Hi, my name’s Amelia. I’m 15, I was born in Perth, Ontario, and I have a family of six. I’ve got three siblings, Jimmy, Danny, and Evy and I’m the oldest. Right now my life consists of going to school, doing homework, training for all my rugby, hanging out with friends, and eating and sleeping. Rugby is the main focus in my life and I have many goals that I am trying to reach in the sport. The very first sport I fell in love with was rock climbing, I haven’t done it in forever because rugby kind of takes over but I’d like to continue with the sport for fun in my free time. Before sports I used to want to be an artist, that isn’t something I’m interested in anymore but I continue to do it as a hobby. I have a very busy household, we have a small house with only one bathroom between the six of us meaning it can sometimes be pretty crowded. On top of that we also own two cats and a dog.
Courage is being afraid, but going for it anyway… My brothers were the first kids in our family to play rugby, and my dad had played when he was younger in England. When we moved from Ontario and came here my dad found a local club to join, the Castaway Wanderers Rugby Football Club. It was perfect for them, there were three different men’s teams for my dad to play on and a great mini’s team for my brothers to join. The rugby club got us way more involved in the community and it was an instant group of new friends for our family. For years and years every Sunday we would head down to Windsor park and I would stand on the sidelines watching my brothers play. Every now and then my dad would throw out the idea of me joining rugby to which I would always decline. From my point of view I would never be able to play rugby, I was a tiny, skronny, little kid who was all skin and bone. There was no way a kid like me could ever compete with boys in a full contact sport. Eventually, after the years of standing on the sidelines in the cold watching my brothers having a blast playing this sport I ended up asking my dad if I could maybe join in. That first time I stepped on the pitch I was so nervous, I was the only girl on that team, I had never played before, and I didn’t know the rules. Despite all the anxiety I was feeling that first game I played was some of the most fun I had ever had, and after that first game I have never missed an opportunity to get on the pitch since.
The summer of my grade 8 year I tried out for the 16 women Tide team, making the team was easy since not enough people showed up for tryouts and we all made it. But to me making this team was not what was important,what was important was making the rep team and going to PRC’s was my second try out to make the BC u16 team. I was only in grade 8 and I was smaller than most so in order for me to get an invite I’d have to really impress the BC coaches. Since we thought that the open tryouts in the fall were just a good way for me to get my name out there and on the radar and that there was no way I would actually make the team my parents had planned a trip to Hawaii for our first family vacation. Being the kind of person I am I would choose playing rugby for BC over going to Hawaii any day. In my eyes Hawaii will always be there but the opportunity to represent my province will not. After PRC’s I waited patiently and anxiously for I don’t even know how long to hopefully get the email inviting me to tryout for BC. When I did I was filled and over whelmed with joy, I had never been more happy. I spent as much time as I could preparing for the tryout. I kept getting constant reminders suggesting I don’t get my hopes up too high since I was only in grade 8 and i would always have next year. Since my dad had a vacation planned and would need to cancel a plane ticket if I made the team he was trying to get the information out of the head coach a little sooner than when the emails were meant to come out announcing who made it. Other parents had tried to do the same thing, all unsuccessful. Well my dad just so happened to pick the perfect moment and in the midst of him trying to persuade her she just goes and says “cancel the flight.” When we got into the car I had to keep to myself since I had another teammate in the car with me who didn’t know if she was on the team yet. But that feeling I had was just so amazing full of excitement and joy I couldn’t wait to be going to Ontario with my team.
Finally I’m going to talk about my summer experience going to Toronto and competing in nationals. Last year the only competition for BC was Ontario so all that happened was we went to Ottawa played 2 games, won both, and then basically flew back home. Needless to say it was still an awesome experience but it would have been nicer to have more competition. This year there was more competition, we were going to Toronto and so were New Brunswick, Alberta, and of course Ontario. This was my second year playing on u16 BC, and there were a lot of other girls playing their second year as well but most of them were going into grade eleven. Our first game was against Alberta and when we arrived at the pitch it was pissing rain. We were all waiting in the change room before we had to go out and warm up, they had already announced the starting line up in the morning so we all knew who was playing what, I was starting scrumhalf. We were all in the change room when the coaches came in to announce the captain, I had assumed it would be one of the girls who were playing their last year in the u16 program, everyone assumed it would be. You can imagine my surprise to hear my name called out when they announced the captain. We played 5 games in total and went totally undefeated until the very last game. We ended up losing to Ontario 17-10, that was a game that will always linger in all of our minds. We should have won that game and we knew it, so many players had gotten cocky and were playing selfish. We didn’t play as a team but we lost as a team and as individuals. I’ll always have amazing memories from that trip but I’ll never be able to forget than game and the thought of it will always be in the back of my mind.
To conclude, what you probably got out of this was that I really like playing rugby and that I play it a lot. For me rugby is the most amazing sport because it can teach you so many valuable lessons, it’s a tough game to play, your’e going to get knocked down but you have to make the decision to get back up and keep going, and there are very few sports were you can be playing a team and beating the shit out of each other for 80 minutes and have a deep hatred for the opposition and then once the game is over you can hang out and are best friends despite how the game went. The life experiences rugby has given me as well as all the memories are things that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Amelia Gordon 