They should have known better than to let Clearwater and Barriere join forces.
Students from the two North Thompson secondary schools have gotten together to form a senior boys rugby team – and they gave NorKam Saints a 51-3 shellacking during their first game of the season. The game was played at BSS on April 9.
“Things are looking a little different for the Clearwater kids for rugby this year,” said Gabe Francis, a teacher at Clearwater Secondary School. “We were going to be light on numbers at the senior level so we put in a request with BC School Sports to run a joint program with Barriere Secondary.”
Francis plus BSS principal Ken Rife are co-coaching the boys.
The Clearwater/Barriere team calls itself the North Thompson Spartans.
“Our veteran players set a strong example for the boys who were playing their first game and all the boys played brave rugby,” Francis said of the game against NorKam.
Spartan tries (touchdowns) were scored by Jordan Lefeuvre, Matthew Lee, Karter Romeo, Brandon Proppe, and Keaton Noble.
The North Thompson team played on Tuesday of this week against the South Kamloops Titans (in Kamloops).
“This promises to be a tough test as the South Kamloops boys are very deep in experience and are expected to fair very well provincially every year,” the coach said before the game. Look for results in a future issue of the Times.
Friday they will travel to Williams Lake, and then next Friday Williams Lake will travel to play here or in Barriere.
Clearwater Secondary also has a junior rugby team that will see its first game in a couple of weeks. The junior team includes a couple of Barriere players and will only be playing an exhibition schedule this season.