Kurt Langmann

Black Press

Olympian Kayla Moleschi brought her story and her drive to achieve to students in Aldergrove this week.

Moleschi won a bronze medal with Canada鈥檚 Womens Rugby Sevens Team in Rio last summer and was the only B.C. player on the team.

Moleschi visited five 91原创 district schools as well as the 91原创 School District Rugby Awards on Monday, June 5. The visits included the Shortreed, Parkside, and Fort 91原创 elementaries, as well as Betty Gilbert middle school and Aldergrove Community Secondary.

Kayla Moleschi, now age 26, first started playing rugby in Grade 9 at Columneetza Secondary School in Williams Lake, B.C. She then attended Thompson Rivers University and the University of Lethbridge, where she was named Canada West Rookie of the Year and CIS All-Canadian in 2011.

She made her debut with Canada鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Sevens Team that same year, scoring two tries in her first match at the 2011 IRB Challenge Cup.

Moleschi鈥檚 on-field vision from the hooker position gives Canada another scoring option in the forwards and her consistent play over the last few seasons has made her a regular on the women鈥檚 national team for the last four seasons.

Moleschi was part of Canada鈥檚 gold medal-winning team at the 2015 Pan Am Games, scoring two tries, and was one of only five Canadian players to play in every event during the 2015-16 World Rugby Women鈥檚 Sevens World Series. Her 34 WSWS tries are the fourth most in Canadian history.

She made a good impression on the large assembly at the Aldergrove secondary school gym on Monday, answering a broad range of questions from the students in a frank but friendly manner.

鈥淨uitting isn鈥檛 in my vocab(ulary),鈥� she told the students in answer to a question about whether she was self-motivated to work and compete so hard.

鈥淢y parents (Ron and Andrea) drove that into me. I couldn鈥檛 rely on other people being with me every step.鈥�

She suffered a broken foot in March and has been side-lined briefly while she recovers and heals, but she still plays a role in the team鈥檚 training.

Moleschi plays both the hooker and scrum half positions and is looking forward to playing with the team in the upcoming Commonwealth and World Cup games.

Further down the road she foresees getting into either kinesiology or massage therapy, or possibly teaching.

However, she intends to keep playing for the national team at least until she is 30, so that she can compete for the gold at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Aldergrove secondary principal Jeremy Lyndon told the students that his take-away from Moleschi鈥檚 presentation was that along with passion, one must 鈥減ut in the hard work鈥� to help develop the 鈥渋nnate abilities, unique strengths鈥� we all have as individuals.

鈥淵ou can see that in our gym, the hall of fame we have, of kids that have achieved great things. And that鈥檚 not just athletics, it鈥檚 also physics and other disciplines.鈥