‘I’ve always wanted to play the highest level of sport that I can … During COVID, I just had this realization I could go further with rugby,’ says Barrie North grad Reece Thompson
Like many other kids, Reece Thompson had a dream of one day playing in the National Hockey League.
And as a teenager he developed his skills by playing on AAA and AA hockey teams.
“Rugby was just a thing I did for fun in the summer and to keep active,” recalls the Barrie North Collegiate grad. “After COVID hit, I started taking rugby more seriously.”
He credits another player and his dad for taking him aside and showing him the opportunities that rugby could offer him and the pathways he could take.
While playing with his high school team, Thompson joined the other player, working with Team Ontario by joining the Toronto Arrows rugby academy.
Thompson was selected for the Team Canada under-18 squad that toured the Netherlands in the summer of 2023, playing several countries. He also made the team playing in the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago that year, taking on some of the world’s top teams.
“It was an amazing experience,” he says of the summer event. “It was definitely a different level of heat.”
After graduating from high school, where he was captain of both the hockey and rugby teams, Thompson decided to take a break before going to university. So he went to Australia, known for its strength in rugby, and joined a semi-professional team in Sydney while also working.
During that year away, Thompson says he developed as an athlete there, sharpening every aspect of his rugby skill set. He thrived going into an environment of talented rugby players as an underdog.
But he also developed on a personal level, helping him to move forward, and would recommend the experience to any ambitious athlete.
He returned home to Anten Mills in August and had just a couple of weeks to spend time with friends and family before rushing off to study commerce at the University of Victoria in B.C., where he had earned a scholarship to play rugby.
As a 19-year-old Thompson is among the youngest on the Victoria Vikes’ first team, populated my many athletes three or four years his senior. While the program consists of 60 players, only 25 are on the Vikes squad.
“I’m pretty blessed,” he says. “We have a really good program … (and) we have a very bright future here for the UVic team.
“Winning nationals is another goal of mine.”
Back-to-back national wins, he says, would be sweet.
Thompson’s dreams have shifted from the NHL to a series of rugby-related goals, including making the Olympics.
“I’ve always wanted to play the highest level of sport that I can … During COVID, I just had this realization I could go further with rugby,” he explains.
His high school coach, Mike Alcombrack, a physical education teacher and the school’s athletic director, describes Thompson as a dedicated athlete who worked on his skills and his fitness level outside of regular practice.
“He’s one of those players who tried to work on the little things … and really tried to bring up the players around him as well,” said Alcombrack, who’s also a Barrie North grad. “He understands what it takes to be a high-performance athlete.”
In the short-term, Thompson is shooting for a spot on the under-20 squad to compete for the U20 world trophy against teams from the top rugby-playing countries. The bigger picture is playing rugby sevens at the Olympics, a much faster and shorter game than the 15-player version.
Being a scrum half who does a great deal of running, Thompson says his body is prepared for the intense cardio required during the seven-minute halves of rugby sevens where “there’s no energy that is preserved.
“It’s a lot of fun to play. It’s very creative. There’s so many different ways to play it.”
Thompson says he still enjoys hockey and credits the sport with providing him with a solid athletic foundation that let him springboard into rugby. Hockey, he says, produces all-around athletes, allowing them to transition smoothly into other sports.
Thompson is taking nothing for granted, though, seeing the opportunities he has as a gift.
“I do give a lot of the glory of life to God … that is definitely a big part of my life,” he says, adding he tries to regularly extend kindness to people. “A big part of my identity is my faith.”
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