A little short-term pain has turned into a lot of long-term glory for budding rugby star Jess Neilson.
The 2013 Carson Graham secondary valedictorian just put in a virtuoso performance on Canada's under-20 national team, helping them win the prestigious U20 Nations Cup with victories over the United States, South Africa and England. Nielson, at age 17 the second youngest player on the team, started every game at the all-important fly-half position as Canada became the only country aside from England to win the four-team tournament, held for the fourth time this year after its creation in 2008.
"It was pretty incredible," Neilson said after returning home from London where the tournament was held. "It's huge.. .. It really speaks well for what the future holds."
While the future is bright for Neilson, the past held a few interesting twists and turns that eventually led her to the North Shore rugby factory that is Carson Graham secondary, but it wasn't always a smooth ride.
Neilson grew up in Victoria and started her rugby career at the very young age of eight after watching her stepsister, nine years older, play for her high school team. Wanting to follow in the footsteps of her cool older sibling, Neilson immediately signed up to play at her elementary school. She was the only girl out there.
"It was really tough, a lot of the guys were not supportive," she said. "I was told to go home."
She didn't go home. It took a couple of years of battling but eventually she won over all of the boys. Quitting was something that was just not in her repertoire, she said.
"I've always been very competitive and independent, I've always wanted to prove that I could do it," she said. "I think rugby allowed me to really push myself."
Soon Neilson was a little local celebrity, creating a lot of buzz when she started training with the elite senior women's team at the Velox Rugby Club. Some of the women she was playing with were members of the senior women's national team, and Neilson held her own. She was 12.
"That was the first time I really got to see elite women's players," she said. "Being able to train with them was just eyeopening."
Then came the pain. Not physical but emotional, which can be a lot worse for a kid just entering the teenage years. Neilson's mom and step-dad both took jobs in Vancouver and so, just before entering high school, Neilson was uprooted from all of her friends and teammates in Victoria and plopped down into the concrete and glass of Yaletown in the heart of downtown Vancouver.
"I was not very happy about it," she said. "At the end of Grade 7 you think you're on top of the world and then you get dug out of the hometown you've grown up in. It's a little tough."
With the move imminent one of Neilson's rugby mentors made a suggestion that put a spring back into the young star's step. As long as the move was unavoidable, Neilson should make the most of it and seek out Carson Graham, a school that was in the midst of a run of seven straight provincial rugby titles.
Neilson jumped at the chance even though it meant an hour commute of Canada Line, Seabus, bus, walk every day for the next five years to get to school and then another hour home. She knew it was all worth it, she said, when she first stepped onto the pitch with the Eagles as a Grade 8 student on the senior team.
"My best friends from high school, they're all rugby girls," she said. "It's a pretty special bond that rugby creates."
Coaches Brad Baker and Rick Pimlott also helped plug Neilson into the world of elite provincial team rugby while helping her to hone her game at school.
"They really became like second dads to me and really helped me develop as a person and a player," said Neilson. "That was huge."
The Eagles won provincial titles her first four years. The string was snapped this season when the provincial final ended in a 10-10 tie - Cowichan secondary was awarded the gold because they scored two tries in the game while Carson scored only one.
"Should have been a gold," Neilson said with a sigh. She didn't have too much time to dwell on it though as she needed to hone her public speaking skills in order to nail her valedictory address - she earned that honour after scoring a grade average of around 93 per cent in Carson's tough International Baccalaureate program.
"I was so nervous," the rugby star said about taking the microphone in front of her entire class. In the speech she went with what she knows, calling up a quote from American rugby player Carlin Isles.
"It's my favourite quote: 'don't chase your dream, outrun it,'" she said. "I shaped my whole speech around that."
They are words that Neilson herself tries to live by. They helped her earn a starting spot on Meraloma Rugby Club's premier women's team at the age of 14. They helped her make B.C. provincial teams, and this year they helped her fulfill a dream and play for Canada. Her appearance at the Nations Cup was her first for Team Canada but it will almost certainly not be her last. Along with playing the No. 10 position, Neilson was also the team's goal-kicker. She kicked two penalties and two conversions as Canada romped to a 27-3 win over the United States in the tournament final.
Neilson said there's another quote that drives her as she moves up the rugby ranks.
"Playing for the little girl that fell in love with the game and never looked back," she recites. "That really hits me because I started when I was eight. The feeling of putting that Maple Leaf on your chest will never get old. The butterflies - it's just incredible. Standing there listening to the anthem being played, it's just a rush of emotions."
This fall Neilson will head back to Victoria to get a commerce degree from UVic and play for the Vikes. She'll also be close to the national team's training centre and she has her sights set firmly on making the senior women's sevens team. That fast-paced sport will make its Olympic debut in 2016 and Neilson's biggest dream is to be on the field then or, at the latest, by 2020.
The way her career has gone so far, no one would be surprised if she caught that dream and blew right by it. If she does, she'll look back at the tough times a little girl went through moving to the big city and see it all in a different light.
"It was the best thing that ever could have happened to me," she said of tapping into the rugby resources of the Lower Mainland and, in particular, Carson Graham. "There's just so many more opportunities over here. I definitely wouldn't be where I am with rugby if I hadn't moved."
