Photo: Shane Clausing / EverythingGP staff

By Shane Clausing

grande prairie rugby

Grande Prairie Rugby Football Club hopeful to get back on pitch in 2021

May 9, 2021 | 7:00 AM

The Grande Prairie Rugby Football Club is hoping to get back on the pitch this summer.

Daniel Crossey, the President of the Grande Prairie Rugby Football Club tells EverythingGP they’ve been sidelined for a long time.

“We were completely shut down last year. When COVID hit, we were transitioning to outdoors, but everything sort of fell apart since March hit. Alberta Rugby and Canada Rugby have been a no-go, so we’ve been sitting idle since we won the championship in 2019.”

The Grande Prairie Rugby Club’s men team won the Provincial Division 2 title in 2019.

In 2019 the club had around 80 members playing for the club. Crossey says he would like to see that number continue to grow, as the club prepares for their 40^th anniversary in 2022.

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Crossey tells EverythingGP he is looking to help put together a committee to celebrate that 40th anniversary.

“Rugby has been around in Grande Prairie since the mid 70’s and 1982 was the first full season. We have players all over the world that have come to play for us and we thought that as an executive board making (we should make) the 40^th a big deal.

“Hopefully, it would promote the sport Rugby in GP a bit more.”

Crossey added he would like for the committee to find items of significance and pictures that could be used from the past, so people can look at it and hopefully learn about the history of the club and showcase it to the community for years to come.

As the summer draws near with the hope of eased COVID-19 restrictions, Crossey says the last two years have been difficult for the club. He hopes once things get back to normal, people support their group.

“It’s been a struggle for all sports. With everyone having a tough time business-wise, sponsorships are way down for all sports. It would be great if when all these restrictions are lifted that we could support our local sporting community and have people come out and enjoy what the kids and adults are doing.”