Andrea Burk

I would like to introduce you to Andrea Burk.
Andrea Burk was born on April 7, 1982. She was born and raised in North Vancouver, BC. Living in the same house her entire life. Well, almost all 30 years of it! She can usually be found doing something powerful, robo-coping through a tackle, or changing you life with a meaningful question. She attended High school on the North Shore through Carson Graham Secondary, and has been a loyal memeber of the Capilano RFC for many years.
Only getting to know Andrea through rugby at the time, and being pretty new to the BC rugby scene myself, some of the things that stand out for me first getting to know Andrea would be her very confident, very intense, and very positive additude. For example, during BC trainings in the summer, stand out moments for me would be Andrea being the only one off a kick off reception screaming "ready." I think we can all agree as much as we all love playing BC rugby, we were not always thrilled to be there on a Sunday morning, so that shrill scream of "ready, ready, ready" had us well alert and back on our toes. If I'm completely honest I was probably thinking "how is she always so positive and ready to go?"
Well Andrea, your hard work, positive never give up attitude, complimented by your iron will has really come along way. You should be so proud. You have a booming laugh that captures all of our attention. It is as contagious as your go get'em zest for life.
These are some of the things Andrea had to say.

When did rugby come into your life?
Grade 10 I played for Capilano Rugby Football Club in the centres

Did you play any sports before that?
I was involved in all of the regular sports in school, although my favourites were wrestling and squash. I also played soccer on the BC provincial team for 5 years.

What did you study in school and how does it relate to what you are doing or your future plans for a career?Bachelor of Kinesiology from Acadia University and currently completing my Master of Arts in Leadership at Royal Roads University.  Right now I’m doing some performance coaching for individuals and I will soon be bringing teambuilding and leadership models into organizations and athletic teams…It’s all a part of my plan to change the world.

Has rugby been a life changing experience? How?
 Absolutely.  I have met some amazing people through rugby.  I have shared experiences, laughs and been able to share a lot of myself through this sport.  The support we get from the community has also created a space for me to further my education, pursue career dreams and pay it all forward to developing athletes.

When you’re not totally conscious of what you’re eating due to our obsession with food intake, what is some of your guilty pleasures?
Gummy candies or really good cheese!

What could we find you doing during a weekend off, any time of year, not just centralization. Or how about, what could we find you doing on any normal weekend let’s say post centralization, and what could we find you doing on a weekend in centralization?
On a weekend in centralization you’ll find me doing school work or meeting with clients.  Otherwise, hopefully I’m getting some fresh air and laughing with friends.

Where has one of your fav holidays been, and why?
My trip to Colombia in 2010 was way up there.  In general, I absolutely love spending my holidays hiking in the mountains and swimming in remote lakes and rivers.

What's your fad color?
Green right now.

Scrunch or fold?
I seem to have evolved into a folder….Does that mean anything?

Fav tv series?
Dexter or Grey’s Anatomy…or Wipe-out if I want a good laugh!

Most motivational quote personally?
 "If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."                                             - Thomas Edison

A message  to people out there who might be curious as to what we are doing, how would you describe this experience?
A dream come true.  I think this is what most athletes hope for when they train….to do what they love, with the people they love each day.  Challenging each other to do what we are actually capable of doing and getting better each day.

How long you been involved on the national team?
2009 Can-Ams in Denver.  My first cap was against France in 2009

Long term goal? Short term?
 World champions (World cup and Olympic gold)……9 minute 2400m…..100kg Clean.

The High Five in no particular order  -

2013/2014 Calendar Photo Shoot….balancing on one tippy toe, holding a ball to cover special parts, contorting our bodies and faces to look natural isn’t so easy when there is baby oil all over the floor.  But alas we must, its these finishing touches that makes the calendar a bigger hit than Barbara Mervin off the back of the scrum. 

“Heck no we won’t go”  as the number of niggles increased after our Las Vegas win so did the number of players  on the bench…as the body count went up, we started to resemble a union on strike.  Chants of “Heck no we won’t go” was the quick response when the coaches tried to round us up.

