I feel like a winner

Before I go any further, I think it is important to acknowledge some of the hard work done by my fellow coaches these past months. Peter, who runs the operation, is the best coach I have ever worked with or played under, and his commitment to the team is stupendous. Luke who does everything under the stars to make sure everything goes right, and in 3 years basically everything has gone right. Gary, who's knowledge and experience have been invaluable to a young group of athletes. And Benny and John, new/old additions this season who have been invaluable helping develop and assessing our younger players. Fantastic year gentlemen. OK, now that that is out of the way...

Who ever said winning isn't everything, hasn't lost a few times and then won again. Let me tell you something: even if winning isn't everything, it sure feels really good when you do win.

The Queen's Gaels Men's Varsity Rugby team, of which I am an assistant coach, beat the Western Mustangs in the OUA final last weekend. The game was awesome, as Queen's erased a second-half deficit of 9 points to win 23-19. Even more impressive was the final 5 minutes, played almost entirely within the 5m before the Queen's tryline and Western being denied on the last play of the game. The final series involved 13 consecutive phases, and a 23 second ruck before the whistle was blown. Pretty fantastic stuff. For Peter Hugenbois, our head coach, the victory represents something extra special. It is his first championship in his 6 years as head coach, and he played on the last Queen's team to win the championship in 2001. He got mobbed as the final whistle blew, and almost lost his glasses as a result.

Queen's allowed an early try off a handling mistake by Mike Wong Jr. (no actual relation to me... hence why we call him Jr.), who otherwise played a stellar game. A score by semi-import winger Scottie Kyle made it 5-7 a few minutes later. Western then responded with another try and convert to make the score 5-14. On the last play of the half, Graeme Dibden cross-kicked into the corner and after a fortunate bounce, Zack Pancer ran the ball in for another score. We missed the convert and went into half time down 10-14. Western scored at the 50 minute mark of the second half, and things looked momentarily grim for Queen's. However, Scottie Kyle, Mike Wong Jr., and in particular Chris Barrett were able to find multiple gaps and decimate the Western backline, with Barrett making 3 huge gains, 2 of which resulted in tries. With Queen's now up 23-10 (an early second half penalty was also slotted by Ryan Kryune) the name of the game was defence, highlighted by the final stand in the dying minutes of the game.

Basically it was a fantastic day with many supporters in the stands, including many current and past players, as well as other alumni, family and friends. Donna even made the trip down, and despite her lack of enthusiasm for most rugby games, could also be found on the field celebrating with everyone else. She commented on the excitement of the game. Almost too exciting for me.

For all those people who say winning isn't everything, here's what I think. Try working exceptionally hard for something. Devoting hours each and every day for months, competing against other people who have done the same thing. Then, at the very end, when you know that despite a perfect season, the quality of the group of people you have been working with, and the colossal amount of support you have received from dozens of people, that you have still have to work extra hard in order to be successful, you try telling me it wasn't worth it or that winning isn't important.

I gotta tell you. I felt pretty good this week.

Stay Frosty.

No Easter Bunny? No Problem

Well, I just had a pretty good Easter weekend, despite the Easter Bunny not being able to find my house. I was actually in Oshawa visiting Donna, so I can understand Mr. Bunny not getting the memo. However, somehow, someway, the Easter Bunny did manage to find Donna in Oshawa. Amazing that, huh?

I left Thursday night after practise. I guess I haven't mentioned this, but the Kingston Panthers have started practising again for the upcoming '08 season, and we have a new head coach: Grant Bradley. Really nice guy, very competitive, likes his fitness. Needless to say there has been a lot of running and core training at practise, and I am actually not complaining too much. My regular workouts have managed to keep me above the bottom of the fitness scale.

Anyway, it was nice to get down to Oshawa that night, so we could spend the whole day together on Friday and Saturday, before coming back on Sunday. On Friday, we decided to go out to the One of a Kind craft-fair. It's easily the biggest craft fair I have ever been to. Over 450 vendors selling everything you can imagine. It was almost like a giant department store. Seriously. Homemade gadgets, art, jewelery, food stuffs, clothes, accessories, you name it. All overpriced, but hey, what do you expect for one-of-a-kind things. We bought a giant spoon (one of those spoons you put on the stove to hold a spoon or spatula so the counter doesn't get messy. We also got some mashed potato seasoning - and at $10.00 for a 3 oz. container, it was such a deal. It actually does taste really good, and we thought we should leave with something. It took forever to get through it all (3.5 hours) but we managed.

On Saturday we started our day with a trip to the gym. I convinced Donna to do some weights, which might have been a mistake, because Donna was exhausted the rest of the day, but we had enough energy to go out and find me a new-used jacket. The rugby team is going to the Colour Awards Night here at Queen's celebrating varsity athletics. The team decided that they all wanted to match so everyone was supposed to acquire a Tweed sport coat. I managed to find something that will do at one of the local thrift shops. $10.00 for a jacket that actually fits me very well (Donna was surprised, thinking that there was no way another short fat guy would want to get rid of a jacket). Even the sleeves are the correct length.

Saturday night we went out for Chinese food to one of the local hole-in-the-walls that one of Donna's friends new about in Toronto (actually Scarborough). The food was delicious, but we would have never found the restaurant without directions. All Chinese menus, so it was a good thing she could order for us. Not sure what we would do next time if we went back, but I'm sure we could manage. After stuffing our faces, we went back to Oshawa... I needed to get a good night's sleep to prepare myself for dinners on Sunday.

