Griffins to rely on Grade 12 returnees for leadership

By Lethbridge Herald on April 5, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Winston Churchill Griffins senior girls rugby team have a lot of new players on the roster this season that will try and gel together to defend the team’s provincial championship from a year ago.

“We’re kind of focusing on just getting them some good game time and really keying on the strength that we have coming out of last year in Jayda Morrison and Andi Neudorf,” said Griffins co-coach Shannon Court.

“They’re Grade 12s this year and Jayda Morrison (has) currently just signed with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns and so she’ll be playing our fly half position most likely and then we have Andi Neudorf who is going to be our strength in our forwards.”

In referring to those players, Court said they’re very consistent players and they’re strength is in they lead by example.

“So they’re calm and they are just consistently excellent all the time,” said Court.

“Like honestly, they don’t give up (and) they don’t get over their heads. Like Jayda Morrison,, last year, (and) the reason we got to the provincial final, is she clutched a penalty kick in the last like five minutes to get us ahead of the team that we were playing in the semi-finals, and that’s actually pretty hard when you’re in Grade 11 in the first year of getting back after COVID. So that’s kind of  the leadership  that we’re looking (for) from them is just that consistent, working hard (and) leading by example.”

The Griffins are returning 11 of 25 players from last year.

“I wish I could say that we’ve had some clever ways,” said Court.

“But basically it’s just been, ‘Hey do you remember how to play rugby?’ … So honestly it’s getting back to the basics now (and) can we get our confidence level up with the basics. And then we can start putting together a little bit more creativity based off of where our strengths are because our strengths are definitely going to change from last year and so that’s kind of it.”

The Griffins game against LCI on Wednesday was postponed, but when the season does start there will be excitement and nerves 

“I think the team is more excited,” said Court.

“The coaches are excited, we’re just more nervous. When we look at compared to last year, last year we had only 12 players that had played before, period. And this year, even though we have 11 returning, we have on our senior roster right now … approximately 23 that have played before in rugby. So it’s nice to come in with some at least experience of at least they know what the game looks like.”