UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION
December, 2001
In the beginning…
By Kevin Orr
The Valdosta Cup has been the first tournament for many teams throughout the years. It began as an even drive for Tampa and Atlanta to meet and compete. This small southern town has turned into a breeding ground for many teams in the Southeast. Valdosta has played host to many levels of rugby from national champion caliber teams to the new team getting their first taste of Quad Rugby. The 2001 Valdosta Cup hosted a great mix of talent with a broad range stretching from Bowling Green, Kentucky to the North, Jackson, Mississippi to the West, Charlotte, North Carolina to the East, and West Palm Beach, Florida to the South.
Eight
teams were poised to try and take the Valdosta Cup trophy from the
defending champions, Lakeshore Demolition.
This included the Carolina Crash, Suncoast Lightning, Kentucky TNT,
Tampa Generals, Roosevelt Rolling Thunder, Jackson Jags and the South
Florida Rattlers. Day one of the tournament had nothing unexpected happen.
Saturday
the tournament started with it’s first upset, the eighth seeded
Roosevelt Thunder defeated South Florida 36-32 behind the consistent play
of Ron Hart. Roosevelt
continued its upsetting mindset to defeat the Jackson Jags in the
crossover 39-25. Another
battle of the 5th and 6th seeds had a slight change
with #6 South Florida defeating #5 Carolina 24-20.
Lakeshore defeated Kentucky in the first semi-final crossover
45-29, without Cliff Chunn and Eddie Crouch the Demolition played solid.
The
battle of the bay came in the final game on Saturday. Suncoast
squared up against its long time nemesis Tampa.
With Coach Terry Vinyard in Australia many questions were asked
about the Tampa Generals program. Solid
coaching from Dave Gould and typical Tampa systematic play from Vi Vorsane
and Dave Ceruti kept the game tight, but the drive of Pat O’Connor
carried the Suncoast Lightning to its first major victory over Tampa
32-21.
The
final day Charlotte recovered from their earlier losses to defeat the
Jackson Jags 35-16. The
grudge match between South Florida and Roosevelt lived up to the billing
once again, with Roosevelt prevailing again with solid play from Scott
Stokes and company. The third
place battle represented the future of this region with a lot of youthful
exuberance from the Tampa Generals and the TNT.
With deliberate style, Tampa cruised to a 47-31 victory.
The
Valdosta Cup Championship featured the Suncoast Lightning and the
Lakeshore Demolition. The
defending Valdosta champs did not have two key players this weekend, would
that be the edge to give Suncoast confidence to defeat the Demolition? Lakeshore came out on fire fueled by their defense, the depth
of the Demolition showed as rotation of Willard Brooks, Bryan Kirkland,
Wayne Romero, Bob Lujano, Lorenza Mitchell and the low pointers of Tommy
Vinzant, Tommy Sullivan and Lawrence Lee wore down the Sarasota five.
Suncoast had solid play from Dave Jenkins, Joel Post and Pat
O’Connor, but their inexperienced bench proved to be a factor with
multiple unforced turnovers. Suncoast
will be a team to be reckoned with as their bench of David Taylor and Mark
Coller get experience. The
coveted Valdosta Cup will return to Birmingham, AL as the Demolition
defeated the Lightning 51-28 in the final.
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