Coyote varsity girls to lean on leadership

By Lethbridge Herald on April 10, 2025.

Herald photo by Justin Seward A group of Chinook Coyotes varsity girls rugby players hover around a couple of Matthew Halton players during a game at Chinook on Wednesday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Chinook Coyotes varsity girls rugby team started a new season this week with a focus of how their Grade 12 leadership group will guide their team.

“Really a step-up in leadership,” said Alaya French, Coyotes head coach on this year’s focus.

“Last year we were lacking a little bit of leadership from our Grade 12s, we only had a few, but this year our Grade 12s almost make up our entire senior team. Like there’s 15 of them and I really just wanted every single one of them to be a leader on the team, to motivate each other and to really bring each other up.”

French said it’s going to be magical, when asked how much that Grade 12s is going to help on the field.

“Most of these girls had been playing together for the last four years,” said French.

“So they have really good communication, really good ties and they really have a good sense of how each other plays and how to support each other. “

A majority of this year’s Grade 12s played last year in Grade 11 and French spoke about how that development helped those players this year.

“I think last year they were kind of forced into leadership roles,” said French.

“So this year they were just way more prepared for it because they kind of had to step up last year, and this year it’s just a natural piece of what they’ve already been doing.”

French says scrums are one of the Coyotes best attributes.

“I predict that going forward, game after game, we’re gonna be stealing a lot of scrums,” said French.

When a team steals in a scrum, it means they are not the one in a scrum situation feeding the ball but rather the one that ends up winning the possession of the ball.

“It takes the pressure off  all of our backs,” said French.

“Like knock-ons(when the ball goes  in a forward  direction after possession is lost by a player) don’t even matter and territory wise, if we end up making mistakes in the red zone, we can turn the ball back over just as easily.”