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Bob Burnett

(4 posts)

  1. Ad Bot

    Posted 10 months ago

  2. Bulldogs2
    Member

    Former Belleville Centennial SS high school teacher and rugby coach Bob Burnett passed away yesterday in Peterborough from an apparent heart attack. He was watching his granddaughter play rugby for Quinte SS at the COSSA “AA” finals at Trent University where the Saints won the junior girl’s title.
    Burnett was instrumental in helping start rugby at Centennial in the late 1970’s winning several Bay of Quinte titles in junior and senior boy’s.
    Over the years he has been a frequent spectator at the Belleville Bulldogs RFC games.
    He will be missed by all his former players, friends and family

    Posted 10 months ago #

  3. Harry Craig
    Member

    I'm sure I must have met Bob over the years but don't recall him at the moment. My conolences to his family and friends.

    Posted 10 months ago #

  4. Ad Bot

    Posted 10 months ago

  5. Bulldogs2
    Member

    Below is an article from the Belleville Intelligencer written by Paul Svoboda.

    Bob Burnett would be proud.

    Bay of Quinte teams captured three of four COSSA girls rugby crowns Tuesday in Belleville and Peterborough, sweeping the double-A event in the Liftlock City (Trenton High, senior; Quinte, junior) while Centennial won the triple-A senior title in an all-local final against St. Paul's in Belleville.

    Burnett, in fact, was in Peterborough watching his granddaughter -- Meghan -- play for Quinte. She scored two tries in the championship match.

    Later in the day, Burnett died of an apparent heart attack. He was 70.

    To suggest the Tigers, Saints and Chargers owe much of their success in rugby today to the seeds Burnett helped plant more than 30 years ago would be absolutely correct. Add to that list too the Loyalist Lancers, who won the OCAA men's Division 2 title Wednesday with several Bay of Quinte high school grads in their lineup.

    When boys rugby replaced field lacrosse as a team sport at Bay of Quinte high schools in the late 1970s, Burnett -- although not a rugby player himself -- embraced the game and became the first and most significant homegrown coach in the Belleville system.

    At Centennial, Lew Frape, born and raised in the U. K., was implementing the new game and helping other schools get rugby off the ground too.

    Local coaches were needed. Burnett jumped onboard. Big time.

    And Burnett didn't just read what he needed to know out of a book, then show up for practices and matches and go home.

    Instead, he picked Frape's brain, watched films of famous rugby internationals and live matches too and in the process became a rugby fanatic.

    "Bob was my first connection with Centennial school," says Frape. "Bob said he would take over rugby there but didn't know the first thing about it. But he had heard about me. So, I showed him a film on the Barbarians (a famous international touring side) and that's how it started.

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    "Bob stayed with the program from Day 1. He was a supporter of rugby right through."

    Former Chargers player Scott Ter Haar said Burnett became a student of the game.

    "Bob certainly loved the game, there's no doubt about that," says Ter Haar. "But he never played the game and he was the first to admit it. I remember him telling me that they needed somebody to help with 'English rugby' at Centennial and he went out and Lewis was there and Bob would have a notepad and take notes during practice."

    Early in his coaching career, Burnett grasped the importance of touring -- exposing neophyte Canadian players to top-level schoolboy sides in the United Kingdom where rugby is often more religion than sport.

    He also wanted his players to experience the camaraderie and fellowship of rugby. Yes, rugby was a game of hard knocks, but you always got together with your opponents after the match and shared a laugh or two.

    "I was on the 1985 Centennial tour when Bob and Bob Fallat (also a CSS coach) took more than 40 of us -- juniors and seniors -- to England and Wales over two weeks during March Break," says Ter Haar. "It was quite an undertaking."

    Burnett was a tireless promoter of the game and pushed his players to excel. He was responsible for sending one of his early Chargers players, Karl Svoboda (my younger brother), to an Ontario provincial junior team tryout -- the first for a Bay of Quinte rugby product -- that led to Svoboda playing 10 years for the National Team, including three World Cups.

    "Bob was one of my all-time favourite teacher-coaches at Centennial," says Svoboda. "I learned a lot about leadership from him. I'll miss his always optimistic attitude."

    In recent years, other local players have gone on to play for Canada and Ontario -- most notably, Morgan Williams, Dale Burleigh, Mike Berry, the Cooke sisters -- Jocelyn and Kendra -- and Devanne Whitney among them.

    Today, the Bay of Quinte association is one of the strongest in the province for high school rugby. Trenton High, Bayside and Centennial have all won OFSAA titles -- boys and girls.

    Local teens are routinely invited to provincial tryouts. They often make those teams and return home with medals -- most recently, Belleville's Cindy Nelles of St. Theresa and Trenton High's Raven Roe and Morgan Houde-Pearce, playing for the undefeated Ontario squad at the National U17 championships last summer in Markham.

    "Bob and I would go up to Fletcher's Fields (in Markham) a couple of times to watch internationals," says Ter Haar. "When Karl was playing for Canada, Bob always wanted to go up and watch him play. There were no ifs, ands or buts about that.

    "He was definitely a strong local supporter of rugby."

    It's an incredible legacy. One that might've seemed improbable 30 years ago. But one that Burnett always believed was possible.

    Now, Burnett is gone and his presence will be greatly missed in the local rugby community. (Even in retirement, Burnett was a regular at Belleville Bulldogs home games, prowling the sidelines and shouting encouragement to the local ruggers, sometimes yelling, "Go Chargers!" by mistake.)

    But his memory will live on each time a Bay of Quinte high school rugby player laces on the boots, makes a tackle, smiles after scoring a try or brings home a championship medallion -- like his granddaughter.

    "Bob was a really good chap," says Quinte coach Peter Hercus. "He came out to every game and almost every practice this year just to watch his granddaughter play -- and that's cool.

    "He was the driving force behind Meghan playing and I think she'll make a great rugby player."

    Like I said. Bob Burnett would be proud.

    Visitation is tonight at Belleville Funeral Home and Chapel, 7-9 p. m. Funeral services are Saturday at College Hill U. C. at 1 p. m.

    Posted 10 months ago #

  6. Harry Craig
    Member

    The same article appeared on the Rugby Canada website today.

    Posted 10 months ago #

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