I write this article with the caveat that I wasn't there.  I was well informed, however, and everything I write was related to me by someone on the tour. (and I need more)

The 5th annual Tobago Sevens took place on December 5-6, 2015.  For the third consecutive year, Atlantis brought a co-ed squad. The men tied eventual champion Esher in the first round robin before being knocked out in the championship round robin.  The women made the final for the second straight year before falling to the Canadian All-Star team Aptoella Angels, composed of ex-Canada internationals.

As always, the men and women of Atlantis got along famously and tour events like caroling, fine sessions, rookie show, etc, were joint events.

The Atlantis Tour Party

The players are listed in the tables that follow the picture. Out of 23 players, 13 of them - 6 men and 7 women - were foreign tour rookies.

Nonplaying members of the tour party included coaches Marsh Pennington (Atlantis player #221, staff 116), who coached the men, and Dana Creager (Atlantis player #428, staff 106) and Billy Nicholas (staff #113) coached the women. Stephie-Jo Edwards (Atlantis player #555, staff 121) did triple duty as manager, videographer and massage therapist; Steve Bugh (staff #157) managed the men and .

Shawn Johnson, USA gymnast, Olympic Gold medalist (balance beam, 2008) and Dancing with the Stars champion, as well as fiancee of Atlantis rookie (and NFL player) Andrew East, also did a lot of work in support of the team, including taping and photography; she also ran water to the players, for which she got the apellation "water girl."

At 4'9, Shawn was the shortest member of our tour party, relieving 4'11 Meredith "Marcel" Nelson of the post she normally holds on rugby tours. Here is Shawn with her fiance Andrew East and men's coach Marsh Pennington.

Here are the two squads: [Need info from Paul, Andrew, Ty - second year in a row - and Toshi - also, Blake, Paul, Corey - how about city as well as state?]

All the women arrived on Wednesday and had some downtime Wednesday evening.  Most of the men had arrived by Thursday morning.

Where did we all stay - same place as last year? Did some stay in the smaller places?

Can someone add this?

Thursday

Prior to practice the men and women participated in a couple of joint exercises - before leaving for the field there was a game of "Chicken in the Hen House." Following that we all got on a bus to the field (did we need 2 buses?)

At the field four teams of 5 were created: 3 women, 2 men each, for touch games.  Sorted by age, they were the Infants, Toddlers, Teenagers and Geriatrics.  The winners - I would never have doubted it - were the Geriatrics.

Any pictures of these 4 squads?
Any practice picture?
Any chicken in the hen house pic?

It seems as though several players made a few trips to one of my favorite eating places on Tobago - Skewers - for some great Middle Eastern grill: kabobs, etc.

The day began with our third practice of the tour.  Comments? I assume it was a light practice.



Following that, we took part in a Tobago tradition: goat racing.  Atlantis had only one participant in the races, Andrew East. Judging by the picture below, Andrew was hampered by a goat that seemed to be pulling back on the lead (the other racers seemed to be blessed with goats that were at the very least keeping up with them).



Friday was a busy but not tiring day.  Next on the agenda, for those that cared to, was a stint on the beach. One pair of bathers is shown in the picture below.


This is the third year we've had a meal at Colours, a local restaurant that sets up a special local meal just for us.  It's always a fun evening and nice pre-tourney meal.

Game Days

From 20 years of going there,  know that it's hard to know what kind of condition the field is going to be in, because there's so much chance of torrential rain.  This year apparently there had been very little rain, and despite some rain clearly visible in the pictures from some of Sunday's competition, I'm told the field was very hard, and hard on the skin as well.

As usual, the temperature was in the 80s.

Opening Ceremony

Something on the opening ceremony here.

Need description - see last year: http://www.emilito.org/rugby/atlantis/2014/t_147.html
I will try to find out some more about the teams we faced...

The women had a fabulous first day, winning 4 and losing none. The toughest game was a 14-5 win vs. Scion. The Aptoella Angels, an invitational side of former Canadian national players, also won out; their toughest match was the Northeast Academy whom they beat 22-21. Following two nail-biting semifinals - Atlantis 14-12 over the Northeast and Aptoella 12-10 over Scion, Aptoella took the championship 19-0 over Atlantis.


They may not have realized it at the time, but the men's 5-5 draw with Esher (England) was to be the best game that anyone played against Esher, who went on to win the tournament undefeated.  Atlantis' 2-0-1 record on Saturday got them into the championship round robin on Sunday (but due to point spread Atlantis went in as the second place team, giving them a tougher Sunday draw than Esher).  Atlantis' 1-2 record on Sunday took them out of the championship and they finished up with a 5th/6th place finish. Ty Elkins rocked the Atlantis scoring statistics with 7 tries.



 (was there a start-of-tournament ceremony)

GAMES, both days, both sexes - discuss with lots of pictures ... anyone got comments on specific games

Saturday: Atlantis Men (Round Robin)

SATURDAY: games: women 4, men 3 - have videos / each team meeting / then fine session


Atlantis 36 Defence Force 0.  (Who is the Defence Force? T&T I assume - military? what?)

