December 1998: Atlantis Pushed off the End of the
World in OT
(Atlantis tournament #68)
Emil Signes
December 15, 1998
JUNE 24, 2013 (rev. July 3)
Note of June 2013: this
was a bitter loss. The article below is one I wrote for
Rugby Magazine. An edited version appeared in the
January 29, 1999 edition of Rugby.
Here is the first
page of the Rugby article; here is the continuation
of the Rugby article.
July 2013: I've added a few things to this
article, mostly about my nephews ("nephews"
in Spanish as they're my
cousin's grandchildren, they'd be "cousins twice removed" in English, but the Spanish
description is easier.
The added comments are in
blue.
Atlantis at the End of the World: 17,848 km
(11,090 miles) from Alaska
Standing left: Rob Anna, Rob Balnis, Mike Skahan / Seated
left: Doug Brown, Emil Signes, Al Caravelli
Standing right: Andy Katoa with Damián Pedro, Kyle
Caravelli, Artie Fitzpatrick / Seated: Brian Driscoll, Greg
Schor
Relaxing in picture: Rick Snow // Not pictured: Alejandro
Pedro
Atlantis Pushed off the End of
World in OT
Emil Signes
Ushuaia, Argentina, December 6, 1998.
The invitational sevens team Atlantis got knocked off in overtime
of the “Fin del Mundo (End of the World) Sevens” semifinal match
in sudden-death overtime. The winner of the match, the Caranchos
of Rosario, basically a provincial team from one of Argentina’s
top sevens provinces, tied the game in the 9th minute of
regulation with a try and a touchline conversion.
Burned out by the semifinal, the Caranchos then squandered an
early lead and lost to San Jorge, a select side based in Rio Negro
(but comprising players from as far north as Mar del Plata), in
the finals.
It was a bitter way to end a 10-game winning streak at Ushuaia,
which had ended with a championship in 1997. Nevertheless, we
renewed old friendships, made new ones, and played some good
crowd-pleasing rugby on the way.
Atlantis squad
The team comprised the following players:
267 Al Caravelli, Old Blue, captain, SH
353 Andrew Katoa, Aspen, P
427 Rick Snow, Orlando, P
394 Doug Brown, Kansas City, H
134 Greg Schor, Orlando, P
56 Artie Fitzpatrick, Montauk, H,C,P
154 Brian Driscoll, Blackthorn, FH
387 Rob Balnis, Montauk, C, FH
426 Mike Skahan, Kansas City, W, SH
245 Rob Anna, Montauk, W
All of these players, except for Rob Anna (injured), participated
in either the club or ITT championships. Five -- Caravelli, Katoa,
Fitzpatrick, Balnis and Anna -- were repeaters from the 1997
champions.
I was the coach and shared the manager role with Al. We were
assisted by my Argentine nephews Alejandro (16) and Damian (14)
Pedro, and Al’s son Kyle Caravelli (8).
What had started out as a team with big tall forwards got a bit
shorter as the weeks went on. First Don Younger got selected to
the National Team that participated in Dubai. While from a selfish
perspective it would have been disappointing, Atlantis is always
pleased to see its players make the national team: it is a source
of pride for us, and Eagles are one of the things we consciously
strive to produce. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of players
on this tour make it before long.
Next, Steve Robke broke his wrist and became unavailable. Finally,
Andrew Katoa, playing in the New York Sevens two days before
departure, pulled a hamstring. Although Andy did play, he was
never 100%.
The replacement players, however, did a fine job, and we were not
let down by ball winning.
Signes Relatives
Sometime in the mid-1990s I began
doing serious research on my family history and tracked down a whole bunch of
relatives in Mendoza, Argentina. I got to see
them in 1997 and found out that two of my
cousin's grandchilren were
rugby players, and that both had played
age grade rugby in
Mendoza. I invited both
of them to join our team in Ushuaia
and they both got to play in the youth
tournament that ran concurrently
with ours. (Both Alejandro and Damián were
later to come to Philadelphia
for a season; they worked
for Philly's Keith McLean
and each played a season
for
Philadelphia-Whitemarsh.)
Their branch of the family
originated in my father's
home town of Gata de
Gorgos, near Benidorm, where
Atlantis had
played - and met my
relatives
- on several
occasions.
In Ushuaia.
