The majority of the Holy Trinity Knights on the 2011 boys rugby team have never played at the high school level, but that doesn’t mean they are inexperienced.
Grade 11 students Ryan Hassler and Gene Kimmitt are playing their first year of high school rugby, but both have several years of Foothills Lions experience.
“This is my fifth year of rugby,” said Kimmitt, who is penciled in to play flanker, second row for the Knights. “In Grade 10, I played with the Lions, and you aren’t allowed to play club rugby and high school at the same time.’
He said the Lions helped prepare him for his first year of high school rugby.
“It gives us a better knowledge base and we have a lot more experience on the field (than other high school teams),” he said. “I think it helped us, we would have been undersized playing in high school.”
The Holy Trinity Knights returned from Victoria, B.C. on April 17 where they played three exhibition games winning once and losing two.
“Victoria was a real eye-opener because we haven’t been out on the field yet,” Kimmitt said. “But I think it will help us for the high school season.”
Hassler also said the trip to Victoria will benefit the Knights, particularly since they have had limited time practicing outdoors due to wet fields.
“It was great rugby out there,” Hassler said. “I think this will help us gel as a team, play good competition out there and get us ready for high school.”
The Knights hope their high school season will last a few games longer in 2011 than it did in 2010.
After winning back-to-back provincial Tier II provincial championships in 2008 and 2009 the Knights were knocked out of the Calgary Rugby Union finals last year by the Bow Valley Bobcats.
They have since moved up to Tier I and will take on perennial powerhouses like the Bowness Trojans and the Winston Churchill Bulldogs out of Lethbridge.
Hassler laughed when he asked if the Knights were starting to build a legacy in rugby.
“I would say we are getting a reputation for rugby, but we don’t have a legacy,” Hassler said.
He said the Knights do not have a lot of size but they are skilled and have plenty of speed.
Knights coach Joe Buck said allowing the Grade 10s to continue with the Foothills Lions has always been the high school team’s philosophy.
“We have always done that — I didn’t even play Jeff Hassler in Grade 10,” Buck said. “It’s one of those things that you want to give the Senior kids in high school a chance to play. There can also be a big size difference between Grade 10 and 11 or 12. To build a program you want to focus on JV and then Seniors. You need the young players coming up through the ranks.”
“Jeff was mad at me, but he got over it.”
Jeff Hassler, a HTA 2008 grad, played for Canada’s U-20 team last year.
Buck added the Foothills Composite Falcons rugby team is also benefiting from having young players coming up through the Foothills Lions program.
Buck said although the Knights did not get a lot of wins in Victoria, the team was able to achieve its goals. “We accomplished exactly what we wanted, which was to give all 26 players of playing rugby,” SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS QUOTE WORD MISSING?? Buck said. “We played some good teams — it was great.”
He said what was positive was the Knights were able to keep possession of the ball for long periods of time.
“They are willing to learn and they play hard — that’s the main thing right now,” he said.
The Big Sky Rugby Union was scheduled to start last week, but was cancelled due to poor field conditions. The Knights will play their first game when they travel to Cochrane to take on Bow Valley on May 5.
The Foothills Falcons and Oilfields Drillers will start their season on Tuesday, May 3 when they square off against each other in Black Diamond. The girls play a 6 p.m. with the boys to play at 7:15 p.m.
The Falcons will play their first home game Thursday, May 5 at the Comp.
