The Sturgeon Spirits enhanced their reputation as a rugby powerhouse with another medal-winning performance at the Alberta Schools' Athletic Association championships.
The lady Spirits settled for silver after back-to-back bronze medal victories and the men's team capped off its best season in school history with bronze at the sixth annual tier I (4A schools) provincials last weekend at Calgary Rugby Park.
"Not only are there different schools starting to notice us now, but so are other people and that's a compliment," said Iain Jamieson, coach of the lady Spirits, the three-time defending metro Edmonton premier champions. "One of the guys from the Calgary Rugby Union came up to me and said, 'Where is Sturgeon? I need to know.' I said north of the army base. He said, 'I never even knew your school existed. You guys medalled, both girls and boys, and the girls won bronze the last two years in a row. Wow! What a program. I can't wait to see you guys next year.'"
The men's team celebrated its highest finish at provincials after winning its second premier championship in three years, in addition to three city conference titles since the formation of the metro league in 1988/89.
"I would say overall yes this was the best team that we've ever fielded," said Karl Razzolini, the men's coach the last 19 years at Sturgeon. "It was everything; the forwards and the backs and the physical play. The kids are very strong and they hit very hard.
"It was quite amazing how everybody bought into the team and the direction we wanted to go. They played like they were supposed to."
Gold medal game
In the women's final the Spirits met their match against the very strong and skilled Raymond Comets and lost 44-0.
"They are such a force. There is no one even comparable to their team," Jamieson said. "Those girls train together all year. That's their volleyball team, their basketball team and then they play rugby as well. Those girls know each other very well."
Raymond (south zone) and the Spirits (metro No. 1) were ranked first and second, respectively, in the eight-team draw.
"We played them three times before the final. In the Red Deer tournament it was very close. After an hour it was only 20-0," Jamieson said. "Their team hasn't been scored on this year."
The Spirits marched into the final after blanking the seventh-ranked Foothills Falcons (south central zone) 29-0 in the opening match and in the semifinals knocked off the sixth-ranked Strathcona Lords (Edmonton public No. 2) 12-5.
"Strathcona is a great team. It was tight," Jamieson said. "Our girls were so pumped after that game. They went back to the hotel with a real good positive attitude. They were going to bring it to Raymond. Silver was not enough. There was a gold medal to be won.
"Instead of whooping it up and just celebrating the silver, the girls took ice baths that night and got rid of their bruising as much as they could so they would be ready for Raymond."
However, after a giving up a couple of tries, the Spirits faced a daunting task in mounting a comeback.
"The wind just came out of our sails," Jamieson said. "We could've done better but Raymond was on their game and it was just not our day and you could just see it in the players. Silver was going to be good enough at that point."
The premier final was a warm-up for provincials, and the Spirits prevailed 10-7 against the Bev Facey Falcons. In league play the Falcons defeated the Spirits 22-20. At provincials the fifth-ranked Falcons (metro No. 2) scored bronze.
"We had some unsettled business against them in the premier final," Jamieson said. "There was no score in the second half. It was a back and forth kind of a game. Facey had their chances. We had our chances. We scored both of our tries in the first quarter after they had scored first.
"This was Facey's year to take it and I think that loss really upset them."
When the season kicked off, Jamieson wasn't sure how the Spirits would perform.
"There was a lot of fear on our team. Our first game was against Bellerose and I think they went in it a little scared. We lost a lot of speed from our team but after winning 61-5 it definitely helped build the confidence up in our girls," said Jamieson.
He took over the coaching duties this year from long-time field general Ian Elm, the architect of Sturgeon's four premier championships in five years.
"I'm blown away how well we did. We went into this year thinking we had lost too many Grade 12s to have as much depth as we did. We have seven Grade 12s this year, but four of them [Mariah Mcrae and Erin Sheehan in the backs and forwards Hannah Prokop and Stephanie Jamieson] are three-peaters; they've won the premier banner three times in a row."
Bronze medal game
It was total domination by the Sturgeon men with a bronze medal up for grabs as they hammered the number-one ranked Hunting Hills Lightning (central zone) 71-0.
Last year Sturgeon finished seventh out of eight teams as the recipients of the most sportsmanlike team trophy.
"The main difference was we had guys who played in the provincials last year so they knew what it was about," Razzolini said of this year's roster of 14 returning players. "We also had a couple of football players that actually tried out for the rugby team this year. Tayler White and Devin Kondro were big assets for us. Not only did they give us good running gains, they're good athletes too so that helped."
Ranked third in the eight-team draw, Sturgeon (metro No. 1) started off provincials with a victory against the sixth-ranked Holy Trinity Academy Knights (south central zone). After a 10-10 stalemate, the match was decided on drop goals. White, Brady Hansen, Darcy Belanger and Dan Petty split the uprights, while the Knights were successful on two kicks.
"We started off really weak and why I have no idea. Maybe it was the letdown from winning the premier championship [40-12 against the St. Francis Xavier Rams]," Razzolini said. "We didn't play very well but we still won and that got us into the A side."
In the next game Sturgeon lost a hard-fought 5-0 decision against second-ranked Strathcona (Edmonton public No. 1). The result dropped the Spirits into the bronze medal playoff. Strathcona went on to lose the final 11-10 to the fourth-ranked Medicine Hat Mohawks (south zone).
"We played a strong game. Everything went right, it was just around the goal line where we had trouble," Razzolini said.
It was the first loss by the Spirits after Bellerose whipped them 36-19 in league play.
"We had a strong season. Everything went well for us," Razzolini said. "I was very proud of the boys. They worked hard all year. We were out in the snow for about five weeks. We did a lot of our cardiovascular outside. They were in good shape. They also followed the team rules.
"The only problem we have out here is we lack rugby experience. We have a lot of good athletes but they don't play a lot of rugby games so sometimes in tight games they lack the experience in what to do in certain situations but athletically-wise we're as good as anybody else."
