Wednesday's Ruck & Maul

Shaye Ogurek, Unsung Hero – On & Off the Field

Shaye (and "CW") – in her element.

Today we bring our readers a great article to kick off the season. We recently sat down to learn about a CW pathway athlete that has maximized her rugby experience while completing her degree in Marine Biology.  Shaye Ogurek started with CW as a Grade 9 student several years ago.  She was a strong contributor on the field but also gave back as both a referee and assistant coach.  She is true all-rounder, today the reader will learn about her adventures on the rugby field and as a marine biologist in training.

CW: At what age and where did you start playing rugby?

I started playing rugby in grade nine at Claremont Secondary School. At this time I had decided to step back from my spring board and platform diving career. I had competed in diving at the National level since I was seven years old and leaving the sport was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. After I quit diving, I was still craving the competitiveness of sport. So going into grade nine, I decided to sign up with Claremont’s PE rugby class. This was a new class offered to all students but ended up consisting of boys from grades 9-12, and me! I still credit getting thrown into this environment for my early successes in the sport playing alongside girls my own age.

CW: What teams have you played for?

Through high school I found a love for rugby that I had never experienced when I was diving. I wanted to play as much as possible and joined any team that would have me. Alongside my high school team, I joined CW U16 in my first year of playing. That summer I captained the U16 Tsunami team (there was no girls Tide team back then) and made the U16 BC XVs team. From there, I played for Tide, team BC XVs and team BC 7’s throughout high school. I also was invited to play with the CW Sr women’s team when I was in grade 11. I was selected to the U18 National XV’s team tour to England in grade 11 and made that team again in grade 12 to play two test matches against USA U18. Since high school I joined the UVic Vikes women’s rugby team and have played both 15s and 7s. Finally, this summer I travelled to Ireland to play rugby for the Dublin City Exiles Rugby League team.

CW: What attracted you to rugby? Why do you play the game?

Originally, the reason I started playing rugby was my mom. My mom played for the CW women from 1992 until the women’s team folded (we think 1996). When I was fourteen and decided to leave diving, I felt extremely lost. My mom convinced me to take up rugby as my new sport, and encouraged to me stick out that first rugby PE class with all the guys. In 2015 when the CW women’s team reformed, I played with them on the same pitch my mom played on almost two decades prior. Now I play rugby for a mix of reasons, my love for game, for competition, and the physicality of it. But it also provides a special connection between my mom and me.

CW: I remember that you played on the flank for CW youth and Canada U18. Is that still your main position or do you have on positions of interest.

Flanker is my main position, and my favourite position, though I have played everywhere on the field at one point or another.

CW: How have you combined the love and participation in the game with your academic co-op career at UVIC?

I love being a student athlete, and I am so happy that UVic is where I decided to continue my career. UVic is a great school with lots of field work opportunities and international collaborations I have taken advantage of, alongside being a varsity athlete. My professors and supervisors have all been very supportive of my rugby career, and so I have been able to balance data collection and long days on the boat with making my training times and practise schedules. Similarly, Brittany Waters, my head coach, has been incredibly supportive of my Marine Biology career. I would not have been this successful in both areas of my life without her, and for that I am truly grateful.

CW: What are your next steps with your professional (marine biology) and rugbycareer?

Next step from a career perspective is definitely to go to Graduate school and get my Masters and PhD in Marine Biology. I want to focus on adaptive fisheries management in a changing climate. However, I will likely leave Victoria (and probably Canada), for Grad school. For now, I am planning on progressing my career as much as possible through my co-op jobs in Victoria while I focus on rugby. My next steps for rugby are to help the Vikes make this a season for the history books and have fun doing it.

CW: What are a couple of your most memorable rugby moments?

My proudest rugby moment was captaining the inaugural U18 Canadian National team on our tour to England. We ended up playing the English U18 side at a small school in Exeter on a very slanted farm field, surrounded by sheep as far as the eye could see.  Despite the low scale set up of these games, as a sixteen-year-old girl, the pride and importance of what I was doing felt immense. Another super memorable moment was my last year on the BC 7’s team. We played the National final against Ontario in BC Place during the intermission of the HSBC Sevens series. I will never forget the feeling of running out of the tunnel into the bright stadium surrounded by a crowd of that size.

                               We won the National title in that game, in front of a huge BC crowd.

CW: What are your life/career goals?

My short term goal after Grad school is to run a research station on a tropical island somewhere, where I can SCUBA dive and drive boats around every day. Long term, I am really interested in climate change mitigations and ocean resiliency to climate change. I would love to work in a policy space making science informed decisions around these issues.

CW: What are your rugby goals?

I have had a challenging path through my university rugby career due to multiple injuries resulting in four major surgeries within three years. Because of these setbacks, I am really trying to focus on rugby in the present and feel the joy of playing and training full time again. Since coming back from my injuries, my primary rugby goals are to try my hardest and have fun. When I focus on these goals, I truly play my best rugby, and if my best rugby puts me on a team beyond Vikes, then I would be thrilled to continue playing after university.

CW: You have travelled to some amazing locations with your co-op work in marine biology. How have you managed to combine some rugby experiences along the way?  Can you describe some of those experiences as well as some of the most memorable locations that you have travelled?
 
Yes! I have been so fortunate to have travelled to some amazing places over the past few years. I tried to bring rugby with me everywhere I have gone. In Fiji, beach rugby culture thrived, and the locals were happy to teach a Canadian some of their Fijian rugby style. The following summer, when I did an internship on an island in Mozambique, I found an old rugby ball at the research station. I worked with quite a few South Africans, so it didn’t take much convincing to make after work touch games a regular activity. In addition, last summer, I lived up in Bamfield, BC taking field courses at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Center. Luckily, a few other students had some rugby background, so we convinced the rest of the class play some touch. I drew a pitch into the sand on Pachena beach and spent most of the time encouraging science students to run straight, and to look before throwing the ball over their head. It ended up being so much fun that we attracted locals and community members to join our weekly games.

The two most memorable places I have been, are Mozambique and Egypt. I was an intern in Mozambique for three months and in that time swam and dove alongside dolphins, turtles, bull sharks, manta rays, humpback whales, and whale sharks.  I loved Egypt because I found it fascinating learning about a completely different culture and experiencing the pyramids and temples of ancient Egypt. The Red Sea is still to this day my favourite SCUBA diving experience. The vibrance of the reefs were mind blowing, and we were visited by multiple oceanic white tip sharks.
 

Shaye, CW would like to thank you for telling us your rugby story and how have you combined it with an amazing academic career.  We wish you the best of luck with UVIC this season and hope to see you in the Tricolours in the future. Shaye is a classic example of rugby clubs being responsible for a player's early years.  A player may go on to other spheres and levels in the game, never to return to the club, but clubs must take pride in a job well done.

(REPORTER - Dave Crossley)