ATHABASCA – The Edwin Parr Predators rugby sevens team is headed to provincials after going undefeated on their home field during the May 14 zones qualifying tournament.
It’s been a bumpy road for the Preds team, which is in its third year of existence. Started by RCMP constable David McLenaghan and EPC athletic director Derek West, the team didn’t win a single game in its inaugural season but a core group of players stuck with it.
“It was great to come this far after our rough start, and to still have some of the boys from that first year here is awesome,” said Wyatt McKinnon, a Grade 11 student and co-captain for the squad.
The squad's provincial dreams very nearly fell short — they beat Drayton Valley by one in a 15-14 win that saw EPC score on the last play of the game after a lengthy injury delay halted play for over 20 minutes.
“There’s lots of pressure on to make that last try, get around, see the field,” said Sean Ings, another Grade 11 student.
Despite the pressure, the players went out and did exactly what they needed to do; scrum-half Alfie Wigham got the ball out of the scrum, passed it to Ings on the outside. One fake and an all-out sprint to the corner later, and EPC was on top.
“This is what we worked for the whole season, everything has led up to it for the past three years,” said Jake Safar.
“Everything led up to that game, it was the deciding game.”
The Preds were down 14-5 at halftime — sevens scoring is similar to football, with a try worth five points and the conversion kick worth two — but rallied back in the last seven minutes of play.
An early score was nearly followed up by a second , but Drayton Valley was able to hold the line and win the ball back. As time ticked down, McKinnon said their focus was on keeping the nerves at bay and keeping their heads up.
“We knew we could win if we played good, so it was just getting into the right headspace and playing hard for the last minute that we had,” he said.
“There’s a lot of getting those jitters out; coming into the second half it was, ‘Okay we’re down, but we’re going to make this happen. We’re not going to let them keep us down, we’re going to come up and go above.’”
The final details for the provincial tournament haven’t been announced yet, but the Predators will be representing the north zone, which included teams from Morinville, Edson, Drayton Valley, and Devon.
