West Shore Rugby Club hosted rugby players of all levels, from six years old to Olympians, at its Rugby Rookie Festival on Sunday.

Around 400 kids from clubs up and down the Island took to the field, to encourage more youth to get involved in the sport. National team members Sabrina Poulin and 2020 Olympian Julia Greenshields were at the event, running a coaching session prior to some of the kids playing in matches. Poulin also works as a physical education teacher and said coaching with teams in the community is important to her.

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Charmaine Ross, club manager at West Shore, said the club is seeing an uptick in playing numbers thanks to rugby programs at schools in the West Shore. She said there are now teams at schools in all West Shore communities, including 脡cole John Stubbs Memorial School, who hadnB次元官网网址檛 had a program for B次元官网网址渜uite a while.B次元官网网址�

Natasha Beckett, 12, was introduced to the sport when she started playing at Dunsmuir and joined the club team in September. She said she hopes to keep participating and eventually play professionally.

Ross said the goal is to expand rugby programs into elementary schools to encourage younger kids to participate.

ALSO READ: Westshore Rugby aiming to get more girls playing

bailey.moreton@goldstreamgazette.com
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