veronik Mokros.
“It is my pleasure and my privilege to be out on a sunny day, seeing smiles, the girls understand that from good effort, coming prepared…if you win great, if you lose, but you played hard, great,” Carmichael said. “That’s the experience I’m trying to give to them.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
