The Sexsmith Secondary School Girls’ High School rugby squad is holding their heads high as they return from Red Deer with a provincial gold medal.
Head Coach and Principal Mike Lauzon describes the weekend victory as “unexpected” because his team is so young. According to Lauzon, the team has no Grade 12 athletes, just four Grade 11s, six Grade 10s, and 15 Grade nines on the roster, which proved to be a challenge when they played their old rival- the Rimbey Spartans.
“We expected to get some experience out of this, Rimbey has a couple girls that are on the National team already so they’re a very good program, they have eight Grade 12s on their team, so to battle them and beat them twice was a big accomplishment for us,”
The first half of the final went scoreless as the girls stayed physical in the match; however, Sexsmith managed to score three tries in the final half to win 19-0 against Rimbey in the final.
“It was really a war of attrition, both teams played great but I just couldn’t believe our young girls really stepped up, and really played tough and laid everything on the line, it was great,” Lauzon says.
Coach Lauzon says the key factor in his team’s success was the willingness of his junior players to step up physically and mentally to compete against girls up to four years older than them.
“I think we just clicked in those last four games, our last regular season game, and then our three games at provincials, everybody started hitting and just playing really tough, really physical, demanding rugby, which is awesome,” he says.
To celebrate the win, Coach Lauzon says his girls seemed to be interested most in a victory meal.
“The whole school gets hot dogs, that was the first thing the girls asked me when we won was- are we going to get hot dogs?” Coach Lauzon laughs.
It’s been a winning season for the school, boasting numerous provincial showings this year across several sports, and Coach Lauzon says he is looking forward to continuing the streak with his young squad next season.
