If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.
That age-old axiom stuck to the Bow Valley Grizzlies like feculence to fur en route to perfection. The Cochrane-based Grizzlies stamped an exclamation point on their 13-0 Calgary Rugby Union Div. 3 regular season with a 38-0 victory Sept. 5 over the Calgary Canadian Irish Athletic Club.
The blemish-free season was a tribute to playing head coach Ty Hawes’s insistence the team prepare for every fixture, even if it meant training in a Jumping Pound barn when inclement weather closed their regular practice pitch in spring.
“A big part of it was the preparation the boys put into it. We started training in a barn when there was still snow on the ground,” he said, fittingly, on a September night when falling white stuff moved them indoors again. “That’s where we trained tonight, back in the old barn.
“So it’s kind of gone full circle. The boys really wanted it.”
As a group, they took that preparation onto the pitch 13 times this season, winning every regular-season match against teams from Calgary, Banff, Red Deer and Airdrie.
“I think they really worked for each other. And they don’t want to let each other down,” Hawes observed. “That’s what you want from a side. You want guys who will play for each other, and have fun on and off the field.”
With a 32-17 season-opening win against high-powered Calgary Canucks in May, the Grizzlies charged through the spring/summer season.
“The goal was to win the competition,” Hawes explained. “The way they played at the beginning of the season, it was just starting to become an expectation for the boys, they really wanted those “W’s” more than the other teams.”
They hope that preparation and team commitment sticks throughout the playoffs en route to a provincial title.
“Now we move on to something we’ve been waiting for all year,” Hawes surmised
“The business part of the season. The boys are pretty pumped for it.”
Barring inclement weather, the Grizz open the playoffs Sept. 13 against the 4-9 Calgary Saracens, 5:30 p.m. kickoff at Mitford Pond Rugby Pitch.
