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Axemen looking to get more involved in the Sea to Sky community

Rugby club held successful fundraiser before pandemic
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Jamie Cudmore at the Rookie Rugby Jamboree in Squamish on March 1. He was in town and spoke with the Axemen at Norman Rudy's in February. FILE PHOTO/HSBC SPORT

The Axemen Rugby Club has had plenty of on-field success in recent years, earning promotions the past two campaigns and winning the division title in 2019.

But as the COVID-19 pandemic has progressed, the club saw its BC Rugby season halted.

At the time the campaign stopped, the Division 2 men's team was 9-1 and the Division 3 team sat at 5-5.

Director of rugby Blake Mahovic said the club is currently focused on ensuring that its members are staying well.

"Our primary focus is making sure that our members are OK. We've always said that we're a pseudo home away from home for our members, and now they're our own little family," he said, noting that the club is scheduling regular Skype chats to check-in.

He added that the Axemen are also looking to find ways to get more involved in helping the community as it navigates a challenging era.

"We haven't started anything yet, but we're reaching out to a few service providers in Helping Hands and the food bank to see if there's anything we can do there in the future," he said. "We're still in the planning stages at the moment, but we feel that that's really the next stage in our progression as a club.

"We're playing at a much higher level, but we don't want to lose track of where we came from when we started, which was as a community club."

The club also held a successful fundraiser at Norman Rudy's in late February, collecting $4,000 for new equipment, to cover facility costs, and to help grow the club.

"From a financial standpoint, it was really successful, but for me, the big success was in having the members out, seeing Axemen past and present, and the families of the juniors.

"Just seeing it all come together was really awesome."

The evening saw Canadian legend Jamie Cudmore, who grew up in Squamish and played with the original incarnation of the Axemen, in attendance. Cudmore, a former national team captain who played in the Rugby World Cup on four occasions, credits the sport for turning his life around as a youth.

"Everyone really appreciated hearing that story from him," Mahovic said.

The club is recruiting new members for its men's, women's and youth programs for when play resumes.

For more on the team, visit axemenrugbyclub.com.