A handful of talented rugby players were honoured by the mayor recently.
The U18 Campbell River/Comox Valley championship rugby team was acknowledged by the city at the Dec. 17 council meeting.
Mayor Walter Jakeway introduced the team to city council before presenting the members with a signed certificate of congratulations.
“These members have played in the BC High School Boys League and several played at the North Island Tsunami Rugby Academy and some of them played for Team BC, but this is the first year that they played together as a team with the Comox team,” Jakeway said. “And, their first year out, they won.”
Jakeway said the win was especially sweet because the joint Campbell River/Comox team was the underdog in the final versus the home team, Oak Bay Castaway-Wanderers.
“Oak Bay was supposed to be the favourite because Oak Bay hasn’t lost in two years,” Jakeway said. “Our fellas from the mid-Island…first year out, they won. Congratulations.”
The team, made up of players from the Campbell River Athletic Association and the Comox Valley Kickers, defeated Oak Bay by a score of 31-29 on a last minute convert following a try by Foster Dewitt to tie the game at 29 with about three minutes left in the final.
The win was the first for the Campbell River/Comox team at the British Columbia Rugby Union U18 provincial championship at Oak Bay’s Windsor Park Field.
The team’s coaches Darren Munro and Jim Ebert, along with Campbell River players Jackson Locker, Mack McNab and Montell Brown were in attendance at the Dec. 17 council meeting to be congratulated by the mayor.