Rothesay Netherwood School ready to celebrate 30th year of RugbyFest

There is something about April at Rothesay Netherwood School (RNS) that makes it different from other schools. It is not because spring has begun or the snow is finally gone. No, it is something else entirely. People love the site of cars coming up College Hill Road on RugbyFest Friday, the hundreds of volunteers directing traffic and looking after the campus, the sites of the players warming up and the smell of fresh air and rugby. It is an amazing scene that has electrified many who have come to love rugby over the past 30 years.

RugbyFest began in 1989 with only a handful of teams, and now has ballooned to 46 spread across female and male divisions of 7s rugby and the full 15-aside match. Throughout the past three decades, it has had a tremendous and lasting impact on many students of RNS and has helped develop a love for this misunderstood game. “My first RugbyFest was the introduction to rugby I didn’t know I needed. After one weekend I fell in love with the sport, and our team quickly developed a level of camaraderie that could only come with hard fought hours spent together on the field. I’ve been fortunate enough to make it back a couple of times to watch, and I still get goosebumps every time the boys start the “I Feel The Winds of God” chant” (Hayden Atkinson, 2010). Their voices are etched in the minds of many students, parents and alumni.

RugbyFest is the beginning of the end of the school year. It is a right of passage for many students and helps usher in the upcoming graduation for the prefects of RNS. It’s meaning cannot be summed up in a brief article because it means so much to so many different people. "Rugbyfest means different things to different people. To everyone on the team, it is the opening salvo to our favourite sports season. To others it means that Winter is officially over and the final stretch to graduation in June begins. Almost everyone can agree that it is a cultural event in our RNS community and it is intertwined into the DNA of the school. It's a time where we come together as a community and cheer on our friends and classmates as they kick off the final chapter of the school year” (Vivek Prabhu, 2009) and the push until graduation.

RugbyFest has meaning beyond the Hill of RNS. RugbyFest attracts teams from as far away as Alberta and teams from all over the Maritime provinces need to apply to

gain entrance each year. The tournament has played host to three players who have gone on to represent and play for Team Canada, the first two playing in World Cup events; Chauncey O’Toole of Belleisle, Jebb Sinclair of Fredericton and Cole Keith of Sussex. Not bad for our small little school.

As Championship Sunday comes to an end, and after the winning teams each receive their trophy or banner, there will be a Senior Women Spruce Super League game between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia before the volunteers become busy cleaning campus. It is a different feeling watching the cars leave campus. It is sad to know that RugbyFest has ended for another year, but we can all look forward to next April when we get to experience this incredible event again!