{"id":26305,"date":"2020-04-03T17:23:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26305"},"modified":"2020-04-03T17:23:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:23:21","slug":"aurora-barbarians-mens-team-welcomes-back-tom-mcleod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-barbarians-mens-team-welcomes-back-tom-mcleod\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Barbarians men\u2019s team welcomes back Tom McLeod"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Barbarians senior men\u2019s team has welcomed back\nformer senior men\u2019s player, and current head coach of Trent University, Tom McLeod\nas head coach this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McLeod has been playing rugby since the summer of Grade Eight\nand found an interest in coaching while playing in high school. McLeod says he\nofficially switched his focus to coaching five years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, McLeod led Trent University to a fourth-place\nfinish in the Ontario University League; the best finish in school history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, he looks to command the Barbarians ship in the right\ndirection and bring the Barbarians back where they once were. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2006 to 2010, the Barbarians senior men\u2019s team were\ncrowned Provincial League Champions and won three consecutive McCormick Cups in\nthe process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three of those players currently play for the Major\nLeague Rugby team Toronto Arrows. Hookers Andrew Quattrin, Jack McRogers and\nLock, Paul Ciulini are three notable names that have come through the\norganization in Aurora and were a part of the historic championship run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time the Barbarians appeared in the finals of\nthe McCormick Cup was in 2013. McLeod was on the roster and senior women\u2019s head\ncoach, Khalil Ajram was on the sidelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Barbarians fell to the Markham Irish 8-3 in what\nAjram described as a mud bath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a prestigious history far away in the rear-view\nmirror, the Barbarians will look to reclaim glory sooner rather than later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it all starts with numbers. After a 1-13 record last\nyear, Ajram says his focus this year is numbers and leaders on the field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat you can hope for and what we\u2019ve had in the past is\nwe\u2019ve had those leaders on the field to make their adjustments in [their] game.\nLast year we had a 1-13 record, but there were six games where we lost by five\npoints,\u201d explained Ajram. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe other issue that the men\u2019s team had last year, which\nis a big reason for that record is we had a lack of numbers. We were struggling\nto get thirty guys available.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McLeod has set his sights on this goal and hopes to keep\nthe numbers up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy biggest goal is getting the numbers up. What that\nmeans for me is making sure training is engaging,\u201d McLeod explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to get away from telling the guys what they need [and] serve them as a leader so they know what they want practice to look like and we make it somewhere where they want to be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current roster is fielding a lot of up and coming\nplayers. Ajram says the team does not have many players between the ages of 25\nand 30. That particular age group, is essential for any rugby roster. It\u2019s the\ncore group of players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, the work has gone into rebuilding the senior\nmen\u2019s team and it begins with the talented junior players that will emerge on\nto the senior scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ajram expects Laurier student and U18 Canada 7s rugby\ntalent Dylan Di Girolamo to be a leader. Di Girolamo is currently training with\nthe Toronto Arrows Academy earning some credible experience along with the\nLaurier rugby team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other players, such as Max Goodwin (Guelph) and Justin\nand Brandon Filice (Ryerson) are also expected to make significant impacts on\nthe roster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although COVID-19 has delayed the start of the season,\nthe Barbarians must wait until April 16to be informed of any\nupdates. The board will determine If it is safe to begin preparations for the\nupcoming season at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McLeod has a message for his players for the next few\nweeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just want them to stay positive and stay healthy. I\ndon\u2019t think there\u2019s anything where we are expecting anybody to go above and\nbeyond to do. As long as you\u2019re keeping yourself in shape and looking forward\nto the season that\u2019s about all we can ask,\u201d McLeod said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, everyone is at a standstill and awaits further\ndirection this month. <\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Belardi The Aurora Barbarians senior men\u2019s team has welcomed back former senior men\u2019s player, and current head coach of Trent University, Tom McLeod as head coach this season. McLeod has been playing rugby since the summer of Grade Eight and found an interest in coaching while playing in high school. McLeod says he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/2020-04-03-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Qh","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 21:44:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}