News

On May 12, the Kelowna Crows rugby club, in conjunction with TORA, CORE, Therugbyshop.com and the Priest Valley Vicars, is hosting a large rugby day at Parkinson rec center. All rugby groups, teams, clubs, players, supporters and ruggers of other categories are invited to join us for all or part of the festivities.

The Okanagan Rugby Union (ORU) has been around since the 1970's. In recent years, it has focused on operating a summer league for men's teams in the Okanagan. Penticton, Vernon, and Salmon Arm have been the mainstays of this league. Kelowna's focus has been on lower mainland leagues, where rugby is played for 8 months (September to April) and long-distance travel is part of the game.

16 local elementary schools will participate in the SD23 Elementary Touch Rugby program this spring, up from 14 schools in 2017. An estimated 300 boys and girls in grade 4 - 6 will enjoy the fast, fitness-oriented game of touch rugby.

In touch rugby, teams get six 'touches' to move the ball down the field to score a 'try'. Defensive players must be back five yards to be able to make a touch. The team with the most tries wins.

A projected 800 Central Okanagan rugby athletes from 4 to Over-40 will enjoy touch, sevens, or XVs rugby over the next two months. Add another 200 adult touch rugby players this summer, 50 men’s and women’s UBCO rugby XVs sides, and around 150 in the fall-operated Grade 7/8 league, and we project that over 1200 athletes will enjoy some form of rugby in the Central Okanagan in 2018.

As young rugby players prepare for another great spring season of play, we would like to recognize those local businesses that make the game affordable for kids.

Touch Rugby
For the fourth year in a row, three local businesses will contribute $3,000 to fund the local mini-rugby, elementary touch, and community touch sevens programs. Their contributions have made the mini-rugby, elementary touch, and community touch programs very affordable for over 500 young players. Local rugby thanks the following businesses for their touch rugby support:

You may remember the 1996 movie 'Tin Cup', when fictional pro golfer Roy McEvoy (played by Kevin Costner) takes a 12 on the 18th hole of U.S. Open to lose a tournament that was his to win. He did not lose because his nerves got to him. He lost because he refused to 'lay up', which is playing conservatively, positioning the ball in a spot that is less than the maximum distance he could have reached. In Roy's wee wooden head, the ethics of being true to himself, playing gutsy and memorable golf, was more important than any win would be.

Rugby Canada faced a similar situation on Saturday in their 2018 Canada Sevens game against a key rival - the USA. After a 19 - 19 tie with Australia earlier in the pool, a second tie for Canada versus US would have assured us at least a 2nd place finish in our pool. This would have put us into the top-8 side of the tournament and anything could have happened on Sunday.

Over the past several years, the Thompson-Okanagan Rugby Alliance (TORA) rep rugby teams have been improving their performance at the Provincial Regional Championships (PRCs). In 2017, these improvements included the TORA U18 Girls winning gold and the TORA U14 Boys winning bronze. More than 1000 athletes on 48 regional teams from B.C. compete annually at this provincial tournament. Youth provincial teams are selected from the athletes who participate in the PRCs.

The coaches for 2018 have been identified and are listed below. We are very pleased that the following coaches will be coordinating TORA teams on June 30 - July 2 at Burnaby Lake this year.

Ten rugby coaches, most of them from the Okanagan, completed the World Rugby Level 2 coaching training on Friday and Saturday of last week. BC Rugby coaching specialists Conan Cooper and Darcy Patterson delivered the training, which included the coaching process, designing a practice, coaching core rugby skills, and functional role analysis and selection.

The City of Kelowna has released its Activity and Program Guide for Spring 2018. Parents of young touch rugby players can register their children beginning March 6 at 7:30 AM. Parents are encouraged to register right away to assure a space for your child in these popular programs.

You can register in a variety of ways. Online registration can be done here, beginning on March 6. Just type in the keyword 'rugby' into the search box and select either the Rugby Mini or Rugby Touch Sevens programs. You can also phone in your registration by dialling 250-469-8800 on or after March 6 at 7:30 AM. You can even register in-person at the Parkinson Rec Centre, located at 1800 Parkinson Way in Kelowna.

Kelowna will host the Western Canada U16 Rugby XVs Championships for the next three years. The top U16 male and female athletes from the four western provinces will compete in Kelowna each summer in 2018, 2019, and 2020. This year's competition will be held at Parkinson Rec Centre from July 26 - 29.

Eight boy's teams and six girl's teams from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia will compete over the four-day tournament at the Parkinson Rec Centre. 330+ of the best U16 players in Canada will enjoy the Okanagan sunshine while playing their favorite game.