Grade 12 Williams Lake Secondary School Evan Rankin has received the Rory Wickes Bursary Award.
Captain of the senior boys rugby team, Rankin plays hooker. Rankin is running with the Williams Lake Rustlers.
He made the Junior Initial Attack Fire Fighting Crew with SIFAC. He plans to attend UVic and pursue a physical education degree.
His favourite rugby memories are travelling to England and Wales with the WL Stags and winning the Northern Championships in Grade 11.
Wickes was a student at Douglas College in New Westminster when he started playing rugby for the Douglas Rugby Club in 1977.
He had a great love of all sports, but especially rugby, and was talented and accomplished enough to play First Division until around 1993.
He was a key member of the Douglas Rugby Club’s multiple Fraser Valley Championships throughout this period.
He also played for the Fraser Valley Reps, most notably in a game vs Newport, Wales and was invited to play for B.C. in the Nationals at one point in his career.
Wickes, or Sid and Jaws, as he was famously nicknamed, retired as a “legend” from the lower mainland rugby scene in 1993.
As a teacher and school principal he went on to coach school sports teams for many years. Wickes was well loved and respected and was an inspirational athlete to his many students.