I had 2 dinners planned for Easter Sunday. Pretty amazing since my family Easter Dinner was happening 5000km away. We headed into to Toronto to have dinner at Donna's cousins' house. It was delicious and early, which allowed me to recover before heading back to Kingston for dinner number 2. I had to head back early to get back in time for an early morning rugby practise. After dropping Donna off at her place in Oshawa, I carried on back to Kingston. I stopped in Shannonville, where I had courteously invited to the Follwell farm for Easter Dinner there. It was delicious. And a little chaotic. In addition to 4 of the Follwell family members, and myself, Pete and Morgan were also there (a little rugby reunion) as well as 4 dogs and a couple of cats. There was a little of noise, but it was a ton of fun.

Just trying to recover today. Thanks to the Queen's guys for the jersey. It fits nicely thanks to Tim's assumption that I am fatter than I think I am. Done all my chores, and now I think it's time to make some dinner.

More Queen's Rugby

Last weekend, we had a variety of games against various opponents. I took the 4th XV (actually 30ish guys) to Loyalist College in Belleville for a good, spirited match. We lost 24-12, and although you don't like to blame referees, our was seriously tragic, and he even admitted to me after the game that he made several serious mistakes that all resulted in either us not scoring points or the opposition scoring points. I was pretty angry and points and definitely frustrated because of his mistakes.

Saturday was a very different story however. The 1st XV beat Trent University 78-0... one of the largest wins in recent Queen's history. The seconds followed this up with a similarly convincing 60-10 victory over the visiting 1st XV from Syracuse University. Rounding out the day was another shut-out win by the Queen's 3rd XV against the Syracuse 2nd XV 39-0. Outscoring your opponents 177-10 is pretty impressive. Good for us. This week we have University of Toronto away against our 1st XV and the Ottawa 1st and 2nd XV coming to town to play our 2nd and 3rd XVs. Should be a good weekend.

And as if that wasn't enough rugby, I got up early Sunday to go to the gym and watch part of the Canada vs. Wales game on TV. I am missing the world cup, particularly since we don't have cable.

143 - 12... are you kiddin' me?

I am now in my second week of coaching at Queen's University, and so far everything is going peachy. We have stopped the 2-a-day practises, which is kinda nice because I don't feel like I am living at the field anymore, but its kinda bad because they are such a nice team to coach. They are mostly really hard working and well drilled players who all really like rugby. They are keen to learn and don't ask too many dumb questions. The other coaches are really excellent, and it has been a blast getting to know them.

Actually, it was nice to get to know a lot of the players as well after this last weekend. The top forty players from Queen's, plus 4 coaches, 2 trainers, and a video guy all went down to Hanover, NH for the Labour Day long weekend for a series of games against Dartmouth (Ivy League rich kids) and the US Military Academy (West Point Army bullies). McGill (mostly Frenchies from Montreal) also came down, but we didn't play them.

Getting ready for Dartmouth.

Pete "The Boss" Huigenbos

Manager and Assistant Coach Luke "Budso" Follwell helping Boss tell time.

Team Building the night before.

Let me start off by saying that Hanover is just one of those places that smells, or rather stinks, of money. Just by looking around you can tell that people who live there or go to school there have a lot of wealth. People who work in gas stations and such must get bussed in from out of town, because I don't think there is any way they could afford to live there. We left early Friday morning and after a 6 hour drive arrived without incident.

Saturday morning we left the motel (probably the seediest looking building in town, and it wasn't really that bad) after eating them out of house and home. I don't think they expected 40 hungry rugby boys for breakfast, or that those kind of guys don't really know the meaning of a continental breakfast, since they all kept eating until they were full. Most had toast, bagel, and muffin, fruit, cereal as well juice and/or coffee. It looked like locusts had gone through the dining area.

The rugby complex was nice. And by nice I mean some of the best fields I have ever seen. The fields were basically manicured lawns and the clubhouse/changing facility would not look out of place if it had been situated on 4 acres of property in the English Countryside as an estate for some rich aristocrat. Must be nice to have dedicated alums who leave tons of money when they pass on.

Even better than the facilities were the scores though. We played Dartmouth on Saturday, whom the 1st XV beat 32-0 and the 2nd XV beat 35-0. Although the games were sloppy and we could have put more points up had we been a little crisper, it was still a good day for us. After our matches we watched Army play McGill. That looked to be a much tougher match, as McGill looked to have more skill, but Army looked to be the bigger, harder working team. Dartmouth was nice enough to host us that night and it was nice to eat outside and enjoy the company. We had some difficulty going out that night to celebrate since there aren't really any cabs in Hanover, which is a little strange for a university town.

Solid rucking and body position against Dartmouth.

Smooth Lineout ball by Will Sorensen
Proper mouth guard usage demonstrated by Colin Alexander.

The 2nd XV against Dartmouth.

Mike Wong Jr., so proud.

Post-match recovery in the ice bath... very friendly if you ask me.

Hosting by the Dartmouth team on Saturday night.

After watching Army push around McGill the previous day, we knew they would be a tougher match. On Sunday morning however, Queen's showed what they were made of, coming out of the gates early and smashing the Army boys with vicious hits and straight ahead running. The Army guys packed it in early and lost 38-0 to the 1st XV after being beat at their own game. The 2nd XV also won by a wide margin, going 38-12. An excellent weekend of rugby all round, all the better since Queens came away undefeated.

Sean Duke about to bosh the Army winger.

Sweet lineout ball.

Jamie Armstrong at pace.

All in all it was a good trip. Sorry it took me so long to get this post done. There were a few bugs.