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Grassroots rugby growing strong at Chilliwack middle school

Two educational assistants with a passion for rugby started Chilliwack’s lone middle school program.
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While female rugby grows at a rapid rate outside of Chilliwack, it’s been a slower buildup here.

Ruth Grier and Lydia David hope to change that.

Twin sisters who spent the first years of their lives in England, they grew up on rugby, with a dad who played at a high level in Wales.

They helped found the girls team at Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox secondary in the late 1990s and brought their love of the game with them when they moved to Chilliwack.

Four years ago they launched a program at Chilliwack middle school.

“After we graduated from high school, life got in the way for a while, but when both of us had kids, we wanted to start a team for our girls,” David explains.

A group of 14 girls from CMS is supplemented by six or seven players from Rosedale Traditional and two from Mount Slesse. They play every Thursday at CMS, which is the one and only middle school program in Chilliwack.

Quinton Baker, the coach of the boys team at CMS, helps out as often as he can and is a valuable resource for David and Grier.

“The girls are so excited that they get to play with girls, at their level, instead of boys who don’t necessarily pass (the ball) all the time,” Grier says with a smile. “I think a lot of girls are scared off when they hear that they have to play on a boys team, not necessarily because they don’t think they’re good enough, but because boys do hit harder than girls.

“It is intimidating.”

In its current form, the CMS program has enough girls to split into two teams and play fun intrasquad matches.

They practice proper tackling form from day one, and while they may not hit as hard as the boys, these girls aren’t timid. Their aggression seems to magically appear when they get on the field, as they throw themselves into one of the most physical sports with enthusiastic abandon.

“I don’t know what happens, but you put them in a rugby jersey and shorts, but it’s like that switch flips,” David says. “They go out there and hit people and they’re not scared.

“They come off the field and they’re like, ‘Oh! I did that?’”

Their season was supposed to have ended last week, but because the players are loving it so much, the coaches have extended it to the end of the school year.

Grier loves every minute.

“You see them progress from girls who don’t want to hit or don’t want to tackle to the point where they’re just smoking someone, and it’s amazing,” she says.

“We just want to share our love of rugby with anyone who will play,” David adds.

CMS entered one tournament in Abbotsford last year, finishing second, and next year Grier says CMS has been invited to join the Abbotsford/Langley middle school league.

Slowly, momentum is growing.

“The more it (rugby) gets played and the more word gets out there, kids are approaching us saying, ‘We’re going to play next year!’” David says. Both sisters could go on for hours about why they love the sport. But doing what they do, observing what they observe daily in the halls of a middle school, they feel the most valuable part of rugby is the emotional and physical outlet it provides.

“Teenagers, it’s all pent up anger and I see kids punching lockers and stuff,” David says. “I think if we give them an alternative outlet where they can hit someone safely, I think that gets rid of some of the aggression.

“I know for me, rugby put me in a better headspace for school and learning, and I see the same thing with some of our girls out there.”

There is also a social benefit.

“There’s a sense of team in rugby, and there’s a position for you,” Grier says. “If you’re not so fast, or big or strong, there’s still a position for you.

“What I’ve noticed also is that a lot of our kids hang out in different social groups at school, but rugby brings them together. You’ll hear them in the hallway saying, ‘Hey! We’ve got a game today,’ where usually they’d never say a word to each other.

“That’s fun to see.”

Long term, the sisters would love to see a middle school team at each of Chilliwack’s five schools, travelling all over the Lower Mainland to play games.

“The landscape outside of Chilliwack is huge,” Grier says. “There are six or seven middle school programs in Abbotsford alone and there’s no reason why Chilliwack can’t get there too.”

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Eric Welsh

About the Author: Eric Welsh

I joined the Chilliwack Progress in 2007, originally hired as a sports reporter.
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