Merritt rugby star headin’ to Las Vegas
A little over a week from now, 17-year-old Emma Graham will be packing her bags and heading to Las Vegas.
Not exactly the plans you would expect of a grade 12 honors student halfway through her graduating year at Merritt Secondary School.
Graham is one of just 11 players chosen to play for the BC Banshees at the Vegas International Seven-Aside Rugby Invitational, running from Feb. 8-12 in the famous Nevada city.
The Vegas Interna-tional is one of the largest rugby tournaments in the world, with over 200 teams expected this year to compete in a multitude of men’s, women’s and youth divisions.
Graham comes by her selection to participate in the prestigious Vegas event honestly. A star player with the MSS Panthers girls’ rugby team that placed sixth at Provincials in June, she was also one of four Pantherss who helped the Vancouver Wave place second at the BC Rugby Provincial Regional Championships in July.
Graham capped off her brilliant season by helping Team BC’s U-18 women’s squad win silver at the National Rugby Festival in Calgary, AB in August.
Most of the Banshees’ squad headed to Vegas next week is comprised of players from those U-18 and Wave teams that Graham was a member of last summer. Four of the players are from the Lower Mainland, while seven hail from various parts of the Interior.
“That really helps,” says Graham. “We all know each other, and have played together.”
That said, this will be Graham’s first real experience with seven-aside rugby. Normally, she participates in the more-traditional 15-aside game.
“Yeah, I’m a bit nervous,” she concedes, “but I think I’ll catch on pretty quick. Sevens is big in Vancouver, so I think most of the girls down there have played quite a bit. But the rest of the girls from the Interior, I’m not so sure.”
Graham was supposed to have travelled to the Coast these last two weekends for practices, but the first session was canceled because of poor weather and road conditions. Last weekend, Graham was busy curling in the Okanagan high school championships with her MSS rink. She managed to get to one training session on Sunday.
The Banshees are coached by Julia Sugawara. “She’s a really phenomenal rugby player who played for Canada’s U-20 team,” says Graham.. “She’s just one of those incredible people willing to put in the time and help us out.”
While in Vegas, Gra-ham and her teammates will also get to take in some of the action at the HSBC Sevens World Series which brings together teams from the top 16 rugby nations in the world.
The World Series makes nine stops around the globe between November, 2011 and May, 2012 in places like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan and England.
When Graham re-turns from Vegas, she will resume pre-season training with her Panther teammates for this year’s high school season.
The hugely-successful MSS girls’ rugby program is in a transition year with the departure of long-time head coach Sue Kabatoff. Taking over the helm is Molly Brigden, with assistance from Heidi Anderson.
“I believe that there’s only going to be four grade twelves on the team this year,” says Graham, “and just a couple of grade elevens. There are lots of grade nines out. It’s looking like we’ll have a lot of fun.”
No doubt Graham is thinking much the same about her upcoming trip to Vegas.
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