July 22-23, 2000: Young Atlantis Wins Magnificent Sevens, Ontario

(Atlantis tournament #79)
Emil Signes
August 2000
JUNE 25, 2013 (rev. August 29, 2013)

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Young Atlantis celebrates following championship
Back: Elisabeth de Fontenay, Keirsten Lawton, Katrinka Blunt, Kristin Baja, Emil Signes, Jen Sinkler, Meredith Whalen
Front: Haley Steele, Lindsay Davison, Helen Bateup, Anita Molina

NOTE of June 2013: I found an article I wrote in the Rugby Magazine issue of August 28, 2000. To see the original Rugby article, click here. I have pretty much copied the article in the text below, and added several pictures. Picture quality is not great; this was early days for popularly priced digital cameras, and most pictures, before cropping, were less than 100 kb in size, but ... they're ok to help tell the story.

Toronto, Ontario. July 22-23, 2000. "Young Atlantis," with an average age of 22, won the Women's Division of Ontario's Magnificent Sevens with six convincing victories. They defeated the Ottawa Irish 31-7 in the final, the only game they allowed a try, and outscored their opponents 214-7.

Young Atlantis

Five of the Atlantis players had never played sevens before (four had never seen a sevens game!), and based on Friday's practices, one would have been hard pressed to predict a tournament championship for this team.

(In retrospect, however, it should not appear so surprising - besides Keirsten Lawton, who had played sevens for the US in 1997, an additional five of these players - Lindsay Davison, Katrinka Blunt, Jen Sinkler, Meredith Whalen and Kristin Baja - would go on to represent the US within the next two years.)

Nevertheless, from the first minute of the first game, it became apparent that this extremely intelligent and athletic team had figured out the differences (and similarities) between sevens and fifteens, and was able to produce the pattern asked of them.

Last year, except for some pressure in the last two matches, an Eagle-laden Atlantis squad won fairly easily. This year we decided it would be more beneficial to use the Magnificent 7s to work on developing young players and determine those capable of playing higher level sevens.

Our goal was to pick a "more or less" under-23 team, without being too worried about strict age criteria. In addition, we were looking for a senior player to act as an on and off field leader. That was Keirsten Lawton. Finally we added one "very young" player (i.e. U-19) - Anita Molina of Summit High School - to try to drive the development process down to an even younger generation. The team as finally constituted actually contained five players 21 and younger and only two older than 23.

Bookends: youngest (Anita Molina) and oldest (Keirsten)

Atlantis

This is Atlantis' 15th year of existence and the club has just passed the 500-player mark, roughly 400 men and 100 women. Although it has no affiliation to national teams, Atlantis is proud of the role it has played in developing national team players (115 Atlanteans have represented the US, 50 of them playing for Atlantis first). We look forward to seeing several of this team's members representing their country in the future.

Atlantis Squad Prior to Tournament
Top, L to R: Emil, Elisabeth, Kristin, Haley, Helen, Katrinka, Suzanne, Mark
Bottom, L to R: Jen, Meredith, Anita, Lindsay, Keirsten

Roster (Atlantis number, Name, Age, Club, Position[s])

Atl. #	Name	Age	Club	Pos.
333	Keirsten Lawton, capt	28	Beantown	FH,C
506	Lindsay Davison	25	Beantown	W, FH
484	Katrinka Blunt	23	BASH	P
445	Haley Steele	23	New York	H, P
507	Elisabeth de Fontenay	22	Princeton	LHP, H,W
509	Jen Sinkler	21	No. Iowa	C
505	Helen Bateup	21	Penn State	LHP
510	Meredith Whalen	21	Arizona State	SH
504	Kristin Baja	20	Arizona State	F,C,SH
508	Anita Molina	17	Summit HS	W

Staff included Suzanne Cobarruvias, Manager, Emil Signes, Coach, and Dr. Mark Poray, Team Doctor.

Practice

We met early Friday morning on the pristine rugby facility at Eglinton Flats. Two players arrived on redeye flights from the West Coast and two, recovering from illnesses, had to drop out for part of the morning's practice. We scrapped plans to test them in the 40 and prayed we would survive the day with at least seven players that could still walk. We should have thrown the "youth" factor into our calculations; everyone ended up fine.

