By Robb Fenton
The weather certainly didn’t stop the Westridge minis from showing their skills this past Saturday, as the Reapers held their minis wrap up at E.S. Laird.
The program, which usually has over 50 young rugby players, had slightly fewer numbers, but overall the program has been great since its beginning.
“Regarding the weather, we would have liked a few more numbers for the final day, but it’s the last week of school, people are at the lake and things like that, so the numbers have been up this year – probably double or triple from last year,” Reapers president Shaine Wald said. “We have 55 to 60 kids usually on a regular night, so the program has just taken off huge this year.”
With a successful men’s team, women’s team and now a Division 2 team, the logical step for the Reapers organization was to include the younger kids and build up the future of the sport in the area.
That was their plan and it is working almost perfectly at this point.
“To be a successful club we said a long time when we started that we needed a men’s program, a women’s program, a junior and a minis program. We’ve finally grown the last step, something we would call a huge success and that’s our minis program,” Wald said after taking a break from his small scrimmage. “Last year we started it off and we only had about 20 kids and it was mostly family and friends, whereas this year, so many more people have heard about it and brought their kids out.”
Wald said it’s great to see all the kids with big smiles and taking part in the sport.
There are so many benefits to playing rugby, that Wald feels is a big reason kids join.
“You look around and every kid is always running, every kid is involved in the play, it’s just a fabulous sport for young kids to play,” he said. “We start them at under-5 and they’re hilarious. They run with the ball, they try the hardest and they are the funnest to watch. As the steps get older, the under-7s, the under-12s, you can see the skill growing and getting better and better with each age group. Hopefully now we have a feeder system into the junior highs and the high school.”
The Reapers are hoping to add two more teams to the organization, which will continue the progression of the club.
“Hopefully after next year, be able to supply an under-16 and an under-18 team in Lloydminster that will play Saskatoon teams,” he said. “It’s a huge step. Seeing the youth like this and everyone out is awesome.”
With the sport becoming more popular almost every day, Wald is hoping that will translate to more teams, more interest and secure the future of the Reapers senior teams.
“It’s just going to grow and grow and right now the rate that we are growing, with the new field and clubhouse and all the work we’ve done, we’re starting to see the numbers and our sport is growing every year,” he said.
One of the reason the Reapers exist and a big reason for their success is the support from the community and the sponsorship they receive.
To go along with the main senior team sponsors, Westridge GMC has signed on to support the minis program, a huge help according to Wald.
“We’ve always had great support from our sponsors. Whether it is Accurate Machining, CJS, Redhead and now it continues down to the Westridge minis. Westridge has always been a sponsor of the Reapers, just not to this extent. But this year, they’ve seen how the sport has grown and like what we’ve done with it,” he said. “They were more than happy to step up and sponsor the minis this year, so a huge thanks goes out to them. Anything someone gives to our team, we’re going to push their name and do anything we can for them, so a huge thank you to Westridge. We’re glad they are a part of our Reaper family.”