December 7-8, 2002: Atlantis Women at Caribbean
Sevens
Win Atlantis 100th tournament
Emil Signes
December 14, 2002
JUNE 27, 2013 (rev.
July 20, 2013)
Note of June 2013: This is
the article as I submitted it to Rugby Magazine.
I don't have a copy of the edited version.
Caribbean
Sevens Winners 2002
Standing: Emil Signes, Red Huber, Heather Jones,
Reggie Tift, Bev Armstrong, Lori Grimm, Jacki
Carlson, Jen Williams, Mike Raffe
Kneeling: Larysa Santiago, Linda Borgeson, Dana
Creager, Sue Barnak
Rugby
Ecosse and Atlantis Win Caribbean Sevens
Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago, December 7-8, 2002. Rugby
Ecosse men and Atlantis women were crowned champions of the
16th edition of the Caribbean Sevens, a tournament that was
affected by troubles in Venezuela and a tragic event on the
field.
In the men’s championship, top Trinidad club Carib made it
back to the final for the first time in several years.
They held their own for a bit more than a half, when Rugby
Ecosse’s professional-laden team blew the game open for a 38-5
win. Defending champion OMBAC was absent from the
tournament this year, presumably due to conflict with ITT 15s.
Guyana won the Bowl with a 22-12 win over Trinidad Police and
Guyana’s electrifying Theodore Henry won the award as most
promising player.
In the women’s bracket, Atlantis emerged as repeat champions
despite losing the vast majority of last year’s squad to ITT
15s.
The Sneaker Pimps, a social team from the DC area, lost in the
women’s Bowl final to the Aesculapian women.
Referees
You won’t find too
many sevens tournaments with as many good referees as this
one. They included international referees Derek Bevan
and Hugh Banfield of Wales, Jim Fleming of Scotland, and Jerry
McLemore of the US.
Riots
in Venezuela
Riots and a general
strike in Caracas on Friday prevented the usual Venezuelan
participants from leaving home, generating holes in Saturday’s
schedule.
Tragedy
The tournament was
marred by the death of 24-year old Burt Waldron of Tobago from
an apparent heart attack. Waldron was many yards away
from the action when he suddenly collapsed. The opponent
was Aesculapians, a team of British medical professionals, so
he received immediate and competent care, but to no avail. The
remainder of Saturday’s play was cancelled following a prayer
led by a local clergyman, and tournament play was rescheduled
beginning at 8 AM Sunday.
Atlantis
Despite the ITT
conflict, Atlantis was able to field a team strong enough to
finish the tournament with a perfect 7-0 record. The
championship was special because it happened in Atlantis’
100th tournament (the first was the Harvard Sevens in
1986). Women’s teams have participated in 31 of those
tournaments – beginning in Benidorm in 1992 – and hold a
190-25-1 record. Atlantis men and women now have a
combined record of 494-189-7.
Eight women’s teams played in two round-robin divisions, with
the top two finishers in each division playing a second
round-robin tournament, and the bottom two finishers in each
division doing the same. The top two teams in each 2nd
round robin then played for the championships.
The final was a reprise of an earlier round robin match with
the Calgary Saints of Canada. Atlantis also defeated
Trinidad – featuring last year’s MVP Canadian Heather Moyse
and her sister Heidi – twice during the competition by
identical 19-0 scores. Atlantis was led by Bev Armstrong’s nine
tries and Dana Creager’s six.
Note of July 2013: I remember Heather Moyse vividly
and remember being impressed every time we saw her play, and
frightened of her every time we played against her. I
am surprised, looking at the scores, that Trinidad scored no
points against us. I'm pretty sure she also played against
us for T&T's Northern club in 2001, when they took a
quick lead and put us under pressure. We made plans
(somewhat successful) to lessen her impact, but she was very
formidable. I also remember inviting Heather to play
for Atlantis on one of our tours (I believe Scotland 2002),
but she wasn't available.
Perhaps the fact that I remember her so well is a measure of
how much she stood up above the rest. But ... can one player be good
enough to write this much about?
Well, since 2002, Heather Moyse's athletic achievements
include, but are not limited to the following:
Bobsled: represented Canada several times.
2006 - 4th in Olympics
2010 - Olympic Gold medalist
3 World Cup firsts (2006, 2008, 2009)
Rugby:
Represented Canada in 15s and 7s
2010 - RWC 15s: tied as leading try scorer with Carla Hohepa
(NZL)
2013 - RWC 7s - represented Canada, who came in 2nd
Cycling:
began cycling in 2011
came in 4th in 500-m time trial in Pan American championship
and 5th in match sprint competition
There's also Track and Field (still holds the Prince Edward
Island record in the Triple Jump), Soccer, etc...
