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‘Furious Falcons looking sharp’: Fernie high school rugby players join forces

The Furious Falcons recently hit the pitch in Kimberley
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The Furious Falcons are made up of players from Fernie Secondary School and The Fernie Academy. (Submitted by Min Merritt)

Contributed by Min Merritt

President of the Elk Valley Rugby Football Club

Who are the Furious Falcons?

They are who you get when you put together Fernie Secondary School (FSS) Falcon rugby players with The Fernie Academy (TFA) Fury rugby players.

Why do they look sharp? Because both the Falcons and the Fury now have smart new rugby jerseys thanks to a generous donation from Teck.

Wednesday, Sept. 28, Fernie saw the combined Fernie Academy and Fernie Secondary School high schools’ rugby team, The Furious Falcons, travel to Kimberley for the inaugural Kootenay Schools 7’s Rugby Tournament.

TFA and FSS put out a Junior Boys and Junior Girls team, each team played two games on the day. For the majority of players this was their first time playing in a rugby match.

The girls played LVR from Nelson twice. The Furious Falcons knew they were the underdogs, but they refused to go down without a fight. All of the players put their bodies on the line with some fearless try-saving tackles. There were some good line breaks in attack, notably from Adelle Green (FSS grade 8) and Riley Knudsen (TFA grade 8) resulting in tries from Kiara Auger and Rosalie Lloyd (both TFA Grade 9).

In the boys’ team, all but two of the boys were playing their first ever game of rugby. The first match was very much a development game; however, the second match was when they really started to shine. Keeping Trail to two tries while scoring one themselves. In this game, Jack Carson (TFA grade 10) put in some massive tackles and some line-breaking runs, which for his first ever game of rugby is amazing. Alex McGregor (TFA grade 8) developed his tackling, taking down opposition twice and three times his size with perfect tackle technique.

Both coaches were rightfully proud of all of the Furious Falcons.

Coach Niall Jones commented “The Furious Falcons did both schools, The Fernie Academy and Fernie Secondary School, proud. They played wonderfully and developed skills and grew as players. Each student played with the spirit of rugby upholding the sports core values, Integrity, Passion, Solidarity, Discipline and Respect. I am so proud of each student and how much they have developed over this tournament, and I am looking forward to seeing their growth in the following two tournaments.”

Coach Jessie Watson added “It was so great to see the kids in a kit that matches their skill and potential as athletes and young men and women!”

Both schools are so grateful to Teck who kindly donated to each school two kits, a boys’ kit and a girls’ kit. The Fernie Academy blue and white hoops and Fernie Secondary School green and white hoops.

All students were blown away by the new jerseys, saying, “The new kits are absolutely perfect”, “so comfortable”, “A big thank you to Teck for donating the money for jerseys.”

Roll on Castlegar on Oct. 5 and Cranbrook on the 12th, for rugby, big tackles, line break and tries.

Go Furious Falcons!