The three-peat would be sweet but the Reynolds Roadrunners will have to wait for that.
The Colonist Cup high school boys’ soccer championship game between the Roadrunners and Claremont Spartans, scheduled for Tuesday night at UVic, was postponed.
“The game will be postponed until further notice. Reynolds Secondary School is dealing with an emergent school issue and the team is unavailable to play [Tuesday],” Reynolds principal Aaron Norris said in an email, adding they hope to reschedule the game at a later date.
A 16-year-old Reynolds student died after being struck in a crosswalk on Cedar Hill Cross Road on Monday night.
Claremont athletic director Darren Reisig said every effort will be made to re-schedule the final before the Christmas break, but was unsure if that was possible. Jackie Snell, athletic co-ordinator for School Districts 61-63, said the final is postponed indefinitely and that it could be played in the spring.
The venerable F.A. Cup-style tournament for Greater Victoria teams, contested since 1942 when Vic High was the first victor, is held concurrently with the regular season and Island and B.C. tournaments. Those who have played in Colonist Cup playdowns have included World Cup players George Pakos of Esquimalt and Ian Bridge of Vic High and other former Canada-capped internationals such as Bob Bolitho out of Mount View and Brian Robinson from Vic High.
“It is so historic and there’s a lot of pride that goes with winning the Colonist Cup,” Reynolds coach J.J. Atterbury said previously.
The Roadrunners beat Oak Bay 1-0 in the 2018 Colonist Cup final and the Royal Bay Ravens on penalty kicks in 2019. The 2020 Colonist Cup was not played due to the pandemic.
The win comes after the Roadrunners won the B.C. Coastal Triple-A championship in Burnaby with a 1-0 victory in the final over the Argyle Pipers of North Vancouver after besting the Panorama Ridge Thunder of Surrey 2-1 in the semifinals.
The rains and washed out highways have caused the splitting of the B.C. high school championships in some fall sports into Coastal and Interior sections because of the difficulty of travel.
The high school soccer season included the St. Andrew’s Sabres winning the B.C. boys’ Single-A high championship by beating Glenlyon Norfolk in the all-Island final. That was a full provincial title because it occurred before the heavy rains with all qualified teams able to attend.
SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL: The B.C. high school volleyball championships beginning today through Saturday will be full-province wide tournaments because the travel situation has eased.
The boys’ Double-A volleyball championship commences today and runs through Saturday at PCS with the powerhouse host Pacers, who have beaten several Triple-A teams this season, the favourites along with the defending 2019 champion MEI Eagles of Abbotsford. There was no championship in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The B.C. boys’ Single-A championship is this week in Nanaimo and the Triple-A in Richmond with the No. 2-ranked Claremont Spartans looking to make another deep foray into the tournament.
The Island-champion Dover Bay Dolphins are hosting the provincial girls’ Quad-A championship. With the Nanaimo District Seconday Islanders ranked as high as No. 3 in B.C. this year and Claremont also in the top-10, there is a chance for an all-Island final on the Island.
Crofton House in Vancouver is hosting the girls’ Triple-A championship with the Mount Douglas Rams, No. 1 or No. 2 all season a factor, MEI in Abbotsford the girls’ Double-A and South Slocan the single-A.
SCHOOL FOOTBALL: The John Barsby Bulldogs of Nanaimo won the B.C. Coastal junior varsity football championship over the weekend at B.C. Place with a 34-28 victory over the Carson Graham Eagles of North Vancouver in the final to go undefeated on the season. Running-back Rhonde Lyle of Barsby was named MVP.
The Barsby senior high school team had a good run, too, before being beaten 41-19 by the Robert Bateman Timberwolves of Abbotsford in the Double-A provincial Coastal semifinals.
