Luskville resident, Piper Walsh has earned the opportunity to compete for Quebec in sevens rugby during the Canada Games held in Niagara Falls August 6 through 21.
According to Piper’s father, Wayne Walsh, Piper has always been athletic. He said that in her early years she always showed interest in playing sports.
“I think it’s fair to say that Piper was always athletic, and always very interested in sports dating back to elementary school here in Luskville. She signed up for everything. Whatever sport the school organized, Piper was the first one to sign up. She couldn’t get enough,” explained Wayne.
Before the age of five, Piper went with her parents to . . .
arenas all over the region to watch her brother play hockey. Because she had expressed interest in playing hockey, by the time she turned five her parents had signed her up. The following summer Piper was also enrolled in soccer. For the next few years Piper spent her summer seasons playing soccer and the winters playing hockey. Her hockey career continued, and she played for a womens league in Gatineau. This allowed her to participate in the Jeux du Quebec for the first time in March 2019.
Her sport of choice changed when Piper entered high school. Piper first went to see her cousin play rugby in Ottawa, and was intrigued by the only sport she’d seen that was full contact for both men and women. Piper explained that she found the attitudes of a full contact sport to be refreshing “my physicality was always frowned upon, I would get a penalty in hockey, or in soccer they would say ‘oh Piper stop being so physical’. But in rugby, they really encourage it because that’s what my position needs. That’s what everyone in rugby needs. Especially in rugby, you can be a very big player but you have to be confident when you’re playing.”
That spring, Piper saw a flyer for rugby tryouts. According to Wayne, they were surprised that Piper chose rugby, as he played the sport in university but he never spoke to his daughter about it. In the spring of her seventh grade year, Piper made the senior girl’s rugby team at D’Arcy McGee high school. According to her father, at this time she was the youngest player on the team but she was not intimidated by the age and size of the other players, “she just loved it” explained Wayne.
For the following years Piper kept very busy playing soccer in the summer, hockey in the winter and rugby in the spring. Wayne explained that it worked out well that at this time none of the sport seasons overlapped. One spring, Piper was stopped in the hallway by her teacher and rugby coach who suggested that she try playing rugby during the summer as the sport offered many opportunities particularly at the university level.
Her rugby journey took off from here as she played all over Quebec throughout the summer months.
“We thought, oh, it’ll be nice and easy,” said Wayne on Piper’s transition to summer rugby, “Piper plays competitive hockey and travels all over the province and she used to play, before this point, at competitive soccer. And we’re like, oh, this will be more recreational. It’d be less travel. Right? There’s lots of rugby clubs in Ottawa. We assumed that we would be playing in Ottawa, only to find out no, we actually played the Quebec League. So we spent the whole summer travelling all over the province.”
This move to more competitive rugby led Piper to make the under 16 team for the Eastern Canadian championships when Piper was 15 years old. Her team won the silver medal.
More recently, Piper became a member of team Quebec, and will be representing the region at the Canada Games. Piper explained that the Canada Games in a multi-sport competition, similar to a many Olympics but only for Canadian teams and athletes, “each province sends all their best athletes, and we all compete for two weeks in the beginning of August.”
Piper noted that being from a rural town such as Luskville has really helped her in her preparation for the Canada Games. Because she does not have teammates that live close by she has to be far more self motivated, and push herself to work hard without the help of outside motivators. Apart from the cardio training, Piper expressed the importance of a strong mindset when competing at a high level,
“The mental prep is the most important because at the Canada Games, there are going to be people everywhere. There’s going to be different sports, there’s going to be lots of distractions. So that’s the biggest challenge when going to the games is staying focused and playing your game. So I’ve been trying to prepare the best I can. Staying focused is my number one priority.”
Piper uses her teammates to stay focused, she points out that they are a very tight knit group. Piper explained that this team closeness and inclusive attitude is another reason that she fell in love with the sport.
“I love it because it’s so inclusive. For a lot of sports, you need a certain body type, a certain height, a certain kind of personality to play. But rugby each position requires a new skill set. And I find that no matter where you go in Quebec, you’re always going to be welcomed with a warm hug and somewhere to stay when you want to play rugby. And so I would say the community is one of the reasons why I love it because it’s so inclusive to all different types of people,” said Piper.
She explained that because she grew up in Luskville, the transition to rugby felt like home. “It’s nice to transition from a small community where everyone knows each other to rugby where everyone also knows each other,” noted Piper.
After the Canada Games, Piper will be concentrating on her college season with the Heritage College Hurricanes. Walsh says afterwards she will turn her attention to university sports and she is already in contact with a few coaches.
Though she is not entirely sure where she wants to go to university, a strong rugby program is one of Piper’s top requirements for choosing a school, she added “I’ve always said I want to compete at the highest level possible in whatever sport I play,” explained Piper, “so I’ll keep working on myself and my skils in rugby, and I will see where it takes me.”
