Dana Creager was the coach and Lindsey Brizendine the manager. Overall Atlantis management was represented by organizer Biddy Boyle, and me (as Emperor).


Most of the team had arrived by Wednesday noon, grabbed a quick lunch and headed out to train. The first practice was just focused on handling, getting to know each other and learning a uniform terminology.

The second training session was early Thursday morning next to Sam Boyd Stadium and focused on finding player combinations as well as all game situations - offense, defense, calls, scrums, lineouts.  After practice they headed to support the first-ever Atlantis girls HS team win their game.

Dana led a chalk talk on Thursday evening.  Following the chalk talk, Dana asked me to present the jerseys at a team meeting, which I was honored to do; 7 of the players were representing Atlantis for the first time, which is always nice.

Game Results and Scoring

Atlantis 27 Trinidad and Tobago 12.  The initial game against Trinidad and Tobago was all ours, but their two tries indicated they could be dangerous; on their second try our defense gave them a big gap; one of their speedsters got through and then stepped the sweeper  to finish a 60-m try. Our tries featured everything a sevens team needs: speed, steps, support... and enough endurance to carry us through 14 minutes. The tries in this game were by Josie, Lauren, Kelly, Rhi and Maricel. Maricel made one conversion.

Somehow the clips got out of order and it's hard to tell from the video what happened when.  But the scoring plays are clear.


Atlantis 31 Stars (TN) 0. The Stars, who I understand are based in TN, were the only American team in the Women's Elite bracket besides Atlantis.  They did a lot of good things, but didn't seem to have enough of the one thing it's hard to play sevens without: speed.  All our tries were long ones on the outside. Maricel led our scoring with 2 tries and 3 conversions.  Other tries were by Ariel, Erin and Rhi.


Atlantis 12 French Missfits 7. All I know about the French Missfits is that they are a Canadian team with lots of top players. (I wondered if the "French" part meant they were from Quebec, but I wasn't at the game, and none of the literature mentions whether or not that's the case).  At any rate, it was a tight, defense-oriented game. Lauren scored a try when Erin committed two tacklers and got Lauren the ball. Lauren broke a tackle, got nearly to the goal line when she was run down but managed to get the ball over for the try. 

A Missfit speedster broke through our line, looked like she was going to run right by our sweeper, but Rhi changed her line, lined her up, fought off her stiff-arm and took her into touch. Later, on our scrum deep in Missfit territory, we got blown off the ball, and they stole what had been a won ball and raced down the right sideline for a long try to go ahead at the halftime whistle.

In the second half, we were awarded a free kick at our scrum; the ball got out to Erin Overcash, who put in a nasty sidestep and scored the centered try, converted by Maricel. The win put us into the Cup Quarterfinal against the Mexican national team, going under the name Serpientes.

Day 2: Elimination Matches.

Atlantis 19 Mexico (Serpientes) 0. Atlantis kept up their successful results through the first game Saturday.  Friday's 3-0 record got Atlantis women a quarterfinal match against Mexico, which we won 19-0. Our three tries were by Ida, Rhi and late arrival Rosalie MacGowan.  This third try, which lasted nearly 40 seconds from possession to touchdown, was a beauty.  Maricel had the two conversions.


Atlantis 0 Aptoella 27.  We ran into a buzz saw with Aptoella, one of two Canadian teams comprised mostly of contracted players (we had none) and national age-group players.  In addition we suffered the loss of our top scorer Maricel Quirindongo-Crespo to an injury.

This game did, however, feature a great chase by Josie Ziluca captured in a remarkable series of stills by Sarah Sall. Josie tracks the ball carrier down in the 3rd frame, but has gone high and gets pushed off in the next frame. The next 8 stills are a series of Josie getting to the ball carrier and losing her. First she grabs with the left hand, loses the left, grabs with the right, then again the left ...   She doesn't let up, however, and finally gets two arms around her by the 12th still and the results of this hard work are shown in the final still.

Consolation Match.

Atlantis 5 Japan 26. With only seven players completely healthy, coach Dana Creager decided to start them and stick with them from beginning to end.  Weary but valiant, Atlantis finished a respectable 4th place in a competition with 3 national teams (T&T, Japan, Mexico) and two Canadian teams loaded with contracted players.  Kelly scored our only try in this game.

A few more action pictures of the Women's Elite team shot by Sarah Sall follow.

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