Steinbach Regional claim provincial rugby crown

The Steinbach Regional Sabres are officially the best girls rugby school in the province.

After years dominating the smaller sevens game, the school dipped their toes into the bigger 15s format this season, winning the provincial championship in their first year of competition.

The Sabres took down the previously undefeated Dauphin Clippers 31-22 in the provincial finals, hosted in Brandon June 6.

Head coach Tahnee Grosskopf said the two teams may be strangers in the 15s format, but have plenty of history playing each other at the Manitoba Games and in high school sevens.

“There’s always been a bit of an unspoken rivalry between us and Dauphin,” Grosskopf said.

“It’s been a full-circle moment for the girls. A bunch of our graduating players went out to Brandon for the first time in grade 9, it was a little bit of an eye-opener. To go four years later back to Brandon, playing 15s this time, and to come home with the championship was pretty incredible.”

Trinity Western commit Elenoa Kaukirewa accounted for two tries and three conversions to lead the scoring for Steinbach, which came out strong and took control of the match early.

Grosskopf said she emphasized the need for a tenacious defense during a team meeting after their semi-final win over Souris.

“(We) were up on (the Clippers) any chance they had the ball,” she said.

“I think it was causing quite a bit of frustration for Dauphin with knock-ons and turnovers. We were applying the pressure right off the initial kick-off and I think that made all the difference.”

The loss ended a three-peat for Dauphin at provincials. The Clippers had dominated the sport in Manitoba since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It comes to a point where you want to face a good team,” Dauphin grade 12 player Kierstin Vandekerckhove told the Brandon Sun after the match.

“I want the adversity where we’re working harder because that’s how you get better, so to play this team that is better, it gave us the pushback we needed and I guess it gives us that pressure, like that drive that we need to work harder, be better and see what’s working and what’s not working.”

Vandekerckhove is set to join the Brandon University team next season.

The Sabres have 10 graduating players this season, but are expected to continue to contend at the provincial level.

“We have 29 on our roster and the girls that are coming up are also incredible,” Grosskopf said.

“The future is bright.”

The sevens provincial final took place after press time June 10.

The Clippers also lost in the boys final, as St Paul’s extended their decade-plus long dominance in the sport.

SOCCER

The SRSS soccer teams couldn’t manage a run at their home provincials, hosted at the soccer park in Steinbach.

The girls team were put up against top-seeded and eventual tournament-winners Léo-Rémillard in the quarterfinals and looked out-matched, dropping a 7-0 decision. In the consolation semi-final, they fell 13-0 to third place winners Miles Macdonell.

The boys team came into the tournament with higher expectations, but a tough 1-0 loss to Vincent Massey (Brandon) in the quarterfinals despite dominating possession ended any hopes of a magical run.

Just eight teams qualified for provincials in the boys and girls side, playing a single elimination bracket.

For more on the AAAA soccer championships, see page 2B of The Carillon.

BASEBALL

The Sabres were also eliminated by Vincent Massey in the baseball provincial championships, hosted in Selkirk.

The semi-final game got off to a rough start for SRSS, as the team gave up seven runs in the first inning. Steinbach would battle back, scoring runs in every inning until the sixth as they managed to tie the game 9-9.

The team finally ran out of gas in the seventh inning, with the Vikings scoring six to win 15-9 and advance to the final, where they lost 8-6 to Northlands Parkway Collegiate (Winkler).

Keegan Penner was named to the tournament all-star team.

SOFTBALL

St Joachim couldn’t pull off back-to-back provincial championships, but did an admirable job defending their 2025 banner.

The Braves fell 9-2 in the provincial final to the Stonewall Rams, after advancing past Vincent Massey in their semi-final.

Three runs in the bottom of the fourth turned a 2-0 game into a 5-0 one, as the Rams put together a four-hit inning to all but win the championship.

Softball provincials were hosted by Pilot Mound this year.

Joelle Normandeau, Annabelle Tetrault and Lola Kihn were named to the provincial all-star team.

The final provincial championships of the year will be on the line in Winnipeg June 12-14, as track and field is back in the cards. Last year’s track and field provincial championships had to be outright cancelled due to wildfire smoke blanketing the city.

Provincials are hosted on the University of Manitoba campus.