A confidence-boosting triumph, with a new season not too far away. 

On February 22, Men's Rugby were crowned champions at the Seneca Sevens Winter Classic Tournament in Toronto. 

An exceptional performance for the team's off-season development, the team, who has been training relentlessly since the start of January, got their shot to pounce on valuable competition. 

The Warriors went undefeated over the course of the weekend, with four victories; scoring 165 points and conceding just 20. 

As head coach Graham Stickler emphasized, "We wanted to reward people who were trying to develop," and rewarded they would be. 

With the goal of investing in the squad's young talent with the upcoming OUA season top of mind, Stickler named Thomas Wells-Richards as team captain for the tournament. Wells-Richards, who is a two-time OUA Second-Team All-Star, and has been selected to Rugby Canada's National Sevens training camp, gelled together a group who had not played together; scoring the first try of the tournament only 30 seconds into game one. 

"It would be very easy to highlight him. He is that good," Stickler added. "We named him captain, as he's very good at developing players around him, and he knew that's what his job was, and it aligned with what we wanted to do." 

With the goal being to solidify as strong of a group for the fall as possible, Stickler could not be happier to coach a group who never want to leave the pitch; who see experience and pressure as a privilege. 

In the championship game, the Warriors were matched with the Humber College Hawks, who had finished their previous regular OCAA season, with a 7-1 record. 

With consistency and development setting the narrative for the previous three matches – the final was no exception. With a 30-10 win, the Warriors found themselves on top; and have turned the heads of programs across Ontario, with how strong their Sevens game has become. 

"Since 2020, all we've played is 15's. So, when people have put Sevens tournaments together, I guess they haven't thought about Waterloo. We've put ourselves back on the map now. 'We play Sevens, and we're pretty good'." 

This victory for the Warriors has served as the perfect interview for shifts on the Sevens pitch. Since winning the championship, the team has since been invited to three more Sevens pre-season tournaments, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. 

This team is for real. Stay tuned.