Shawnigan Lake School - Yearbook (Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia Canada)

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THE JUNIOR COLTS XV vpMP m iMijtmJL ■ mi 1 1 Is i « --MP f ; 8 ft m 1 1 . 1 | I f ! Bac£ V?ow: (L. to R.) Mr. P.J. Jarvis, R. Kenney, M. Friesen, D. Bourke, P. LeBlanc, B. Carson, R. Baron, D. Cooper, A. Blundell, I. Tharp, A. Schwarz, A. Birch, S. Ruzicka Seated: (L. to R.) D. Latreille, J. Beddoe, M. Giordano, F.S. Panjwani, T. McGovern (Captain), D. Thomas, S. Grey, C. Repen, J. Lansdowne, D. Gough This season was long and difficult. The squad comprised boys who had never played rugby previously, alongside those with limited experience as well as a handful of boys with considerable talent. Not surprisingly such disparate elements took a long time to blend into some semblance of unity. This task was hampered by the immaturity of some members of the squad which showed itself in a lack of self- discipline during training sessions. By mid-season, however, the senior members! of the team informed their less serious peers that they were intent upon improving the squad ' s per- formance. The result was far more cohesion and dedication for the latter part of the season. This showed itself initially in an away game where we held them to 0-0 until half-time. This was against a fine team which had slaughtered us 46-0 in the first outing of the season. Here, however, the forwards came into their own scrummaging with power and rucking with determination. Certainly forwards like David Cooper, Paul Le Blanc, Mark Friesen, Art Blundell and Tim McGovern, a captain who led by example, look to have fine futures as school representatives. Over the season our backs showed themselves to be very weak compared with their independent school counter-parts. The main exception, however, was Damian Gough whose kicking and handling at outside half, often under trying circumstances, were of the highest calibre. I look forward to his future development as a player. Our other mainstay in the backs was Alan Schwarz whose thinking approach to the game was often valuable. I am sure that playing in a stronger squad next season he will return to his prolific point-scoring ways. His place kicking is excellent as was shown in our thrilling final home encounter of the season where we held a strong Brentwood side to 16-9 with Alan scoring all our points with fine penalties. Finally, newcomers to the game like Roger Kenney with his elusive running and crunching tackling, Dominic Bourke with his height and strength, Doug Latreille with his strong running and good tackling should take encouragement from this hard season and realise that with work they could develop into good all-round rugby players. Despite the setbacks the team continued to give its all in every game and what more could a coach ask for? P.J. Jarvis 26

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without being brilliant. Bannister was the most elusive runner and best all-round footballer, Mc- Cordic was a hard-hitter, but inexperienced, while Atkinson was also inexperienced but had a ghosting running style which made him strangely difficult to mark. As the last line of defence, fullback and captain, Andrew Harke, had a fine season. He is a fine tackier and a direct, slashing runner, whose only real weakness was suspect punting. If he can improve this area of his game, he too will be a 1st XV candidate next season. Others who played in various roles throughout the season were Bud Patel at outhalf, and Cam Kramer, Rory Malcolm, and Brent Gough in the pack. All could be relied on to play well when called on. The Colts ' B ' did not win many of their games, but, happily saved their best performance for near the end of the season when they lost only 0-4 away to St. George ' s, having been on the wrong end of a large score in an earlier encounter. When not on ' A ' team duty, Kramer, Gough, Patel, and Malcolm were the best players. In thanking the players on a successful season, may I make two observations. Firstly, as with any boys of their age, they definitely preferred playing matches to practising. This is understandable, and probably commendable. Yet, at the same time, to be able to play well depends entirely on being able to think and then perform basic fundamental skills quickly and well. Unfortunately, on those days when v e did have to practise, not all the players were committed to really making the effort to work on skills and necessary set pieces. Thus, it was only a matter of time before we would make an unnecessary mistake and give a game away. This we did on at least two occasions, and what could have been a super season was only successful. Food for thought as next season approaches. I. A. Hyde-Lay 25

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THE JUNIORS A XV Back Row: (L. to R.) Mr. S.A.S. Lane, D. Howell-Hones, T. Sigfstead, P. Martin, G. Templeton, I. Kennedy, R. Greger, C. Garcia, D. Fullerton, Mr. W.H.H. McClelland Seated: (L. to R.) P. Robinson, M. Hunter, M. Wooldridge, S. Wade (Captain), R. Flaxman, F. Tovstigo, D. Reese It was inevitable that this year ' s team would be compared with last year ' s which was outstanding. It is to their great credit that they can stand the com- parison and indeed come out of it extremely well. The strength of the team was in the pack especially in their tackling ability and their refusal ever to give up. Roy Flaxman at No. 8 was the one who caught the eye most with his strong running but more particularly his decisive tackling. Ian Kennedy, the loose head prop, also a very strong tackier, always took the shortest route to the line and whilst not t he subtlest of runners he was very hard to take down. Paul Robinson and David Reese were an effective pair of breaks - Paul for his flair as an attacking player who was so often in just the right place to pick up a loose ball and David, although lacking in both size and speed, for his sound defence and con- structive use of the ball. But perhaps the best all round player was Mark Wooldridge at tight head prop who was always in the thick of things, a great supporter of the man with the ball and the one who gained most of our line-out possession. - What do you mean!! We lost??? 27