There were only about 10 minutes left in the rugby game and Bishops Barons fans were getting restless.
Their favourite player was still on the sidelines and time was running out.
"We want Deidre! We want Deidre!" chanted a hundred or so supporters - some with faces painted in the school's red and white colours, others wearing giant fluffy red clown hats - including three bare-chested young men, who were apparently oblivious to the cold weather Thursday afternoon at Swilers Rugby Complex.
Finally, with four minutes to play and Bishops up 41-5 against the Holy Spirit Falcons, Barons' coach Danny King tapped Deidre Rees on the shoulder and sent her in, to the cheers of the crowd.
Rees said after the game it didn't matter that she played just a few minutes and didn't get a touch on the ball from her wing position.
After all, she'd just made history in becoming the first girl to play with a boys' team in a provincial high school final.
"Pretty damn good, I'll tell you that much," Rees said with a smile when asked how she felt about making history as she emerged from the team's dressing room.
"I just had to say thank you to the guys for letting me play and practise with them and making me a better rugby player," she added moments after her team had finished its wild, on-field celebration.
"We put in a hell of a lot of training for this," said Rees, whose boyfriend, Matt O'Reilly, is the team's scrum half and captain.
Rees, who started laughing when she heard the fans chanting her name, said she "loved every minute" of the support the team got on the day from her schoolmates.
King, who told Rees before the game that she would get to play at some point, said he was somewhat concerned she might get hurt playing against boys, "but every time you step on a rugby field there's a chance you might get injured. But the same goes for basketball or cheerleading, it's all the same."
"I was only concerned for her making a tackle too hard on someone and putting herself out as opposed to someone hitting her because she's as tough as nails," King said about the five-foot-five, 140-pounder from Kilbride.
Rees, 16, who competed for Canada's under-18 women's team during a three-day camp in San Diego in March, is looking forward to participating in the Eastern Canadian regional tournament in Halifax, N.S., and the nationals in Calgary, Alta., later this summer, where she hopes to be scouted.
Both teams went into the championship game Thursday with 6-0 records and it was the Falcons who took the play to the Barons early.
However, as it turned out, the eventual winners were just getting warmed up. After moving the ball out wide and opening the scoring with a run down the sidelines for a try in the corner, the Barons never looked back, building up a 24-0 lead at halftime.
"These guys deserved to win. Their commitment to training and fitness was impeccable," said King.
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