L to R: Alejandro, Emil, Damián, Brian
All the little guys were playing in the youth bracket
Buenos Aires
The team arrived on Tuesday morning and trained
twice at San Isidro, culminating in a scrimmage vs. top
Argentinean club CASI, which was to win the Argentinean club
sevens championship that weekend. As we did relatively well in the
scrimmage, we were cheered Saturday evening when we heard the
news.
Wednesday we trained in 90 degree weather, followed by a scrimmage
vs. CUBA, Al’s former team. We didn’t do as well in this one, but
given three intense practices following very little sleep, I
wasn’t that discouraged.
Ushuaia
We arrived in Ushuaia a day after it had seen snow
(rare at this time of year), and the mountains were covered in a
new layer of white. Although it was very cold and rained a bit
during our first day, we never had to run in the snow, and the
weather gradually climbed into the 60s by tournament time. This
pleased my nephews, who live in Mendoza, a warm weather area, and
who thought even the 40 degrees we arrived to was nightmarishly
cold.
Tonto y Retonto
Two of our players, who shall remain nameless, got
off the plane at Rio Gallegos instead of Ushuaia (the two places
couldn’t be more dissimilar in appearance, and they had been here
in 1997), and barely made it back before the plane left. For this,
they share the tour honors of “Tonto y Retonto” (the Spanish
translation of the movie “Dumb and Dumber”). Had they missed the
plane, we would have missed them for an entire day . . .
End of the World
At the southern end of Patagonia, Ushuaia is the
world’s southernmost city. An isolated town in the early 1980s
with a population of only 5,000, it has grown to 50,000 in just
over 15 years, as a result of tax incentives provided by the
government to encourage people to populate it. “Why did they need
to do that?” I asked, seeing nature’s wonders being endangered all
around me. “Because otherwise Chile would have swallowed us up”
was the answer.
Ushuaia is part of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego,
home to unbelievably spectacular scenery, and the view as we
descended through the clouds on our descent to the Ushuaia airport
was truly spectacular. The southern part of Tierra del Fuego
includes the southernmost pieces of the Andes, surrounded by water
(the Straits of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, the “end of the
world” must contain a zillion small uninhabited islands). Among
the items spotted on the plane’s descent were penguins dipping in
the salt waters of one of the inlets of the Atlantic & Pacific
oceans.
We spent several hours touring the Tierra del Fuego National Park,
one spectacular view after another, and reached the southern end
of Argentine Route 3, with a sign that read “Alaska, 17,848 km”.
Artie Fitzpatrick
was particularly impressed with the scenery. He
commented, "This place would be beautiful in
summer ... Oh, wait, ...
it is summer."
“Sevens Fin del Mundo”
Now in its 12th year, the End of World Sevens is
still a minor tournament. Nevertheless, this year’s competition
was tougher than last year’s, and the powerful northern provinces
are beginning to participate. The tournament would have been even
stronger, but the UAR rescheduled it’s national sevens finals for
that day, so the top Buenos Aires clubs could not participate.
Ushuaia, hoping to win its own championship, invited three Pumas
-- Cristián Temperly, Rolando Martín and Pablo Cremaschi as guest
players. Their hopes, however, were dashed by their own youth
team, who, bolstered by their guest, former Atlantis player
Augustín Ezcurra, knocked off the powerful side in the quarters.
We figured this upset gave us a clear shot to the championship,
but . . . that’s why the games take place on the field.
One of the highlights for us was the occurrence, on the adjacent
field, of youth competitions throughout the weekend. We not only
got to watch a lot of young kids playing rugby, but also enjoy
their companionship, as they hung around us all weekend long.
Furthermore, it was great for Al and me, as his son and my nephews
got to play on both tournament days. I even got through reffing a
12-13 year olds’ game without anyone telling me I was the worst
ref they had ever seen.
Atlantis
In its 13th year, Atlantis has now competed in 67
tournaments, including 40 in 16 locations outside the US. Besides
Argentina, these comprise England, Scotland, Spain, New Zealand,
Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Dubai,
Trinidad, Fiji, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, and Canada. Our 400 +
players include 102 Eagles (73 men and 29 women). 43 of these (37
men, 6 women) represented Atlantis prior to the US.
Atlantis during the Fin del Mundo Sevens
Top, L to R: Rob Balnis, Artie Fitzpatrick, Doug Brown,
Rick Snow, Andrew Katoa, Emil Signes
Bottom, L to R: Rob Anna, Greg Schor, Brian Driscoll,
Kyle Caravelli, Al Caravelli, Mike Skahan
Saturday Results
Atlantis 40 Ushuaia B. This was a relatively easy
game, although our first five minutes were nightmarish. Had we
played that way throughout the tournament, it wouldn’t have been
worth the trip. The 33 second half points were more like it.