Tries: Andrew, Ty 2, David, Smokey, Mitch
Conv: Mitch 3

---need some text ---



Atlantis 5 Esher 5. This was Atlantis' best game of the weekend against the defending and eventual champion.

Try: Smokey

---need some text---





Atlantis 27 Rainbow 5. Rainbow is a club from the South of Trinidad, largely made up, I'm told, of Rastafarians. (check with Stolly)

Tries: Ty, Matt, Corey 2, David,
Conv: Mitch

---need some text---


(describe each game - watch video)

Saturday: Atlantis Women (Round Robin)

Atlantis 24 Heidi's Swifts 5. 

Lineup:
1. Jen, 2. Tiffany, 3. Abby//4. Teena, 5. Bri, 6. Cheta, 7. Lunde
Frank for Jen; Marcel for Tiff; Joya for Bri; Nicole for Cheta; NeNe for Lunde
Scoring:
0:25 Try: Cheta, Conv. Bri; 2:16 Try Cheta. Conv. Bri; 4:54 Try Lunde / H 19-0 / 7:22 (Heidi's); 13:06 Try NeNe // F 24-5

 --- couple of sentences? ----



Atlantis 29 Dog River Howlers 0. 

Lineup:
1. Frank, 2. Marcel, 3. Abby // 4. Teena, 5. Joya, 6. Nicole, 7. NeNe
Jen for Frank; Bri for Teena; Lunde for Nicole
Scoring:
5:00 Try: Marcel; 7:00 Try: Nicole /H 10-0/ 8:34 Try: Abby; 11:00 Try: Abby, Conv. NeNe; 13:30 Try: Lunde, Conv. Bri // F 29-0

 --- couple of sentences? ----


Atlantis 14 Scion 5. 

Lineup:
1. Abby, 2. Marcel, 3. Frank // 4. Teena, 5. Joya, 6. Cheta, 7. NeNe
Jen for Frank; Bri for Joya; Lunde for NeNe; Nicole for Jen
Scoring:
5:00 (Scion) /H 0-5/ 8:50 Try: Teena Conv. Bri; 13:00 Try: Teena, Conv. Bri // F 14-5

This was a tough match against an always tough Scion (mostly DC area invitational) team; this Scion group featured 6 Atlantis alumnae: Liz Trujillo (#808), Leigh Thierfeld (#871), Phaidra Knight (#894), Sam Pankey (#1031), Kimber Rozier (#1032), and Emily Azevedo (#1051).



-- couple of sentences? ---


Atlantis 40 Jamaica 0. 

Lineup:
1. Abby, 2. Tiffany, 3. Frank // 4. Teena, 5. Joya, 6. Nicole, 7. NeNe
Jen for Abby; Nicole for Frank; Marcel for Teena; Bri for Joya; Cheta for Nicole; Lunde for NeNe
Scoring:
3:11 Try: NeNe; 5:41 Try: Nicole Conv. Nicole /H 12-0/ 7:45 Try: NeNe, Conv. Bri; 10:30 Try: Lunde, Conv. Bri; 12:00 Try: Cheta, Conv. Bri; 14:00 Try Cheta, Conv. Bri

-- couple of sentences? ---



Saturday evening? each team reviewed day's activities and discussed tomorrow?

Sunday: Atlantis Men (Championship Round Robin)

Atlantis 38 Aesculapians 0. 

Tries: Ty 3, Corey 1, David 1, Smokey 1
Conv:  David 2, Mitch

Sunday: Atlantis Men

---need some text---


Atlantis 14 Quebec 22.

Tries: Ty, Matt
Conv: Mitch

---need some text ---


Atlantis 0 Northeast 17.
 

---need some text---





Semifinal: Atlantis 14 Northeast ODA 12.

Lineup:
1. Abby, 2. Marcel, 3. Frank // 4. Teena, 5. Joya, 6. Cheta, 7. NeNe
Nicole for Marcel; Jen for Frank; Marcel for Teena; Bri for Joya; Lunde for NeNe
Scoring
0:43 Try: Marcel, Conv. NeNe; 2:15 (NE ODA) / H 7-7/ 9:00 Try (Northeast) 7-12; 12:00 Try: Bri, Conv. Bri // F 14-12

Northeast ODA featured 10-time Atlantean Rosalie Macgowan (#787).



There's always a group of people that take Monday off to spend a day in some totally nonrugby activity on this beautiful island.  This year it was a visit to Argyle waterfall, Tobago's highest waterfalls, tumbling 175 feet in a series of stepped cascades.
 (Was there also a BBQ at the beach?)(need info from those that stuck around!!!!)

Quotes - rearrange later:
Marcel: With this being my first international tour with Atlantis, I was very excited about the opportunity to play with this team, especially in Tobago, since I knew people who had toured there before and had a wonderful experience.  My expectations were fully met!

Marcel: I think there was something special about the team we had on this tour.  We were a pretty eclectic mix of players of all sizes, strengths, and styles.  Some of us had never played together before.  By the end of our last practice, though, I felt like we had learned many of our teammates' tendencies and had built a strong chemistry.  During tournament play, we brought out one another's best abilities as players.  Our victories came from cohesive team play, not individual effort.