Written by Clayton Daum:
Since our return to classes after Spring Break the Bolton Boys have been busy in their classrooms learning new and exciting things, preparing for AP exams and building the skills they need to succeed as the year comes to a close.
Out of the classroom they have also been very busy in a variety of extra-curricular activities ranging from 1st XV rugby to track and field and from cricket and rowing to a variety of intramurals.
Our 5 first 15 players along with and David P an honorary Boton bud.
A full third of the starting team for the rugby 1st XV is represented by Bolton; Mark, Dawit, Clarence, Matt and David. These boys have been training hard since Christmas and it is showing, as they remain undefeated through three weeks of regular season games. Of special note was the recent Boot game played against cross-town rival Oak Bay. This game has been played for decades and represents some of the highest quality rugby to be found in BC at the high school level. The seniors won a very tough match 10-5, under cloudy skies with blustery winds, bringing the boot home for the first time since 2010. Dawit kicked for 5 points which proved to be the difference and the other Boltonites were fierce defenders and aggressive when they had the ball in hand. Needless to say we are extremely proud of our boys. This week they play Reynolds and then travel to Vancouver for a very important game against Collingwood.
The junior and grade 9 teams are also overflowing with Boltonites; Diego, Ted, Artem, Timmy, Hugh, Mehrab and Dimitri. All these players have done a wonderful job so far this season and like the 1st XV both of these teams remain undefeated. In the Junior Boot game SMUS was dominant and defeated the Bays 41-24 and continue their winning streak. This week both teams play Brentwood at home and then the junior team travels to Vancouver to play Collingwood while the grade 9 team takes on Cowichan at SMUS.
On the track, Gabe is putting his running skills to the test and finished 5th in a very tough heat of 3,000m runners. He is looking forward to more races at that distance as well as at the 1,500 and 800m distances. Jeffrey, Vincent, Alex, Matthew and Chris join him and the 4x100m relay of Gabe, Alex and Chris did very well.
Out on the water John, Max and Ryley continue to impress and improve on the SMUS Crew, winning a number of medals in last weekend’s regatta. John came away with two 3rd place medals in a quad and eight race while Max won a gold and bronze in quad and 8 respectively. Ryley came home with gold in the Senior 8.
Michael is busy in the gym with the badminton team who beat Claremont, their main competition, handily last week and prepare to host Mt. Doug this week.
On the cricket pitch Chris and Stefan are the lone representatives of the house, but are making us very proud as they don their finest whites and bowl away. The season is just beginning, but we have high hopes for the team as they compete in a very competitive league of school and club teams.
Jerry is busy on the soccer pitch trying out and playing for a high level squad in the community and has been doing very well making the cut into the final round of try outs.
The grade 8 rugby team has both Eugenio and Jose, the latter doing double duty on the track team.
The rest of the boys are busy at least twice a week in the evenings playing everything from basketball, badminton and indoor soccer to lifting weights, finding zen through yoga or breaking it down in hip hop class. Rest assured these boys are busy and active and should be commended for their willingness to put in the time and effort to keep fit and have fun.
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