Bow Valley Rugby Club’s Kelsey McKinnon and Rylee Stone got a chance to play up a level at the national rugby festival in Calgary.
Playing for Team Alberta’s under-16-year-old (U16) girl’s team, the players got four fixtures in against two teams from British Columbia and one from Ontario at the Aug. 5-10 national festival in Calgary. Team Alberta finished third.
“We played against B.C. and Ontario,” said McKinnon, a 16-year-old Grade 11 at Cremona High School. “It was tough. B.C. was probably our hardest competition.”
McKinnon earned a spot on Team Alberta as a front-row player in her first season of eligibility. Stone, who also plays for Springbank Community High School Phoenix, was also a Team Alberta U16 rookie this season.
“The girls were a lot more experienced than I’ve seen,” McKinnon observed. “A harder push in the scrums than normal.
“That was probably the biggest difference.”
Ontario won the U16 girl’s festival with a 4-0 record.
Bow Valley Rugby Club’s Rylen Waugh won silver with Team Alberta’s U16 boys at the national festival, helping Alberta finish with a 2-1 round-robin record before dropping a 26-0 decision to B.C. in the Aug. 10 final.