“As One: We win together we lose together”  Both the men’s and women’s team let their money ride on red in Vegas at the roulette table.  After letting it ride not once but twice….Canadian rugby players walked away with a 25% ROI .  Maybe roulette is the fundraiser of the future?

“In memory of Rachael Spearing”  To celebrate the life of our great friend Rachael Spearing the team gathered at Thetis Lake for a polar bear skinny dip.  Innocent bystanders were intrigued by the gathering of people in their towels which only encourage more spectators….We were stunned that a skinny dip would be considered a spectator sport!

“Snow day”  One would certainly expect that a little bit of snow isn’t going to stop the Canadian team.  While we didn’t quite have a Snow Bowl outside, we did hit the indoor rink for for a game or 5v5 rugby/handball/soccer (I’m pretty sure that is the official name).  It was competitive to the point that we started the scoreboard, took penalty shots and did line changes over the boards.

Here are some words her teammates would use to describe her.

Got to love her robotic movements while running.
Life coach.
Bionic.
Intense and thorough.
So ripped!
What's Burk doing?  Burk is my life coach and always looks at the glass as half full...even if its empty ;)
Shines with positivity.
Any moment with Burk is a special moment.

Burk you're a diamond in the rough, keep up the hard work.

Player Profile: Ashley Stacey

So I have decided to take a different approach to these blogs for a little while. Its great that you all are so interested in what we are doing, and we thank you so much for your support, but for my next blogs I'm going to give you the athletes. I'm going to give you player profiles. Their back grounds and their stories. Not only allowing you to understand what we are doing, but who we are as people inside and outside of our sport.
I would like to introduce you to Ashley Stacey. Previously Ashley Patzer as most of you would recognize her as. This girl is World Class. Keep your eyes out for her in the next 4 years, because she ranks at the top on the world stage. A compact force to be reckoned with, and this is what she has to say.

When did you decide to start playing rugby and why?
I started playing rugby in high school, grade 10. It's kind of funny that I'm playing for the NSWT because I never wanted to play rugby in the first place. One of my best friends, shout out to Dani Whitehead :) convinced me to go and run around with the team. I figured I'd go a couple of times and use it as way to get in better shape. Little did I know I'd get roped into playing the first game of the season and fall in love with rugby. All's history from there.

What are some of your hobbies?
I don't know if this can be considered a hobby because I've only ever done it once, but I definitely want to do it a lot more in the future....we'll call it a future hobby. Skydiving!!! I went on my honeymoon and it was such an outrageous experience. One of my top 5 moments of life for sure. As for real hobbies, I love shopping and scrap booking when I have the time!

Whats your favorite TV series?
Oh this is so cliche, but Grey's Anatomy!! I just love that show.

Scrunch or fold?
I'm a semi neat freak, so fold. But I admit, I do scrunch sometimes when I'm in a hurry.

Full name: Ashley Diane Steacy
Birthday: June 28th, 1987
Age: you do the math ;)

Favorite article of clothing?
I've been converted recently (probably because of centralization and training 5 days a week) but I am in love with my lulu lemon wunderunder crops and pants, I don't know what I'd do without them.

Your fav moment so far during centralization?
Moving the couch and setting up a laptop in the middle of the living room and learning how to do the shuffle with my roomie (Kelsey Willoghby) by googling "how to shuffle". (youtube LMFAO-party rock anthem). Hours of non-stop giggling, fist pumping and dancing.... love those nights :)

When was your first tour and who did you look up to or look forward to playing with the most when your opportunity came?
 My first tour was Scotland/Wales in 2007. My idol on the senior team was Maria Gallo. I remember being on tour for the U-19's and the Senior team was there on tour as well and a couple of the senior players came to hand out jersey's for our jersey presentation and Maria Gallo gave me mine. I was so ecstatic and nervous, she scared the piss out of me. That was before I got to know her. Anyways, I always looked forward to playing with Gallo and I'm really really lucky I was able to play along side her for 4 years.

