The Parkland Pirates U19 men’s team made history recently, winning the Stampede 7s Rugby tournament, July 3 and 4, in Calgary, Alta.
The Pirates opened round-robin play with a convincing 38-0 win, followed by a 17-15 victory over Saltwater Cowboys Yellow.
A default win over Nor’Westers HSB 2 put Parkland in the high school boys elite playoff bracket, where they defeated Team Chud, 21-14, in the semifinals.
Parkland then claimed the tournament championship with a 26-19 win over LA Crude.
Coach Aaron Miner said the team was hoping to win a game or two going into the tournament.
“We’ve had very little success in Alberta. The teams there are normally Alberta, B.C., Washington state-based teams that go there. To win a game there is a success. But to go undefeated and win it all is huge,” he said.
This group, Miner said, has bonded well and has come together as a team.
“The rugby culture here is very strong. But this group, they just want more. They don’t even listen to Gerald (co-coach Lopez) and I anymore. They want more. They want to take things into their own hands,” he said.
“We go to practice and then they want to stay late after practice. On their days off, they want to go to the field and practice their kicks, practice the fine-tuning of their game. And they’ve been doing that for months now. It’s just been amazing to watch this group take the game that they love and expand on it.”
As the Pirates kept winning, Miner said the team kept expecting the “bubble to burst.” And with each win, they knew the opponents would get tougher and tougher.
“They always had that doubt in the back of their mind, but come game time, they just turned it on and took it to the next level, each and every game,” he said.
“They didn’t want to get overconfident. They reality checked after every win and realized it was going to be a tough game every time.”
The tournament featured 124 teams from across North America in all of the different divisions and age groups, with 15 in Parkland’s division.
Most of the Pirates played with the Dauphin Clippers high school team, which won the high school league title, and also toured England and Wales earlier this year.
This past weekend, the Pirates were in Brandon for the first of three Manitoba Cup tournaments, where they defeated Winnipeg, 35-0, and Westman, 61-0.
Miner was surprised the Pirates shutout their opponents.
“I knew we had a good team going in, but I didn’t think we’d shut them out. Winnipeg showed up with some players that I recognized from coaching Team Manitoba over the last few years and they really surprised me with what they had, actually,” he said.
“So good to see that rugby in Winnipeg is starting to make a come back. They had some players there that showed some skill and some knowledge of the game.”
Those players who were in Calgary were keen on keeping their momentum going, Miner said.
“Definitely, seeing the skill over the last two months just increase with these guys and their level of knowledge and knowing where each other are going to be, they look like a finely-oiled machine out there,” he added.
“Just knowing where each other is going to be on the field without even having to look just because everybody is playing their position so well.”
The second tournament will be in Winnipeg, July 18, and the team is excited to play in front of a large crowd at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.
“Everybody is super excited. Everybody is ready for practice this week,” Miner said, adding several players stayed to play for the Parkland Mavericks senior men’s team in their game against the Winnipeg Wasps.
The third tournament will take place in Dauphin, July 25.