Six senior high school students from Victoria and Esquimalt have been picked in the second annual Victoria Rugby All-Stars Selections.
The athletes include Ethan Phillips and Ritthy Chau from Esquimalt High; Cameron Graham and Brennig Prevost from Glenlyon Norfolk School; and Kevin Widderch and Paris Demers from Victoria High.
“The Commissioner’s 15 Rugby All-Stars was developed to help us recognize boys playing rugby at schools across our city” said Phil Ohl, Tide Rugby board member and head coach of the Claremont rugby program.
“We wanted to ensure that every school playing rugby had an opportunity to recognize players on their team.”
Each of the coaches of the senior and junior rugby teams puts forward names for the All-Star teams, who then receive a T-shirt and an invitation to attend the upcoming Tide Rugby trials.
Teams in the U15 through U18 level will compete at the Provincial Regional Competition (PRCs) this summer. Many will then have the potential to be invited to trials for provincial teams.
“The all-star program is a great first step in identifying talent,” said Doug Tate, U17 Tide assistant coach and University of Victoria head rugby coach.
“PRCs is a great place for coaches like myself to identify potential athletes for all levels of competition, including university, provincials and nationals. The all-stars bring out those boys who may not have known about these rugby opportunities.”
The Tide Junior program represents athletes from the Lower Island selected to compete in U18, U17, U16 and U15 provincial regional championships. The PRC tournaments will take place at Burnaby Lake this year. The U15 boys, U16 boys and U16 girls teams compete June 24-25, with the U17 boys, U18 boys and U18 girls competing July 4-5.