What has rugby done for you personally?
Rugby has impacted my life in multiple ways. It has given me the opportunity to travel and see a lot of the world. I probably wouldn't have had the chance to see much of it if I hadn't played rugby. It's also helped me gain my education as I played CIS rugby and had scholarships which motivated me to finish my degree (Thank goodness I'm finally done now... it took a while).  I've also met some of my best friends through rugby!

What would one place you would like to travel to?
My number one is Greece! Haha, thanks to sisterhood of the travelling pants. I really hope to get there someday!
favorite meal?Cheesecake.... ok ok, a real meal... Steak and potatoes cooked by my one and only! Best. Meal. Ever!!!

Sweet or sour?
Definitely Sweet

Patzer is an outstanding person inside and out. One of the most kind people you will ever meet in your life time. Here are a few things her team had to say about her.
Funny, Caring, Gorgeous and quick.
Patz is incredibly dedicated to this team, always there to help others and
gives it her all on and off the pitch!
Cute laugh.
Packs a punch for her size!
Considerate of others. Kind hearted.
World Class rugby player.
One of the best people to play beside.

I have a great story about Patz. We were in Vegas around midnight on the Sunday after our games and I was wondering around trying to find anyone who wanted to eat. I found kayla Mo and Patz wondering around as well, luckily the first thing they said is they wanted to get food. I jumped on board! We get to this really amazing looking hot dog eatery. I say hot dog eatery weather it makes sense or not because it wasn't a Stand or a restaurant. It had every hot dog, every topping you could imagine. My mouth is watering thinking about it! So we order, no big deal. Kayla gets a naked dog, then realizes that my chili cheese dog looked like a boss compared to her naked dog, so she orders chili on hers. Patzers hot dog comes and its in a wrap. Sure, a hot dog in a wrap, looks great lets eat. Eating, chatting. Well very little chat if I'm honest. Then I look over and Patzer has 2 hot dogs in this wrap. I say "holy smokes you got a double, well done." Not maybe 30 seconds later she discovers a 3rd hot dog! It was a triple. She ordered a triple bacon chili cheese dog in a wrap. This thing was a monster!!! She than starts to say how she cant finish it. I say "why would you order a triple dog?!" Pater replies, "I thought it was just 3 hot dogs." I look at her with confusion and say "wait, like 3 separate hot dogs?! How is that any better than the triple dog wrap you got?!" We continued to laugh cause it really made no sense. I guess this is one of those you would have had to have been there moments to fully appreciate its humor!

Patzer, your outstanding and we love you, this one goes out to you!

Vegas 7s

It has been a year to the weekend that we had officially had trials with an estimated 50 girls to compose 4 teams to compete in the Vegas 7s 2011. Vegas last year was our first tournament that we had won as a 7s team. Following Vegas in 2011 we went on to win Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Dubai. We have just come back to Victoria with another victory, starting off 2012 with winning Vegas 7s for the second year in a row. It was great to see our Senior Men came out of Vegas winning the Bowl final. That is a huge accomplishment for them and their staff. I look forward to seeing them grow as a team and have their success only become greater. Way to go boys!

Since starting this new centralization program, what we like to call "the good life", we have come together and can all honestly say we are working towards one goal. The same hope and dream in mind.
The 2016 Olympics. One step, one tournament at a time, we will work collectively to strive for excellence. Not only that, but the balance of pursuing the rest of our lives.

When this 5 months comes to an end, we will all be dispersing  and going about our lives as if we were pre centralization. So girls will go home, get their jobs back, re unite with their partners, and the privilege of having their families so close again. With all that in mind, the rugby never stops! There will still be club rugby, the NWL, World Cup qualifiers, and camps. Not only the events will still keep on coming, but the girls will go back and the training will only get to be more intense. Not one person will leave centralization and take their foot off the gas. Not with all we will have been through, with all the hard work we will have put in, with that one goal always in the front of our minds. This team is one of the most determined group of girls I know. I can assure you that every morning I will be waking up knowing that 19 other girls are out there training to be better, faster, and stronger. That will get me up and going everyday until we meet again come January.

On a different note some fun things that have been going on in our lives on the Island.
Last week, I woke up to discover that someone had come into our drive way late at night and decided to so kindly remove my windshield wipers. Not doing me any favours, they didn't just remove the wipers, they decided to rip off both arms clean, ridding me of both Windshield wipers completely. Thank your kind folks of Victoria! I don't think I'll be needing those, especially during the most rainy season of the year. What really put me off about the situation is that you cant just replace those! Thankfully I have an amazing mechanic (Mike Lance here in Victoria, I recommend him 100%) who is in the process of calling auto wreckers of Victoria to find me two that will fit mt 2002 very inconvenient Hyundai Accent.

Today actually I needed to do a grocery shop. On my way home from a couple hours of work, I stopped at the Save on foods in West Vic. There was what appeared to be a homeless man standing right in front of where I parked. Naturally I was not looking forward to him asking me for money. I got out of the car, and he did just that, but finished with "for some food please". I didn't actually have any change at all, so not that I lied when I said "sorry you caught me at a bad time" I just didn't have any change to give. As I was walking away I had a feeling that I wanted to get him something, and since I was going to Booster Juice to get a snack anyways, I decided to get him one to. For Christmas I had asked for gift certificates, mostly for food and Booster Juice. So I thought since I had the gift certificate I was feeling a little more generous today. As I was walking out of the shop towards where the man was standing I noticed he was gone! I thought "no way!". So I searched the parking lot for him only to find he had disappeared. I ended up just putting the drink in my car and going to buy my groceries. As I was pulling out of the parking lot I spotted the man! Reversed back into the spot, put the car in park and sped walked towards the man. I then said to him "Ive been looking for you, now whether you are hungry or not I got this for you", he said "thank you" and I walked back to my car. I didn't really know how I felt until I was driving out of the strip mall and found the guy happily walking down the street sipping his Booster Juice. My heart felt bigger, that at that moment I might have put a smile on his face, restored his faith, and maybe my own in humanity. Maybe that's what I want to think, in a perfect world.

In Vegas we had all our breakfasts, lunch and dinners at the hotel. Luckily Americans know how to do it right and it was buffet style all day every day. You learned real quick what was a good idea to eat and or steer clear of. Not by mention, but by how your guts were feeling the next day. You could usually pin point what caused the damage. I would say the safest meal would be the BBQ chicken, steamed rice, steamed veg and the salad bar. The pasta station was also a safe bet. I think the common theme for gut rot and late night tummy parties would have been the brownie with fudge sauce and or the pudding...it was definitely the pudding. Some of the more tempting foods of choice would have been the fried chicken, the larger than life desert bar, chicken wings, spring rolls, taco station with all the fixings, and the traditional roast dinners. It all looked so amazing, but we all knew not to go down that road as it probably would have ended poorly!

I have two weeks to fill you in on.

Where should I start?

Last week was the first official week that we kick started our new program. We had a full schedule from 7-12. If you had massage, treatment or video, you were probably on the go until about 3pm. The days have been jam packed with a gym session, some sort of sprint/tempo/conditioning session, and a skill/team session. We work within our Forwards or Backs groups.  So depending on the day or week, some days are much earlier than others. which means we alternate the earlier starts just to make it fair to each other. That being said, it doesn't work so well in the way of trying to fall into a routine!

Leading into the weekend, we had our very own Barbara Mervin (follow her on twitter @APTOELLA Fashion designer in the way of women's rugby wear. Her most requested Attack-hers Shoulder pads are a hit!) organized a professional photographer to come in and shoot 3 days worth of photos for the up coming NSWT Calendar. It was nothing but fun! The experience was very professional. Photographer Darryl Humphrey, and most of us would agree, made us feel like supermodels! Put it this way, walking into the studio with an idea in mind, and before you know it, you're in the spotlight, crouching tiger hidden dragon, and done. Everyone looked so beautiful au naturel. This calendar is definitely something to look forward to come April.


