Conor Sinclair is hoping to make his mark on the provincial rugby scene, and he’s well on his way after making the U14 provincial rugby squad this summer.
Sinclair, a student entering Grade 9 in the fall, is already playing with the Mount Baker rugby squad, and returned from Victoria this past weekend, where he participated in a sevens rugby tournament.
All players on the U14 provincial team were asked to play for their respective regions, but since the Kootenay zone doesn’t have a team, Sinclair was shuffled between Delta, Vancouver and the North Shore.
Sinclair put his skills to work, scoring a few tries over the span of 10 games with different teams while playing different positions of prop, hooker and centre.
“It was really fun. We got down there, played a bunch of games—about 10 games and we had our first two, we played for the Delta team, the next ones we played for North Shore and Vancouver,” said Sinclair.
“I didn’t feel out of the mix, but I don’t think I was the top contender, cause I’ve never played sevens before. I felt in it, but I didn’t feel out of it. We weren’t the the best, but we were pretty good for a 15’s team.”
Sinclair managed to earn his spot on the U14 provincial squad after attending a camp a few weeks ago and doing enough to impress the coaches while battling through an injury.
“It was really cool, we had to drive all the way down to Vancouver so that wasn’t the funnest part,” said Sinclair, “but we got there—all great kids, coaches were awesome, played a couple games and they evaluated how you played, what skills you have, what position you played and then they emailed you later.”
Sinclair will get a bit of a break before he heads back down to Vancouver in the beginning of August for another rugby tournament.
He’ll stay with some billets and train with the team until the UBC dorm rooms become available, where he will reside with the team for the duration of the event.