Teneycke, T-Birds win national title
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/12/2022 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Payton Teneycke keeps growing through every change and trial he faces.
The Brandonite and his UBC Thunderbirds captured the 2022 Canadian university men’s rugby championship on home turf earlier this month, dominating the McGill Redbirds 48-5 in the final.
“It was awesome,” Teneycke said. “We had a bit of a slow start to the season, lost our first two games but got together and we’ve been hot ever since.”
The Thunderbirds crushed the Calgary Dinos 53-0 in the quarterfinals, then down the Guelph Gryphons 37-17 to reach the final.
Teneycke graduated from Vincent Massey in 2020 after being the star of the Vikings rugby team and a punishing linebacker on the football field.
He was named to Team Canada’s under-18 roster to compete internationally that summer but COVID-19 got in the way.
Teneycke headed to UBC and transformed his game and body. A six-foot-one, 215-pound flanker became a 250-pound tight-head prop. He said a move like that happens slowly, one day, one rep at a time. It’s similar to going from tight end to offensive lineman.
“First year at prop I had to learn the scrum and all that, it was definitely a day-by-day thing,” Teneycke said. “It takes time to get the motions figured out … and actually apply that against players who have been doing it for a long time and are good at it.
“It’s definitely every single day hoping one more thing clicks … a long, long process.”
Teneycke started on UBC’s second team in the B.C. men’s premier league when he moved there and worked his way up to the first team by January 2022.
He finally made his national team debut this summer on the U20 squad. They took on Zimbabwe, Chile and Uruguay in a series of friendlies.
This fall was his first term seeing significant minutes on the top team after a large graduating class moved on. He said years of battling older guys in Bryce Ward and Tyler Martinez — who went on Major League Rugby — got him ready.
“I got my butt kicked the first few years but it helped me get a lot better,” Teneycke said.
“It was good having those guys push me and not having an easy rep since getting here because everyone’s so competitive and you have to work for it.”
Teneycke is well on his way to a degree in natural resource conservation. Before jumping into the workforce, he hopes to follow his old teammates into the professional ranks and possibly crack the senior national team.
» tfriesen@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen