Saint John Trojan Rugby Club celebrates 100 years on the field

For a century, there has been one constant at the Saint John Trojan Rugby Football Club: family.

The team was founded in 1923 and has continued the tradition of the game across several generations. It calls the Hazen-White-St. Francis School field its home, where it is also building the Trojan House Community Centre.

Emma Sooley, a youth player with SJTRFC, said she was told she watched her first game as a toddler of about two years old and has been hooked ever since.

She loves the physicality of the game.

“I definitely like the community around it. I’ve made some of my best friends here,” she said in an interview on Saturday. “Ones who’ve gone to university now, I still see every day.”

Her father also played for the team and is the vice-president in the club’s executive. Chad Sooley has had many roles within the team.

“Rugby culture is family,” he said.

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Sooley said he lost his mother this past week and the overwhelming number of former club members reaching out both far and near really showed him how special the team is.

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“It comes back to that family aspect of it,” Sooley said. “It is one of those things where at your lowest, you’ve got people who will pick you up, and they’re also there when you’re at your highest. They bring you down to earth if you need.”

Over the course of the weekend, the team will host various events including an awards dinner to mark the 100-year anniversary.

But it wasn’t just current players who came out Sunday. It was also players like John Simon, who left the team around 2010.

Simon said for him, the game is unlike others and his personal favourite.

“I think it’s about the comradery, the battling on the field. You fight really hard on the field, and (to win) the game, but after the game, you go out with the team every time, buy a beer for your opposite. It’s all about respect,” he said.

Cathy Simon, who used to be the team’s physiotherapist, said the team is like family. “Our relationship with each other, friends that have been hanging out, and it just happens to have rugby involved.”

The team is building the Trojan House Community Centre to continue to foster its rugby family and serve the broader community.