{"id":34803,"date":"2024-07-11T16:47:45","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34803"},"modified":"2024-07-18T14:49:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T18:49:47","slug":"450-rugby-players-flock-to-aurora-for-the-2nd-annual-barbarians-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/450-rugby-players-flock-to-aurora-for-the-2nd-annual-barbarians-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"450 Rugby Players flock to Aurora for the 2nd Annual Barbarians\u2019 Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over fifty rugby teams from across Central Ontario and the GTA competed in the 2nd Annual Aurora Barbarians\u2019 Festival at Sheppard\u2019s Bush on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khalil Ajram, Co-President and Treasurer of the Aurora Barbarians Rugby Football Club, expressed his satisfaction about the setting of the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to showcase Aurora and the playing facilities at Sheppard\u2019s Bush. We have the York Central Firefighters here today for the kids and local food vendors to feed the players and families. It\u2019s great to do this in Aurora and the Town has been so supportive of the Festival.  Next year, we\u2019ll have a second turf field, too, as the facilities at Sheppard\u2019s Bush continue to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Ajram noted that \u201cover 450 families travelled to the tournament from centres including Guelph, Collingwood, Oshawa, Caledon, and Toronto. We have fifteen different rugby clubs competing on the pitches today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ajram elaborated on the experience for the young athletes participating in the Barbarians\u2019 Festival:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe day provides positive feedback for players from coaches after playing rugby for a day, the kids get freezies, and enjoy a Harvey\u2019s hamburger after the matches are completed. Teams tend to hang around after the matches are completed; they enjoy their meal and socialize. There are so many good friendships that are generated on and off the field after a day of rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Barbs\u2019 President spoke about the growth of his Rugby Football Club and the brotherhood and sisterhood that is woven into the fabric of rugby culture: \u201cOur motto is \u2018A Club for All\u2019 and we\u2019ve registered 490 players from the ages of 4 to 70.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Weese, President of Sport Aurora, praised the Barbarians\u2019 positive impact on rugby and the Town of Aurora: \u201cThe best part of this tournament is how it serves local interests and visiting families. It shows us that rugby is growing. Committing to out-of-town sports events stimulates parents and children to get involved and gives them an opportunity to see a well-organized tournament. The Festival has a real economic impact on local businesses, too, especially restaurants serving breakfasts, coffee shops, and sports stores selling last minute equipment needed on the pitch. We\u2019re happy to promote a tournament like this through Sport Aurora\u2019s social media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora\u2019s Ward 1 Councillor doubled down on the Barbarians\u2019 reputation as a sports organization: \u201cThe Aurora Barbarians are recognized as a club with lots of expertise with good facilities for their athletes.  The Barbs are producing players for the national and provincial teams, as well as university and college teams across the province.  There are no limits it seems regarding the Barbs\u2019 rugby opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he scanned the playing fields where hundreds of kids were competing, Councillor Weese discussed the importance of athletes playing different sports rather than focusing on only one, especially at a young age: \u201cMost of the kids here today are probably playing multiple sports. Probably hockey in the winter, and rugby and possibly other sports in the summer. It\u2019s so healthy for kids to play multiple sports and enjoy various athletic and social environments with other kids and other parent groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over fifty rugby teams from across Central Ontario and the GTA competed in the 2nd Annual Aurora Barbarians\u2019 Festival at Sheppard\u2019s Bush on Sunday morning. Khalil Ajram, Co-President and Treasurer of the Aurora Barbarians Rugby Football Club, expressed his satisfaction about the setting of the tournament. \u201cIt\u2019s great to showcase Aurora and the playing facilities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34803","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\/2024\/07\/2024-07-11-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-93l","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 03:42:53","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\/34803","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=34803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}