The U14 Prairies tournament was cancelled Saturday, but the mini festival went ahead on schedule at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
It was raining in the morning, but the drizzle stopped after the pancake breakfast, just before play got under way for the younger players at 9 a.m.
There were only four U14 boys’ teams: St. Albert, the Clansmen, the Druids and the Norwesters. So rather than play in a tournament format, each team played two games. St. Albert won both of their matches.
Besides the U14 teams, there were also teams playing in U8, U10, U12 and U15 divisions. At the younger levels, the coaches don’t keep score because the players are just learning the game.
“Let’s just say the coaches gloss over the minor details,” said Peter Kerswell, director of junior rugby for the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
His son, Iain, was coaching the group of 13 players on the U8 team.
“They like to play,” Iain said. “They’re not so much concerned with learning, but they’re starting to learn. They’re getting better.”
He said at the U8 level, rather than play two 40-minute halves like the senior players, they play about half an hour “or whenever the kids all decide they want water.”
The tournament doesn’t happen every year along with the festival, but the club tried to get some teams from outside the Edmonton area and province, but it didn’t work out.
Kerswell anticipates having another festival next year, and maybe even two.
“What I would like to see is some meetings ahead of time to make sure we get everything organized because we had a fair bit of last minute rushing around,” he said. “We were trying to get space for the under-14 tournament and then it got cancelled, so the seniors weren’t too impressed with us.”
Kerswell also said this has been a year of transition for junior rugby in Alberta. He said this is the first year where U16 players could not play club rugby if they played rugby in high school.
“Some of the schools weren’t interested in going to provincials, so their schools could play [club rugby],” Kerswell said. “Our schools were interested in going to provincials, so our kids couldn’t play, so it’s been a bit of an uproar this year.”
At the U14 level and younger, the junior rugby season concludes on July 24. For the U16 and U18 divisions, the regular season ends around the same time, but playoffs begin soon after and run until Aug. 25.
