A Holy Trinity Academy Knight will exchange a sword for an axe once the rugby high school provincial championships are over this weekend.
Kylie Manser, a three-year-starter for HTA, is off to Wolfville, Nova Scotia in August to try out for the Acadia Axewomen’s collegiate rugby team.
“I decided that was a good school and a good fit for me,” said Manser, a fly-half for the Knights. “I really like the coach’s perspective and their style of play and also I am really interested in seeing Nova Scotia, I haven’t been there before.”
She described Acadia’s style of play as “fast and wide rugby, using the backs more, quick ball out, which is what I am used to playing.”
Manser began playing rugby with the Foothills Lions the summer after Grade 8.
She is part of a group of young women graduating high school this year which includes Foothills Falcon Brogan Mior, who is Harvard bound, HTA teammate Jasmine Leslie and others.
“That was really good, it was kind of the big start for girls rugby in Okotoks when we started at U15,” she said.
She credits one of her Lion coaches Jim Ryan for progressing her career.
“He definitely taught me a lot of what I know about rugby,” Manser said. “Katie (Marchant) helped me in high school. She has done so much for my rugby, a very supportive coach who helped me achieve my goals – pushing me to be my best.”
Manser will need to be at her best at Acadia.
“Training camp starts on Aug. 23 and I will have to prove myself,” she said.
She won’t be the lone Foothills area player at Wolfville. Harley Tucker, a graduate of Oilfields High School, has been an all-star with the Axewomen.
As well, Claire Fioretta, a graduate of Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, played with Manser early in their Foothills Lions careers.
Manser is an honour student at HTA and she plans to study kinesiology at Acadia.
“At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” she said. “But I knew that I like sports and I like all that kind of movement type thing and the sciences. I also knew that I wanted to help people.”
She said she is interested in helping people with their sports and their bodies.
However, first she has to help the Knights at the provincial high school rugby championships this weekend in the Bridge.
Manser and the Knights booked their ticket to the Tier I championships after going 3-0 in league play this season.
“I think it is going to be a really good challenge for us – it will be good to see how we will do against the stronger teams,” she said. “We definitely have a lot of experienced players and players that know how to work well together.
“A lot of our Grade 10s from last year came back and they have developed. We have strong forwards and strong backs and we know how to work together.”
For more information about the provincial high school rugby championships go to asaa.ca
