TASSS sweeps COSSA rugby titles
Griffins senior, junior boys join the senior, junior girls as champs
Thomas A. Stewart Griffins rugby teams have dominated the COSSA AAA loop in 2018.
The senior and junior boys Griffins won COSSA titles on Wednesday to go with COSSA crowns won by the junior and senior Griffins girls teams in the fall.
The senior girls will play at OFSAA in Mississauga from Monday through Wednesday while the boys head to OFSAA in London Thursday through Saturday.
The senior boys won emphatically crushing Belleville’s Bayside 46-0 in the final at Nicholls Oval.
“it’s really nice to have success,” said Griffins coach Jeff Challice.
“It’s hard. It’s not something that comes around a lot so when you do win it’s really nice and it’s important for the guys to realize this is not something that happens to everyone all the time.”
Kal Sager recorded three tries, Braden Bruce two with singles to Mark Nicolson, Alex Zajac and Connor Ferguson. Zajac and Sager shared in the three converts.
It was the Griffins’ first COSSA senior boys rugby title in eight years.
“It’s really exciting, for sure,” said Nicolson. “We have a couple of Grade 13s on our team who haven’t won all the way through high school so it was exciting for them. It’s just great to bring another COSSA medal win for our school. We’ve definitely kicked it up a notch. The last 10 or 15 years we haven’t been known for a lot of sports. We’ve been known as the arts school. With good coaches like Vik Kulla and Jeff Challice we’ve definitely kicked it up a notch.”
Kulla said they’re blessed with a talented group of athletes particularly a group of Grade 11 students who started the trend as juniors.
“They’re a good group of guys who really play well together and seem to enjoy playing with each other,” Kulla said. “They’re something to watch. They just want to get better all the time and as coaches we push them. We’re down to about 20 guys but they work hard and it’s good to see hard work rewarded.”
“We had a lot of Grade 11s who came up who had a very successful season last year,” Challice said. “Nobody really thought we’d be that good because we were young but all those kids stepped up and we had some returning seniors who were great leaders for them.”
The Griffins reached the final by beating Trenton 44-5 in the semifinals.
The Griffins juniors also won in decisive fashion. They beat Trenton 44-8 in the final after a 34-0 win over Bayside in the semis.
Kawartha teams also dominated the COSSA AA championships in Belleville on Wednesday.
The Adam Scott Lions won the junior title beating Cobourg’s St. Mary’s Thunder 22-12 in the final. The Lions pounded Nicholson 43-10 in the semifinals while St. Mary beat Centennial 27-19 in overtime.
St. Mary’s turned the table in the senior final beating Adam Scott 35-12. The Lions beat Centennial 22-0 in the semifinals and St. Mary defeated Quinte 50-0.