Cougars capture provincial championship

By Lethbridge Herald on May 26, 2025.

Submitted photo The Catholic Central Cougars senior boys Rugby7s team pose with the provincial banner.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Catholic Central Cougars Rugby 7s senior boys team finished off a perfect season with a 17-0 record after capturing the 4A Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association provincial championship over the weekend in Edmonton.

The Cougars edged Archbishop O’Leary 19-17 in the final and had to comeback in the dying seconds of the game to win.

“It was a photo finish for us,” said  RJ Balog, Cougars head coach

“We had the ball, we continued to march the  field, one of our guys broke through (and) got a try to tie the game and then our captain, Tytus Prawdzik, kicked a conversion for two extra points (and) put us ahead by two and that was the final play of the game.”

The third time was a charm for Cougars to win provincial gold as this was their third straight trip to the provincial championship after winning bronze in the two previous seasons.

“It was (an) incredible weekend and I feel very  proud for these boys,” said Balog.

“All of their hard work and … dedication all year came to fruition here at the end.”

What led to the Cougars success was their display of grit.

“The boys never gave up,” said Balog.

“We never scored first; we were always scored on but our boys know that 7s changes fast and they never let themselves down and just kept getting back up and pushing.”

The Cougars goal was to get back to provincials and compete but didn’t want to set the standards too high of winning gold right away.

“As the season progressed it was lurking in the back there but we didn’t want to set our sights too high or get over confident, so we just tried to take it one game at a time and … just keep building,” said Barlog.

CCH also beat WH Croxford 26-14, O’Leary the first time 31-10, Lloydminster 24-5 and Charles Spencer 27-5 at provincials.