The Foothills Lions Rugby Club’s first season with two senior men’s teams will end without a playoff appearance.
The Division II Lions, in their first season in the Calgary Rugby Union, and longstanding Division III Lions sit in second last place with two wins each and one game remaining on the regular season schedules.
“We had a little bad luck with injuries. . . We’ve had a few guys with weird situations and all those things packaged together made our season a little rougher than it should have been,” said Lions head coach Darcy Gallant of the Division II Lions. “I think being healthy this year, we would have been in a playoff spot.”
The Division II Lions (2-9), have not won a game since June 22, while their Division III club mates (2-8) are winless since May 11.
Keeping the players motivated late in the season without hopes of a playoff berth has been challenging for the Lions’ coach.
“The last month has been tough, some guys are frustrated because we’re not getting the results, but ultimately it’s the big picture,” Gallant said.
There are reasons for optimism despite the poor results, the coach insisted, including the return next season of players currently on their Mormon missions, including former captain and MVP Spencer Watkins, as well as the introduction of former Calgary Ram and Foothills Falcon standout Blake Barnert.
“We have a chance to go from worst to first, this year’ s been a learning experience,” he said. “We were the youngest team in the league in both divisions and I’ve been on this building path before and there’s no guarantees, but they can reverse what’s happened.”
The most recent performance, a 34-19 loss to the Calgary Saints on Aug. 17 in Okotoks, was encouraging.
“That was probably our best game of the year, but we didn’t win,” Gallant said. “We started off well, but didn’t score and they scored two in a row and then we actually showed some resentment to come back and tie it up.
“We didn’t have the mental breakdown that we’ve kind of had, we kept fighting.”
The Lions close out their season in Red Deer, with both the Division III and Division II Foothills teams tackling the Titans on Aug. 25. The Division III Lions then play their re-scheduled season finale in Okotoks, on either Aug. 29 or 30.
“If we play like we did on Friday night it will end on a good note for that division,” Gallant said of the trip to Red Deer. “A lot of guys have played a lot of rugby, it wears on you, but I think most of them see the big picture.”
For more information log on to www.foothillslionsrugbyclub.com.
