North Vancouver’s Lyric Atchison can do many great things on a rugby field – just don’t ask her what the score is.
“I don’t really keep track of the points in my head when we’re playing – I’m just playing,” she said with a laugh. It’s for that reason that Atchison has had a little delayed gratification following two big recent matches – the high school provincial championship game with Carson Graham in May and, just last week, a national championship final with the B.C. U18 team. When the final whistle blew in each game, Atchison wasn’t sure if her team had won or lost.
In both cases, Atchison turned to her coaches to get the good news: we won!
The latest win came with Atchison and fellow North Shore player Zoe DeFaveri helping Team B.C. rack up a 3-1 record at the national championships, topped off by an tense 8-5 win over the Prairie Wolfpack.
“It’s still kind of surprising,” Atchison said of becoming a national champion in her first try at a national rugby competition. B.C. and Ontario actually had identical 3-1 records but the West Coasters earned the title due to extra bonus points earned during the tournament – a tricky tie-breaking formula that only added to the confusion at the final whistle.
“We won the game but we thought we came second in the tournament,” said Atchison. “When we were waiting in line for the medal ceremony our coach told us that we actually won gold.”
When all the results were tallied British Columbia teams came away with three age-group national titles. Fellow Carson Graham student Christoph Stangl helped the B.C. U18 Boys claim Canadian supremacy with a perfect 4-0 record, outscoring their opponents 163-18.
At the U16 level the B.C. boys claimed gold, topping Alberta 31-24 in the final. North Shore players Jack Allen, Ryan Agyagos, Cameron Bruk, Liam Clark, Daniel Jacob, Luke Wooldridge and Willem Young all suited up for the B.C. squad.
B.C. also took home silver in the U16 girls tournament with North Shore players Hazel Bice and Mackenzie Mills hitting the pitch.
It’s an exciting time for the sport of rugby, with sevens making its Olympic debut earlier this month in Rio. It was all the more poignant for players like Atchison, who got to see Canadian women smash their way to bronze in the inaugural rugby sevens Olympic tournament.
“I think that women’s rugby is on the rise and I’m really excited about it,” she said. “I think it was really cool to see women represented so well, and Canada represented really well (in Rio). It was very exciting to think that I could do that one day.”
Atchison started playing soccer at a young age but when she arrived at Carson Graham for Grade 8 she decided she wanted to broaden her horizons and try new things.
Wrestling came first and she thrived on the mat – Atchison claimed gold at the Western Canada Summer Games last year, among other big wins – but it was rugby that grabbed her right from the start.
She loved it, even though she admits she knew next to nothing about the sport when she joined Brad Baker’s vaunted Carson Graham girls rugby program at the end of Grade 8.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” she said. “I didn’t actually realize that I was a forward, I actually had a specific job to do. The first two years were kind of me trying to figure out what to do. I’d say I didn’t really figure it out until last year.”
Atchison demonstrated her growing skill when she scored the game-winning try for Carson when they won the provincial title this spring, and she further proved her worth with Team B.C.
She knows what she’s supposed to do now, and one of her favourite things to do is tackle. Hard.
“I started playing soccer when I was five. I always thought soccer, that’s what I wanted to do – to represent Canada for soccer. This year I realized I didn’t really like it anymore and I wanted to pursue rugby as much as I could. I love it way more just because you get to be so much more physical. I have the ability to tackle someone.”
Even if Atchison doesn’t end up playing in an Olympic rugby tournament, the sport has grabbed her hard. The honours student, who is entering her Grade 12 year at Carson, has many options in front of her given her strong skills on the wrestling mat and rugby pitch, but the path in front of her is clear: she hopes to play university rugby after graduation.
“I love it. Wrestling is a great sport and it’s done a lot for me and I’ve had a lot of opportunities, but I just don’t love it the way I love rugby.”