(All this
courtesy of Wikipedia)
Following a tight 7-0 first half (Linda Borgeson try converted
by Kristin Huber), Bev Armstrong began the 2nd half by
squeaking outside her opposite on the sideline deep in her own
half then exploded to pull away and score easily at the other
end. A couple of minutes later Jacki Carlson sealed the
win with a long run capped by a brutal stiff arm near the goal
line that had the crowd utter a collective “OOOH!” Dana
Creager finished the scoring to make the final score 24-0.
The Atlantis team (Atlantis #, Name, Club)
378 Bev Armstrong, Beantown
554 Sue Barnak, Maulie Maguires
473 Linda Borgeson, Beantown (co-captain)
641 Jacki Carlson, Salt Lake Slugs
428 Dana Creager, NOVA (co-captain)
642 Lori Grimm, MN Valkyries
643 Kristin Huber, Niagara (ON)
644 Heather Jones, Pittsburgh Angels
645 Larysa Santiago, Chicago North Shore
646 Jen Williams, Ithaca Iguanadons
Mike & Reggie
Mike Raffe did a
fabulous job as manager and it was great to have former
Atlantis and Philly player (and current Rochester 7s coach)
Reggie Tift to share the coaching responsibilities.
Nonrugby
Activities
The usual Atlantis attention to social and
cultural events was not ignored. We listened to
calypso and pan music, visited Maracas beach, tasted some
curry, jerk, roti, pepper sauce (etc), and a group that
stayed till Tuesday got to see the Botanical Gardens as
well.
Note of 2013: I don't remember now, but I'm sure we
arrived to the usual "beer at the airport" welcome. The next
evening we attended the Carib Rugby Club's end-of-the-year
party as their guests. We clean up well.
Standing; Sue
Barnak, Larysa Santiago, Linda Borgeson, Kristin
Huber, Jen Williams, Dana Creager, Jacki Carlson,
Heather Jones, Lori Grimm
Seated: Emil Signes, Reggie Tift, Mike Raffe
At some time during our visit we got to visit what Chris Ryan
has affectionately called "the four corners" in the St. James
section of Port of Spain. On one corner is Smokey
& Bunty, a pub I have often visited in my
approximately 15 trips to T&T. Besides beer inside, you
can get roti outside. Across the street, corn soup.
Cattycorner from Smokey & Bunty we could get jerk
chicken, jerk pork, etc. On the fourth corner was
another Trini staple, doubles.
Smokey
& Bunty, one of St. James' four corners.
A sign there announces "Parang," Trini Christmas music
sung in Spanish
On another trip to St. James, we
passed a statue of Lord Kitchener, one of the Calypso
singing heroes of my youth. We also saw a sign which we
turned into a motto for the weekend.
Left: Mike and Reggie at a statue
of my folk-singing hero, Lord Kitchener
Right: We saw this sign on the
street in St. James and used it as our motto
We spent a couple hours Friday
at Maracas Beach, where besides enjoying the beach, and
Shark and Bake Sandwiches, a couple of us bought some
bead jewelry (e.g. bracelets and necklaces).
Left: Reggie
lounges on beach // Right: Vendor selling bead
jewelry to our players
Atlantis Game Scores
Game
|
Type
|
Opponent
|
WLT
|
PF
|
PA
|
1
|
Pool Play 1
|
Aesculapians
|
W
|
34
|
0
|
2
|
Pool Play 1
|
Enthusiettes
|
W
|
43
|
0
|
3
|
Pool Play 1
|
Trinidad
|
W
|
19
|
0
|
4
|
Pool Play 2
|
Calgary Saints
|
W
|
21
|
5
|
5
|
Pool Play 2
|
Trinidad
|
W
|
19
|
0
|
6
|
Pool Play 3
|
Tobago
|
W
|
36
|
0
|
7
|
Final
|
Calgary Saints
|
W
|
24
|
0
|
|
|
Total
|
7-0
|
196
|
5
|
Individual Scoring
Name
|
Tries
|
Conv
|
Points
|
Armstrong
|
9
|
0
|
45
|
Creager
|
6
|
0
|
30
|
Huber
|
0
|
13
|
26
|
Santiago
|
5
|
0
|
25
|
Carlson
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
Jones
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
Williams
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
Barnak
|
1
|
5
|
15
|
Borgeson
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
Grimm
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
Total
|
32
|
18
|
196
|
Opponents
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
Atlantis and the Calgary Saints following the tournament
final
Unfortunately I was only able to get the hat for
the picture
Atlantis people, back row: Mike, Reggie, Bev, Emil
Middle row: Jen, Lori, Red, Heather, Jacki
Bottom: Larysa, Linda, Dana, Sue
