Comparing a sports team to science?
Follow the rationale of Chloe Scabar here.
Scabar is a Grade 12 student at Vernon’s Clarence Fulton Secondary School, and one of 17 players on the Maroons’ senior girls rugby 7s squad in 2022.
It’s the first time in more than a decade that the school has had a girls rugby program.
While waiting to take on the Mt. Boucherie Bears of West Kelowna in a game Wednesday, April 20, at Grahame Park, Scarbar likened her Maroons to mitochondria, the powerhouse of human cells that turn the energy humans take from food into energy the cell can use.
“Thus, we are the mitochondria of girls rugby,” smiled Scabar.
Rugby 7s, of course, has increased in popularity over the century, being added to the Summer Olympics schedule and features World 7s series played in many countries, including Canada.
The game has just seven players on the pitch playing seven-minute halves, compared to rugby 15s, which features two, 40-minute halves.
On this overcast Wednesday afternoon for the official first day of senior girls rugby 7s league play in the Okanagan, joining the Maroons and the Bears – who brought 22 players – were the South Kamloops Titans and Rutland Voodoos.
“Things are going very well and we are very impressed with the play of the girls,” said Fulton head coach Gord Cheyne, who also organizes kids’ mini-rugby for youth aged four to 12 in Vernon, in between contests. “The competition is pretty stiff. It’s nice to see the girls playing after 12 years (without girls rugby at Fulton).”
Cheyne gets help on the sideline from former Seaton Sonics senior girls rugby 15s player Tara Peterson, and Megan Borrett.
Peterson, whose day job is listing coordinator with Vernon’s Priscilla and Company real estate group, loves everything about the game and is happy to give back.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “I love seeing the girls wanting to take part in the sport being out here. It’s the teamwork, the friendships made, it’s everything.”
Fulton defeated Mt. Boucherie 5-0 and fell 10-5 to South Kamloops.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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