Atlantis 38 Invitation Seven 0. One
always worries about Invitation Sevens, but this turned out to be
a good workmanlike effort by Atlantis over a Patagonia
invitational side. We played well from the opening whistle and
never looked back.
Atlantis 64 Campolter 0. The game was as
easy as the score indicates. Nevertheless, it should also be said
that we played well in the process.
Sunday Results
Atlantis 17 Amigos 5.
The Amigos are a Tierra de Fuego side that reached the finals of
the club division at the Benidorm Sevens this year. Atlantis
struggled through the early part of this game, and the crowd began
to sense an upset. “¡Amigos! ¡Amigos!” began the shouts from the
bleachers and the fans began to pound the stands with their feet
as well. When Mike Skahan blew by their speedy winger twice, he
quieted them down a little, but even at 17-5, with virtually no
time left, the crowd rocked when the same winger was able to ankle
tap Rob “Aquaman” Anna to prevent a sure try.
Caranchos 19 Atlantis 14 (overtime).
I really like the tension caused by the fans supporting locals at
tournaments abroad. In this case, the locals got 100% behind the
Caranchos as they took a first minute 7-0 lead. “¡Ar-gen-TEE-na!”
they shouted, and the match took on the intensity of an
international.
Except for the result, it was a great, great, game: hard nosed, no
quarter given, fantastic stuff.
With the exception of three players participating in the Argentine
club championships, Rosario had their entire provincial squad
there, including Puma Roberto Camerdón. They held off Atlantis
through the first half, although Atlantis did a great job standing
up a Rosario attacker in goal on the last play of the half to
avoid a score.
Atlantis came back in the second half. Mike Skahan took the corner
on his opposite for a long try to tie the game. On a penatly, Rob
Balnis saw the Caranchos with no sweeper, and banged a kick 50
yards deep to the goal line where Rick Snow fell on it. The game
progressed well past the 7-minute mark (Greg Schor heard the
referee’s watch go off two scrums before regulation), and the last
scrum took place at about 8:30. Finally, Camerdón scored in the
corner and the Caranchos’ scrum half slotted a perfect kick to tie
the game.
Overtimes were scheduled for 5-minute sudden death periods, and
Atlantis knocked on a sure try in the first minute. More than 6
minutes into the period, the Caranchos were awarded a scrum on
Atlantis’ 22, and this time it was the end. A perfectly executed
hit play, not enough Atlantis sliding, and Camerdón scored in the
corner to end the game.
The Caranchos were ecstatic, and we were crushed. But the
intensity of the game will remain as a high point of the
tournament.
Atlantis scoring summary
Our leading scorer, Mike Skahan, with 10 tries,
split his time between wing and scrum half, which he was playing
for the first time. Both he and Rob Balnis would have been in
contention for team MVP, and had we won the tournament, tourney
MVP as well. I look for further achievements from them.
Player
|
Tries
|
Conv
|
Points
|
Skahan
|
10
|
0
|
50
|
Balnis
|
2
|
16
|
42
|
Anna
|
5
|
0
|
25
|
Snow
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
Brown
|
2
|
1
|
12
|
Schor
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
Driscoll
|
1
|
2
|
9
|
Caravelli
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
Katoa
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
Total
|
27
|
19
|
173
|
Opponents
|
4
|
2
|
24
|
Banquet
Atlantis, devastated by our loss, briefly considered
mass seppuku, but decided that a few beers would be a better
option. The tournament was followed by a traditional asado
(Argentine barbecue), which took place in a “quincho”, an
Argentine barbecue hall, located across from the rugby club. A
good time was had by all.
Buenos Aires again
We returned to Buenos Aires for several hours and
rested up in Recoleta, where we had a snack, a couple of drinks
and some great Freddo ice cream. I got to meet some more
relatives, making the third branch of my family that I have met
within the last year in Argentina.
Once again, it was a fun tour, with some great moments of play. I
guess you can’t win them all.
Nevertheless, that will continue to be our goal . . .
With my
relative Norberto Peiró in Buenos Aires
As his mother
is my 2nd cousin, I guess in Spanish he's my nephew (sigh ... )
