What a wonderful thing momentum can be.
It was 10 months ago when the South Delta Sun Devils captured their first-ever provincial rugby championship on a sun-baked field at Rotary Stadium in Abbotsford. The program continues to thrive on and off the field.
The Sun Devils had over 30 players available for their lopsided (60-0) league opener win over Langley on Tuesday in Tsawwassen.
“It’s been huge,” said senior boys head coach Spencer Baines of the provincial title win. “It got a lot of interest going within the school. We probably have enough players for two seniors teams and have about 32 kids on our junior team as well.
“The great thing is everyone here is on the same page. There are no egos on our team. Everyone wants to contribute and with our depth now, lots of them can. We can put a fresh guy on the field and the performance won’t drop. We just couldn’t say that the last couple of years.”
The Sun Devils still feature plenty of dynamic players who are a threat to score anywhere on the field.
Senior Andrew Kraft will be a handful for any opponent while the Grade 11 group might be the best to ever come through the school. Many of them were key contributors during last year’s championship run as aged up juniors.
South Delta got a jump on its season with a two week United Kingdom tour last month.
The players were billeted at four different schools — starting at Uxbridge (just outside of London) and ending at Kinross (near Edinburgh). In total, the tour covered 790 kilometres. It was made possible by extensive fundraising projects over the past couple of years.
The Sun Devils won all three matches against Vyners School (15-12), Bedstone College (22-12) and Kinross (28-14). A fourth was postponed due to snow at the higher elevations near Scotland.
Other highlights of the trip included taking in England’s 57-14 over Italy in Six Nations Championship play that attracted 82,000 fans to Twickenham Stadium.
“The way the boys conducted themselves off the field was exemplary,” continued Baines. “Going on a school trip like that with 25 Grade 11 and 12s you hope them behave themselves. All the billet families said they were so appreciative and so nice.
“The tour also showed how much depth we have. We got to play everyone and it brought their experience way up. That will pay dividends over the season.”
The Sun Devils expect to see the usual contenders as they work their way towards the Fraser Valley playoffs over the next two months.
They have remaining league games remaining against Mountain, Elgin Park and DW Poppy while the other Fraser Valley pool includes last year’s provincial finalist Robert Bateman.
The other squad expected to be in the mix is Earl Marriott who came down from B.C. Secondary School Rugby Union’s five-team Premier League to defeat the Devils in the Valley final but lost to Bateman in the provincial semis.
This will be the final year of the Fraser Valley Rugby Union with B.C. School Sports’ new zones coming into play next season. The Sun Devils will be part of the Fraser South Zone with Surrey and Richmond schools.
