Maturity added to talent has made St. F.X. star a force on the rugby pitch
Courtesy Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle Herald
November 4, 2010
The Ghislaine Landry era may be over at St. Francis Xavier but the X-Women rugby team keeps churning out stars.
Sophomore Tyson Beukeboom is the latest standout from the Atlantic university conference powerhouse. Beukeboom was an impressive force on the rugby pitch for the 13-time AUS champions and defending CIS silver medalists.
She may not be in the same stratosphere as Landry, who graduated last spring as the all-time point-getter in the CIS, but Beukeboom more than held her own this season. She scored five tries for 25 points in six regular season games this season and was named the conference MVP last week.
"My rookie season was obviously nerve-racking and I was playing with a superstar. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do," Beukeboom, a human kinetics student at X, said of her first year. "Just the pressure of being a rookie and starting and trying not to mess up gets to you sometimes. But I like to think I did my best to control the pressure. This year, there is a lot less pressure. It’s made the transition much easier.
"As a team we have played better this year. It’s not because of (Landry), obviously she would make a difference if she was here; she’s an amazing player. But we’re more of a team and we’re not relying on one person."
Beukeboom was a two-sport athlete in 2009-10 having played on the St. F.X. women’s hockey squad during her first year. But after the season, Beukeboom decided to focus solely on rugby.
St. F.X. head coach Mike Cavanagh said Beukeboom came into the 2010 campaign with renewed confidence and was willing to fill much of the void left by the departed Landry.
"Last year she wasn’t really a team player," Cavanagh said. "But this year Tyson really matured and she’s made everyone better. She has done all the little things right this year. She’s been our go-to person all year long. After their first year, players are either going to come back and get it or they come back and not get it. She definitely got it."
In seven games this season, including last Sunday’s AUS final against Acadia, the CIS No. 3-ranked X-Women scored a whopping 463 points and only allowed six. They have advanced to their 13th consecutive national championship, which opens today at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont.
The X-Women, who dropped the last two CIS finals to Lethbridge, face the host Excalibur this afternoon at 2 p.m. Trent went winless during Ontario conference play and failed to make the OUA playoffs.
St. F.X. will then face the OUA champion Guelph Gryphons, who have medalled at the national championship five years running. The CIS final is Sunday afternoon.
"One of the club teams I play for in Ontario, a lot of the players are with Trent," said Beukeboom, who grew up in Uxbridge, Ont., about a 40-minute drive from the Trent University campus. "I have an idea of how they play. I don’t think Trent will be as much of a problem as Guelph. Guelph will be the main game for us and they will be our main competition."
Beukeboom said the X-Women have enough depth and talent this season to win it all after coming so close the past two years.
"We have a full second line that we could put out there and they would compete, no problem," said Beukeboom, the daughter of former NHL defenceman Jeff Beukeboom. "There aren’t enough positions with the amount of talent that we have. We are a very young team, but we are very strong and we have a great chance. If we step up to the challenge, with our talent, we will be a factor."