The St. Albert Rugby Football Club celebrates its past, present and future at today’s 30th anniversary spectacle at Riel Recreation Park.
“It’s a big day for the club. This has been a celebration we’ve been looking forward to for quite some time,” said SARFC president Sean LeLacheur.
The festivities also commemorate the official re-opening of the SARFC fields, which were first unveiled to the month 30 years ago.
“We’re excited because this is kind of the end of our two-year journey towards getting our fields redone and kind of re-establishing ourselves as one of the premier rugby clubs, especially in Alberta,” LeLacheur said.
The reclamation work and outdoor facility enhancement projects that started in August of 2012 were completed last year and the first match on the new and improved fields was played Aug. 5.
“The last two years have been tough for us. Our players had no home so we’ve been somewhat of a wandering club that plays wherever we can get a field but now it’s nice for the players to go out and play in front of our fans and have that place to hang their hat afterwards and celebrate,” LeLacheur said. “When we lost our fields people came out in droves to support the clubhouse when we needed it and the city also stepped up big to help us at that time. Our club membership and people through the doors is how we keep the doors open.”
The party kicks off at 8 a.m. with a junior pancake breakfast for the participants in the Edmonton Rugby junior festival.
The stars of tomorrow perform at 9:30 a.m. (U7, U9 and U11), 10:30 a.m. (U5), 10:45 a.m. (U13 and U15 boys) and noon (U13 and U15 girls).
Today’s tripleheader starts at 12:30 p.m. between the SARFC third division men and Parkland Sharks.
The terrific thirds (3-2, six BP) are ranked No. 1 and the Sharks (2-0, three BP) are eighth in the ERU table.
At 1 p.m. is the women’s second division spring league confrontation between SARFC and Crude/West.
The provincial second division champions (4-1, four BP) are fourth and Crude/West (5-1, six BP) is second in league play.
The top four teams in the spring league round robin move up into the first division for the rest of the season and the remaining teams play for second division honours.
The Alberta Cup premier men’s tussle between the fantastic firsts and Nor’Westers rocks the pitch at 4:30 p.m.
The Labatt’s Cup provincial champions (3-1, three BP) are tied for second and the Nor’Westers (1-2-1, one BP) are sixth as the second-highest ERU team out of four in the eight-team premier table.
“We’ve got all ages, all skill levels and all genders that are going to be participating,” LeLacheur said of the wide-range of rugby talent on display. “There is literally a place for anyone to feel like they would be welcomed to within the club and we encourage that.”
LeLacheur, 30, is the volunteer field marshal for the matches.
“We’re on a really, really tight schedule and we really need to make sure games start and finish when they’re supposed to,” said the rugby product of the Lorne Akins and Paul Kane programs who succeeded Matt Herod as SARFC president this year.
Today’s main event is the ceremonial grandeur at 2:50 p.m. All youth and adult male and female SARFC players will parade onto the main field in full kit and they will be joined by the Edmonton Police Service Pipes and Drums Band, members of the RCMP, four flag bearers (SARFC men’s and women’s captains and two youth players) and Mayor Nolan Crouse, Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber, St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud and LeLacheur.
“Gareth Jones has been spearheading the committee for organizing this celebration and a lot of people have put a lot of work into it,” LeLacheur said.
SARFC is also providing additional seating and expanded food and beverage service to accommodate the thirsty and hungry masses.
However, there is no parking at the club except for vehicles with disability parking permits.
“We’re going to be setting up a separate viewing area for the games. A tent will be set up on the south side of the clubhouse where we’ve got a special event license to be able to serve some drinks and food to spectators because we do expect a larger than usual Saturday crowd,” LeLacheur said. “There are a lot of people we know that are going to be in attendance and we hope the weather can hold up during the day as best as possible. It looks like there might be some showers in the forecast but rain or shine we’re going to drive on and it’s going to be a good day.”
To say SARFC is a club and a half is an understatement.
“We have all the pillars in place. We have the athletes that perform on the field, we have the supporters that are off the field that support the club and we have the volunteers behind the scenes that do all the hard work when nobody is watching. People don’t see the grounds crew out there prepping for a weekend like this weekend but I can tell you those guys work tirelessly to prep everything and oftentimes it goes unnoticed,” LeLacheur said.
“As a club we also have the support of the entire community. All the high schools feed us quite well. We also have one of the largest enrolled junior programs in all of Alberta so we’ve got a really good feeder system and that combined with our elite athletes makes for a really good environment for people to succeed.
“We’re lucky to attract elite athletes and social athletes alike to our clubhouse because we can provide an environment that is very difficult to replicate.”
