While most of us were huddled inside cursing Mother Nature, April 24, hundreds of high school students were at Centennial Field, playing rugby in the snow.
The tournament saw 20 teams—in three division—descend on Jasper from as far away as Calgary.
Jasper’s senior boys finished the tournament in third place, after losing in the semi-finals to the team from Calgary’s Westmount Charter School.
“We lost in the semi-finals in an extremely close game,” said Marshall Corbett, a Jasper Junior/Senior High School teacher and rugby coach. “But they were in it, they were close and they had fun.”
The tournament also marked the first ever games for Jasper’s junior team and girl’s team.
“Everybody played really well,” said Corbett. “The girls did really well considering it was the very first game that any of them had ever played. They were in it for all of their games, but they lost by one or two tries. They were really close.
“The junior boys again, for a team that’s never played before playing against a team that was a lot bigger and a lot older, did quite well.”
As well as the high school teams, Jasper’s men’s team had a tournament as well.
On Saturday, as the sun shone down on the snow-covered field, the Downhill Sevens Rugby Tournament kicked off, welcoming six competitive men’s teams, four “old boys” teams, 12 social teams and 14 women’s teams.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Corbett who played with the Jasper Ravens.
Nicole Veerman
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