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Wildcats ready to weigh anchor on Riverboat rugby
contracts, and eliminates a longstand- ing practice of banking unused sick days. Teacher unions for the English public elementary and secondary schools are urging their members to “take a pause” from voluntary extracurricular activities and the result in the National Capital Re- gion is that 10 Ottawa area schools have
Oct. 11 event instead of the usual eight. The Wildcats will field two squads as al- ways. Opposing them on the field in the round-robin rundown will be St. Mat- thew High School of Orléans, Holy Trinity from Kanata, and from across the Ottawa River, a Québec team from Philemon Wright Secondary in Gatineau. Foster expects a good performance
bec in U18 rugby competition and then playing sevens rugby on the Ontario pro- vincial circuit. “She’s a very, very good player,” Fos- ter said, during a phone interview Sept. 27. “We are a young team. But we’ve got very good young players. I’d say another three more practice sessions and we’ll be ready to go by Oct. 11.”
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
ROCKLAND | The war of words between teacher unions and the provincial gov- ernment has sunk the hopes for extra- curricular sports at many schools in Ontario. But at Rockland District High School, the annual Riverboat Rugby Sevens Invitational is still on schedule. Coach Bill Foster of the RDHS Wildcats varsity girls rugby team confirmed the lo- cal autumn event is on track, albeit with a couple less teams than in past years. “A lot of the schools in the Ottawa area do not have extracurricular activities this term,” Foster said. The reason is Bill 115, which imposes a two-year freeze on all teacher salaries, cuts some negotiated benefits in their
failed to register their sports teams for the fall schedule in the high school rugby, basketball, volleyball, swim- ming, golf, and field hockey leagues
“A lot of the schools in the Ottawa area do not have ex- tracurricular activities this term,” - Bill Foster
from the two RDHS entries in the tourna- ment even though last term’s gradua- tion has taken away many of the veteran
Falcons fly into second month of football GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
along with other sports competitions. For the RDHS Riverboat Rugby Sevens tournament the freeze on sports has re- sulted in five teams registered for the
members of the varsity girls squad. He noted that one returning senior vet- eran, Jessica Joubarne, divided her past summer alternating as a player for Qué-
Hammond | They are one and two for win- or-lose so far this season as the new SFX Falcons teams charges into the October high school football schedule. “We’re getting better,” said Head Coach Scott Stoqua. “We”re getting a good turn- out.” The latest two games for the Saint Fran- cis Xavier Falcons saw them take down the St. Lawrence Saints 27-7 in Cornwall on Sept. 20. The end-of-September home game against the St. Thomas Aquinas Ra- vens from Russell ended 49-0 for the visi- tors.
“We were able to do a lot of outside running,” Stoqua said, regarding the win against the Saints. “And they are new to the senior league.” The more-experienced Ravens, he noted, foiled the Falcons attempts at outside runs and other tactics. As SFX prepares to host their first game for October against Glen- garry this afternoon, the Falcons have a one-and-two win-loss record so far in the Seaway League. Coach Stoqua expressed satisfaction so far with this season’s performance from the Falcons. He noted that the team is rebuild- ing again after losing many of its veteran players of the past four years to graduation this past June. “Our defensive line, a lot of times, is very good. Our running back, Brian Green, he’s feal fast.” One area that players need to focus more effort on, Stoqua said, is aggressive play. That was one of the main factors that tripped them up during the game with the Ravens is not being aggressive enough sometimes.
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