The PECI Junior Girls Rugby team is the best in the Bay of Quinte Athletic Association.

The team defeated St. Paul Catholic Secondary School 33-5 in the semi-final, and Centennial Secondary School 36-5 in the gold medal game to cap the most successful Bay of Quinte finals in the history of the program. The win follows the Senior Girls Bronze Medal victory on the same day.

“I believe this is the single most successful Bay of Quinte Rugby Championship day for PECI ever, capturing 1st and 3rd place, it’s years of program building and hard work that have paid off,” said coach Doug Holt.  

The juniors overcame a loss to Centennial earlier in the season en route to their gold. Like their senior counterparts, they had to do it with fewer than 20 players on their roster. In a sport which has 15 players on either side of the ball at all times, playing short is no small task.

“This is an attritional and tough sport, so to see these athletes rise to the occasion and play when it’s hard, it hurts and it would be easy to quit, that’s just an impressive thing to see,” Mr. Holt said. “The junior performance on the day was spectacular. Seemed like our girls were composed and ready to win from the get go.” 

Holt credits leaders on the junior team, such as Flyhalf Hartley Wallach, Scrumhalf Emersyn Bedore, 8-Man Mylee Graham and Inside Centre Jorja Dubyk-Foster. These four set the tone for the entire squad. Gemma Babcock and Lyla Lavender meanwhile, put the rest of the teams in the Bay of Quinte on notice by setting the physical tone. First year. 

“Props to Gemma and Lyla, making huge tackles, dominant runs and blowing people up in the rucks,” Holt said. 

Gaby Conley also drew the attention of the coaching staff in the finals, as she had what Holt called her best weekend. When the final whistle blew, all of the Junior Panthers had made a contribution to the dominant victory. 

“Overall, just one of the most impressive, composed, gritty and dominant performances I’ve seen in my twelve years of coaching rugby,” said the coach.

Following the Bay of Quinte Finals, both the Sr. Girls and Jr. Girls programs were invited to the Central Ontario Secondary School Association Championships. 

The smaller rosters have not stopped Holt and the rest of the coaches at PECI from building two successful programs with post secondary pedigree. They boast alumni like Drew Spencer, who plays at Queen’s University, Kate Cowan, now at Bishop’s University, Abi Childerhose of St. Lawrence College, and Quinn Middleton, in Loyalist College’s 7s program.

“This is just a testament to our program. The culture starts with our senior leaders, who learned it from alumni. It’s a humbling and cool experience to see what the alumni built, the seniors taught, and the juniors learned all come together,” Mr. Holt says.