The training week following the shoot was labeled medium to high volume, and that it was. Most would question the first weeks training being low to medium volume. Hmm. What our girls don't lack is intensity, so every training week will probably feel like medium to high volume. That competitive edge, and iron will to commit yourself to the program is what will carry us through to our first tournament of 2012.
Las Vegas 7s is being held next weekend, February 10, 11, and 12. There will be two pools in this tournament. Pool 1 contains Netherlands, Brazil, Canada Red and the USA. Pool 2 contains France, Spain, Canada Black and USA. Two very well balanced pools I would say! We are looking forward to this opportunity as two Canadian teams top our pools and take it to the final.

Finishing off the training week I feel that we all had a TGIF moment. It was amazing. I could not have felt better knowing it was the weekend! Although trying to complete a 30 min "chit chat" paced jog, Saturday morning felt almost impossible. It felt more like I was shuffling down Dallas road. Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't feel very athletic at all. The one thing that kept me the most motivated during that whole 30 minutes was that along Dallas road to the left of me was nothing but ocean, blue skies, and clouds with mountains peaking up over top. I would say it was breath taking, but at the time I wouldn't have been able to tell if it was the scenery or the fact that I felt lifeless.
Saturday was one of the best days I think Victoria has had to offer thus far. The sun was shining, the only clouds the sky could offer us were off in the distance. 8 of us girls got together for a dog walk, with 7 dogs. That was something else on its own. The dogs were a mish mash of dogs borrowed and owned by the girls. I would like to say that I am good with animals, but I would be lying. All but one of us got to take a dog. I was given the timid dog with no name. Not really no name, but we couldn't figure out if he/she was called Ruby, or Rudy. So by default, we called the dog Rubdy. It was definitely one of the funnier moments of that dog walk. Well Funny for me and Julianne Zussman. Rubdy tried to escape on more than one occasion, so Rubdy and I parted ways half way into the walk. Some would argue I actually lost the dog, I say that dogs pick their people. I was not Rubdys people. Two socially awkwards don't make a right. I feel the parting was for the best. Rubdy slowly warmed up to the group, and had a great experience over all.

The day ended with a 3 hours lunch in the harbour.
Well the day actually ended having a pound of wings with my roommate Gibbs, and our couch potato for the evening Marlene.
Finishing off Sunday with a Super Bowl Party at Shangrala Belmont ave with all our teammates was icing on the cake. We had great food, and it was an easy clean up. The company was a nice touch to the weekends end.

The weeks are full of focus and hard work and the weekends are something we look forward to. I was saying today to one of the girls that if there was one thing that I was truly excited for about centralizing, it was that I had the opportunity to hang out with 20 of some of my closest friends. Through all of this we will be going through a lot of laughs, and a lot of tears. I have some of the most amazing people who have my back and I have theirs, who support me and I support them. Yes it's competitive, but not one of the girls on this team would ever hesitate to help another out, or push them that extra mile. This program is promising. We are all very thankful for everything that has been done and given to us. But I must say that we will be successful due to personnel. We have a strong organization, a brilliant support staff, the best supporters in the world, but most importantly passionate and hard working athletes.

If any of you are interested  I suggest you Follow some of the girls on Twitter. We have Julianne Zussman @JZussman, Barbara Mervin @APTOELLA. Barbara Mervin also has a website for her company http://lollyperformance.com/. Kayla Mack @kaylamack0, and Julia Greensheilds @julsiegreen.
Check it out!
Just a shout out to some of the hardest working trainers I know at level10fitness.com, follow them @level10fitness. These guys exceed excellence with their athletes everyday. They love their job and wouldn't settle for anything less then extraordinary. Thanks for everything.