Matt Fish didn't know what rugby was before high school.

The Waterloo Collegiate Institute student had played soccer and football when he entered Grade 9 and found what he considers the perfect sport for him.

"Rugby seemed like a really good hybrid of the two sports," Fish says. "There was flow like in soccer but with the contact of football. Contact sports are a lot more fun and more suited to my body type."

Fish, 18 and six-foot-three, 210 pounds, has excelled in his short four-year rugby career, becoming a fixture on provincial under-18 teams this past year.

In addition to playing for the WCI Vikings and Waterloo County Rugby Club, Fish decided to try out for one of two Rugby Ontario under-18 sevens teams. He made the U18 Junior Blues Sevens Squad for players in Western and Central Ontario.

His inclusion on the club was impressive not only because it was his first time playing sevens but he was also doing it against kids who have been playing rugby their whole lives.

"It kind of opened my eyes to other opportunities because I had always viewed that level of play as being way better than me," Fish says. "I stopped telling myself I wasn't good enough and surprised myself by making the team."

The team dominated the New York Sevens Tournament, finishing 5-0 and outscoring their opponents by a combined 215 points during the one-day event on Nov. 29. The tournament is the largest and longest-running sevens competition in the United States, with more than 135 teams participating in 10 divisions, according to Rugby Ontario.

They also finished in the top four at the Las Vegas Invitational Sevens tournament Feb. 12-14.

Fish played prop for the sevens team and really took a liking to playing with fewer men on the field than in 15s, as he'd become accustomed to in high school and at the city level.

With fewer people congesting the field Fish can get to the outside and make longer runs, a rarity many larger players.

"I think I have a good blend of size and speed," explains Fish. "I like to say I'm the fastest big guy on the field."

The sevens team was one of two provincial clubs Fish has been on.

He's also a member of Rugby Ontario's Junior Provincial West 15s Program. The team is one of three 25-man regional squads of its kind in Ontario.

The three clubs will convene in Markham, Ont., for a trial of games against one another on July 26. Scouts will choose the top players from the separate regions to combine a team that will play in the Canada East Regional Championships in Montreal July 30-Aug. 1.

Fish's size and speed make him an adaptable 15s player. He's seen time on the field as fly-half, lock and eight-man while playing for Ontario, Waterloo County and WCI.

Being on so many different teams keeps Fish busy. He plays rugby six days a week and tries to get into the weight room three to four times.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

He will return to WCI in September to try to help the Vikings get over their senior rugby championship drought. He has also been accepted for a math and business double-degree at the University of Waterloo where everyone he's spoken to says playing a varsity sport and partaking in the program is nearly impossible.

That doesn't mean Fish has ruled out the prospect of trying to do both when he does attend UW.

"I like a challenge," he says.