We kept Dr. Poray busy. Here Mark works on Kristin Baja

Basics

Friday's practices were confined to basics, basics, and basics. We had a couple of back plays, one penalty play and a lineout lift. That was the extent of anything beyond he basic pattern. Defensively, within a standard SH sweep pattern, we encouraged double-teaming the ball when appropriate.

The tournament

The Magnificent Sevens goes back to the early 1950s and is perhaps the longest running sevens tournament in North America. It is held at Fletcher's Fields, a great venue shared by several Toronto-area clubs.

Saturday & Sunday: We hung out either at the edge of, or under, the stands

Lack of Experience?

Although we worried about our lack of experience, we needn't have been. Throughout the weekend, the only time we were really under pressure was in the final, when we trailed 7-5 for much of the first half. The Ottawa Irish are an excellent sevens team and they unnerved us.

(Not a factor)

In the end, however, they had no answer for Lindsay Davison's speed. Lindsay was our leading scorer with 12 tries, six from wing and six from hooker. Furthermore, with Katrinka Blunt at prop and Meredith Whalen at scrumhalf, we were able to throw finishing speed at our opponents from all areas of the field.

Final: Atlantis vs Ottawa Irish
Left: Meredith moves ball away from scrum // Right: Katrinka and Helen start to lift Haley
(It better have been a good throw, as they had no interest in competing)

Our defense was awesome, and the only try against us occurred in the final after we mishandled the ball under pressure at our own goal line following an Ottawa Irish kick.

Celebration

Everyone was thrilled at our victory and we celebrated eagerly at our hangout under the stands.

The Official Photo of the Tournament Champions

Under stand after final. In background, a little Arizona State love:
Kristin Baja and Meredith Whalen with victory hug

Katrinka Leads Team in Primitive Celebration
Back: Keirsten, Lindsay, Helen, Elisabeth, Haley, Anita, Kristin, Meredith, Jen

Good Guys Tour

Despite the minimal amount of time we had together, the team bonded off the field and a good time was had by all. Over the years, several players have told me that they think of an Atlantis experience as a "good guys' tour." With the added understanding that the rugby is the first priority, I can think of no more complimentary description.

Results:

Type	Atlantis	Pts	Opponents	Pts
Pool	Atlantis	43	Forest City	0
Pool	Atlantis	34	Ottawa Irish B	0
Pool	Atlantis	31	Aurora	0
QF	Atlantis	40	Barbarians	0
SF	Atlantis	35	Waterloo	0
Final	Atlantis	31	Ottawa Irish A	7
Total	Atlantis	214	Opponents	7

2013: This was a great result for the young team, and as noted above, a great portent for the future.

Scoring Summary:

Name	T	C	Pts
Davison	12	0	60
Lawton	2	19	48
Whalen	7	0	35
Blunt	6	0	30
Sinkler	4	0	20
Baja	0	3	6
Bateup	1	0	5
Molina	1	0	5
Steele	1	0	5
Total	34	22	214

Some Off-the-Field Activities

Rookie Show. As usual the Atlantis rookies performed for the amusement of the veterans. Here are a couple of pictures. One is of Lindsay Davison portraying me; the other is of a group skit.

Rookie Show. Left: Lindsay as me. Right: another skit.
Quite an amazing rookie class: Lindsay, Katrinka, Kristin, Jen, Meredith all went on to become Eagles

Video. But it wasn't all fun between game days. We also watched some video. This was in the days before (I knew about) easy access from cameras to TV or computers, so we all gathered around the 3" camcorder screen.

Watching video of Saturday's games

Ivy Leaguers

At one of our meals - we couldn't get everyone at one table - I suddenly noticed the Ivy Leaguers were all together. Here they are, looking up briefly from whatever intellectual activity they were engaged in.

Left: the Ivy table. Haley Steele (Harvard), Elisabeth de Fontenay (Princeton), Keirsten Lawton (Dartmouth), Lindsay Davison (Harvard)
Right: the other six players

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