Ellerslie Rugby Park – The first women’s rugby championship in school history was celebrated by the Bellerose Bulldogs in spectacular fashion Wednesday.
“It’s awesome, not just for our team but for the whole school,” said Grade 12 standoff Dawn Kunz after the Bulldogs throttled the Archbishop Jordan Scots 48-0 in the metro Edmonton city conference final. “Now that we have a banner, it makes you feel like you’re part of the school.”
The Bulldogs were over the moon about their accomplishment.
“This means everything to us. It’s what we’ve worked for all season,” said captain Meghan Reiser. “It’s really, really special, especially for our coach, Cory Albrecht. This is his last year at Bellerose. He’s been here for 14 years and we didn’t have a banner for girls rugby yet.”
A team meeting in the school gym on the day of the big game lit a fire under the Bulldogs.
“It was really inspirational, especially the speech by our coach. He told us that we would be the first women’s rugby team to bring back a banner and we didn’t want to disappoint him,” Kunz said. “I’m so proud of the team and I know he is proud of us too.”
Leading by 12 points at halftime the Bulldogs buried the Scots in the third quarter with four tries. They ended the rout with eight tries and four conversions.
“This team has always played on heart and that’s what won it for us today,” said Reiser, a Grade 12 eight-man.
Viveca Robinson’s running exploits and kicking prowess spearheaded a well-balanced scoring attack. Katelyn Moorhouse also ran in a pair of tries. Sabrina Sulz, Lena Tappauf, Amanda Johnson, Brooke Meunier and Kunz also contributed to the team’s scoring spree.
“The things that we know how to do we finally did them today as a team. Everything started to come together,” Reiser said.
With only a few minutes to play, Grade 12 standout Janna Slevinsky was subbed in so the injured third-year Bulldog could share in the championship glory. The 2009 recipient of the Shelanine Kozakovich Cup as the junior women’s player of the year in the Edmonton Rugby Union was sidelined with an undisclosed injury halfway through the league fixtures. She isn’t expected to play for the senior women at the St. Albert Rugby Football club until July at the earliest.
“It meant so much to us to have her out there even if she was taking it easy, or as easy as Janna ever takes it,” said Reiser, who filled in as captain with Slevinsky injured. “Janna is an unbelievable dedicated player. It’s a huge detriment for any team to lose their star player and somebody with so much heart. You win games on heart and Janna brings a lot of that to the team.”
The Bulldogs ended the season 3-3 overall after placing fourth out of five teams in the north pool with one win and three losses.
“We had a few rocky moments but we pulled through in the end,” said Kunz, 18.
“Rucking is what we improved on the most. We didn’t even know what rucking was at the start of the season and by this game that’s all we did. It was awesome.”
The Bulldogs were relegated into the city playoff bracket, as the top three teams in the north and south pools competed for premier conference honours. Led by Sulz’s three tries and Robinson’s two tries and four conversions, the Bulldogs whipped the winless Salisbury Sabres 70-5 in the semifinals.
The Scots also finished fourth at 1-3 in the south. In the April 27 exhibition crossover they were hammered by the Bulldogs 43-0. The Scots gained a bye into the final after the winless Fort Saskatchewan Sting from the north declined to participate in the playoffs.
“It was disappointing at the time when we didn’t qualify for premier but it’s so nice to end a season on a win, with that positive energy going through you,” said Reiser, 17.
