Tommies rookie a big hit

Chuck Brown/Courier

Colleen Harrington, 18, of St. Stephen, has cracked the lineup of the women’s provincial Under-19 team that will compete for a national championship in Ottawa next month.


Former Spartan makes impact at STU, joins provincial team for national tourney

By CHUCK BROWN
editor@stcroixcourier.ca

ST. STEPHEN – Seven years ago Colleen Harrington was among the first group of St. Stephen girls to try the sport of rugby.
At the time the game was a middle school after-school activity and it was completely new – not at all like soccer and only a little like football with weird position names like flanker and hooker and scrum half.
Harrington and a core of players connected instantly with the rough-and-tumble game, growing with the girls program into the high school ranks. Harrington, 18, played with the St. Stephen Spartans through her four years of high school and, in the key position of scrum half, helped establish the team as a force in the province. They never won a title but they were and are always in the hunt.
Harrington is now coming off a rookie-of-the-year season playing for St. Thomas University where she’s working on an environmental economics degree. She made a strong impression with STU and gives all the credit to the early coaching she got in St. Stephen.
“I think our high school coaches taught us really well,” said Harrington, home for the summer and lifeguarding at the Milltown pool.
“They prepared me really well.”
She had low expectations in her first year at university and expected her days in the spotlight would be at least temporarily on hold. But she said her coaches made it clear early in the season that age and experience meant nothing and that playing time would go to those who performed.
“I didn’t think I’d play at all,” Harrington said.
She said playing at the university level is a whole new game but she’s adjusted.
“I was intimidated at first. The girls were a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger,” she said.
Harrington helped the Tommies win their first ever Atlantic Colleges Athletic Association women’s rugby title last season, kicking a convert after the game’s only try in a 7-0 win over the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. She was named an all-conference all-star after the Tommies’ finished the season 5-1.
This summer, Harrington is focusing on New Brunswick’s Under-19 women’s team, made up mostly of players from the Saint John area. They’re practicing out of Belleisle – the rugby capital of the province – and playing tournaments and exhibitions to tune up for the nationals from Aug. 18 to Aug. 24 in Ottawa.
Harrington said the provincial team played its first game together in the Saint John Trojans’ tournament two weeks ago and ended up winning it all. Last weekend they traveled to Prince Edward Island to play in the Eastern Canadian Championship against teams from Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. New Brunswick finished second after going five years without cracking the top three.
“We’re very excited,” Harrington said of the team’s momentum heading into the national tournament.
She said the competition will be tough and New Brunswick will face provinces with larger populations to draw from including Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. But while New Brunswick is often happy to win one game at the nationals, Harrington said the team is confident this year.
“We’re ready. We want to win,” she said.
Harrington and her teammates are currently selling advertising in the Telegraph-Journal newspaper as a fundraiser. They’re also selling raffle tickets to help cover the $2,000 per player expense.
She also plans to bring some of her ever-expanding rugby knowledge back to St. Stephen. Harrington was back on the field with the Spartans last spring, when her college classes were finished, working with the girls as much as she could.
“I learned so much with the STU team from the players and the coaches,” she said, adding that she wants to give something back to the Spartans, a team she said she’ll always feel she’s a part of.