• Our Season of Play starts on March 7, 2011.  Competition between a school team and a team outside that school may not take place before that date.
• Student-Athlete Registration Forms must be submitted to the BC SCHOOL SPORTS office by way of the on-line registration system no later than April 1, 2011.  Please carefully read Section C2.3 (Adding Names to Student-Athlete Registration Form) in the BCSS Directory – Competitive Rules and Regulations 2010-2011.
• Earl Marriott will be hosting the Fraser Valley Sevens at South Surrey Athletic Park from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm on Friday, April 8, 2011.  Contact: Adam Roberts at roberts_a@sd36.bc.ca 
• Kitsilano will be hosting the second annual Vancouver Sevens at Connaught Park on Friday, April 8, 2011.  Contact: kitsrugby@gmail.com.
• Clarence Fulton (Vernon) will be hosting the Okanagan Sevens on Saturday, April 9, 2011.  Contact: Rick Smith at ricksmithvernon@hotmail.com.
• Applications for BCSSRU Scholarships must be received no later than April 15, 2011.
• BCSSRU Sevens 2011 will be held on April 16 and 17, 2011, and will be hosted by St. George’s School (Vancouver BC).
• The final day on which teams may qualify for Provincials 2011 is May 19, 2011.  The final rankings and game schedules will be posted on the website the following day.
• Provincials 2011 will be held as follows:
  Round 1 Games (at various locations around the Province) on May 28, 2011.
  Rounds 2, 3 and 4 Games at the Rotary Stadium and Exhibition Park Complex in Abbotsford on June 1, 2 and 4, 2011.

We are pleased to announce the fifteen candidates selected to receive BCSSRU Scholarships for 2010.  These were presented at the Provincial Championships held at Rotary Stadium in Abbotsford from June 2 to 5, 2010.

BC Secondary Schools’ Rugby Union Scholarships
Dustin Dobravsky (Shawnigan Lake)
Wonjin Kim (St. Michaels University)
Adrian Semmelink (Kelowna)

Derek Hyde-Lay Memorial Scholarships
Lucien Nel (Shawnigan Lake)
Xavier Semmelink (Kelowna)

Pacific Northwest Over 40 Rugby Union Scholarships
Dillon Alexandre (Norkam)
Greg Breedveld (Grand Forks)

BC Rugby Union (Benj O’Connor) Scholarship
Erik Hunter-James (Rockridge)

Lower Mainland Zone Rugby Scholarships
Chase Kelliher (Argyle)
Patrick Rushton (Rockridge)

Bruce Howe (UVic) Scholarship
Steven Thompson (Oak Bay)

BC Secondary Schools’ Rugby Scholarship (Sponsored by International Athletic Co. and KooGa Made for Rugby)
Chris Massot (Hugh McRoberts)

Fraser Valley Zone Scholarships
Matthew Bianchini (Yale)
Matthew Turcotte (Robert Bateman)

BC Rugby Referees’ Society/BC Secondary Schools’ Rugby Union Referee Scholarship
George Van (Prince of Wales)

• To view photos of the 2010 Recipients click here

Following the third round of games this past Friday, the host team continues to forge ahead on the points table, amassing more than all of the other five teams combined, and the opposition has yet to cross their line.  Grand Forks is currently in second place with J.L. Crowe (Trail) not too far behind.  Many thanks are due to Mike Joyce, Ike Edwards and Brad for being such great hosts.   Also to Gord Weiss, Brad and Greg Haydu for refereeing the games..  Once again it was a great event with the gods smiling down on us all day, and holding off on any rain until the posts were down and put away.  The final round of games will be hosted by Mt. Baker in Cranbrook this coming Friday.

• Click here for a summary of updated scores.

At the BC SCHOOL SPORTS Annual General Meeting held on Saturday, May 8, unanimous approval was given for the BCSSRU to add a third tier to its Provincial Championships, effective next year.  Please note that there was an amendment to the original draft with respect to the structure of the ‘Open’ tier, and this has been highlighted in the amended draft which you can access below.  There were a number of strong commendations for the leadership we have taken in addressing the issues of broadening participation and correcting the competitive imbalance that developed in our sport over recent years.  Work on implementing the revised tier structure will get underway early in the fall.

• Click here for the amended draft of the Resolution.

The 2010 Annual General Meeting will be held in the Legacy Sports Centre Conference Room (Rotary Stadium, Abbotsford) at 9:00 am on Thursday, June 3. 

• Click here for the 2010 Annual General Meeting Agenda
  
• Click here for Minutes of the 2009 Annual General Meeting

After a very successful opening series of games in Grand Forks, the second tournament was hosted by J.L. Crowe in Trail this past Friday  Once again everything went very smoothly indeed, and I’m told that ‘mother nature’ also cooperated by providing the only sunny spot in the Kootenays that day.

Following the first two rounds, L.V. Rogers is firmly positioned at the top of the table – undefeated in four games and having accumulated one hundred and thirty-seven points for and zero against.  Grand Forks is currently in second place with thirty-seven points for and twenty-four against.  The ‘travelling road show’ moves to Nelson this Friday for the third round.  Good luck to everyone !

• Click here to view game scores

Rugby is once again alive and well in the Kootenay schools, with six teams involved in a series of mini-tournaments over the next four weeks.  Participating schools are J. L. Crowe (Trail), Grand Forks, L.V. Rogers (Nelson), Mt. Baker (Cranbrook), Rossland and Selkirk (Castlegar).  The team with the best overall record will advance to BCSSRU Provincials 2010, the first time the zone will have been represented at that level for several years.  Much credit for this resurgence is due to Sean Sinclair, a graduate of Brentwood College now teaching at Selkirk.  He has taken on this project with a great deal of commitment and enthusiasm.

Last Saturday, Grand Forks hosted the first of these events.  It was a warm and sunny day and, with two fields in operation, the schedule of games went off without a hitch.  Clearly, the coach of L.V. Rogers (Mike Joyce) would have to be pleased with the performance of the team with which he has been working for the past three seasons.  A vote of thanks is due to Scott Stewart, Principal at Grand Forks, for facilitating and hosting this tournament.

We look forward to the results from this coming weekend’s edition in Trail.

• Click here for game scores.

This coming Saturday, April 24, St. George’s will host a festival of rugby in honour of Nigel Toy who is retiring in June after thirteen years as headmaster at the school.  All members of the community are invited to come out and be a part of this special occasion.  A schedule of games is set out below.

12:30 pm:  Carson Graham vs. Oak Bay and St. George’s 2nd XV vs. Shawnigan Lake 2nd XV
1:45 pm:  Earl Marriott vs. G.P. Vanier and St. George’s Juniors vs. Shawnigan Lake Juniors
3:00 pm:  Argyle vs. St. Michaels University and Georgians (St. George’s Alumni) vs. Shawnigan Lake Alumni.  (The latter game is yet to be confirmed).
4:15 pm:  St. George’s 1st XV vs. Shawnigan Lake 1st XV

Great Memories!

Pontypridd School, Wales
The High School, Dublin, Ireland
Belfast High School, Northern Ireland
St. Anselm’s College, Birkenhead, England

Click on http://hughmcrobertsrugby.blogspot.com for action photos and tour highlights.  At the foot of each page you will find a link to earlier entries.