WATCH ABOVE: Try Sport is a program that introduces Preston area youth to sports not traditionally played within the community, and Tuesday was ruby. Global’s Ray Bradshaw reports.
CHERRYBROOK, N.S. – Since 2011, the North Preston RCMP Community Office has been developing Try Sport — a program that introduces Preston-area youth to sports that are not traditionally played within the community.
On Tuesday, the one-day clinic focused on rugby.
About 50 boys and girls between the ages of five and 15 attended the clinic, which was put on by the North Preston RCMP in conjunction with Jack Hanratty, the provincial coach at Rugby Nova Scotia.
“What we’re looking to do is getting people to know what the game of rugby is,” says Hanratty. “It’s still so new to Canada. What a lot of people don’t know is the Canadian women’s team finished second in the world’s last year. The Canadian men’s team just won a Pan-Am gold medal.”
Although they were being shown how to tackle, there’s no contact until the high school level.
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“We want to teach the passing skills, the evasion skills, the bit of speed about the game as opposed to the physical orientation,” said Hanratty.
RCMP Cpl. Kwabby Oppong says the goal is to create a good relationship with the youth.
“It’s an opportunity for us to interact with them in a different environment than we normally do when we’re in uniform and for them to see us in a different light and just for us to try to get to know each other a little bit better.”
Oppong says the RCMP want to introduce other sports because not everyone excels in basketball or football.
“It’s just an opportunity to introduce the youth to something different and maybe we’ll end up getting one of the new national team stars out here,” he said.
June Beals took up the game last spring and played for Cole Harbour High and was recruited by national CIS champion St. Francis Xavier. Beals hopes these young players enjoy the game, like her.
“Hopefully they start and continue it,” said Beals. “This is great. I wish they had this when I was younger. I would have started earlier.”
The boys and girls all seemed to be enjoying rugby.
“It’s fun, it’s challenging,” said one boy playing rugby for the first time.
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