Cochrane athletes helped contribute to a collection of wins for the Calgary Mavericks rugby club last weekend at a regional rugby competition in Edmonton.
“Guys like (Bow Valley Rugby Club coach) Ty Hawes have put a tremendous amount of energy into developing players at the youth level … Nobody’s doing it better than Hawsey,” said Calgary Rugby Union board member Aaron Duchscherer. “We’re seeing all the hard work pay off.”
The Mavericks are a representative program that pulls together some of the best young rugby players from around the region. Cochrane players represent on nearly every level of the Mavs, from U21 men to U16 women.
Last weekend, Duchscherer said all four Mavs teams made their respective gold medal matches at the Rugby Alberta Regional Competition in Edmonton, which gave players a platform to showcase their skills ahead of the upcoming Alberta Team Selection Camp.
Some of those same Cochrane Mavericks – like Elijah and Isaiah Springer, Oscar Holbrough and Rylen Waugh (currently nursing an injury) – have been invited to the tryouts in hopes of earning a spot on the provincial squad.
Camp continues weekly in Red Deer for the next few weeks, with the final Team Alberta roster expected to be locked down by early August.
Around the club, the Bow Valley Grizzlies Division 2 men’s team are sitting “at the top of the table” at 6-0 at the halfway point of their season and are helping to mentor the club’s junior players, said Hawes. The new all-female squad is finding their feet, too, and the Div. 3 Barbarians are holding their own at 2-3.
Hawes said he’s proud of the success he continues to see in both the youth and adults that come up through the rugby program.
“We’ve got lots of kids working hard,” he said. “We try to give them as much opportunity… Just getting them ball touches, getting them comfortable touching the ball, game smarts.
“It’s all the little things that add up.”
