UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION
March, 2007
ATLANTIC COAST SECTIONALS
By Ed Hooper
Coratio and the Montgomery, Alabama crew really stepped up again for the USQRA. For the second year now they have hosted Sectional play when other venues were not available. Last year they did both the Mountain and the Heartland. This from a city that doesn’t even have a quad rugby team. What they do have is a great desire to host rugby tournaments and some of the best volunteers and southern cookin’ around.
Hoveround won the tournament, not easily but convincingly. The Gunners played well as a team the whole weekend.
The Atlantic Sectionals had a number of unexpected occurrences. First, no Adam Benscik.for the Magee Eagles – this clearly cost Philly a shot at D-I. The University of Arizona (U of A), a transfer from the Mountain section, handed the D-II champs a 52-30 loss on Friday that proved what a difference Benscik makes.
As for U of A, they are a young, fast team (notably, 1.0 Chad Cohn and 2.0 Derrick Helton) that played well all weekend – even though they underestimated the Tampa Generals on Sunday and were extremely lucky to escape with a 1-point win. Tampa, led by hard working Ryan Kress and sure handed Vi Vorasane, was up by 2 with less than a minute to play, but they couldn’t hold on.
Atlanta is back! Shepherd rostered 12 players at sectionals, and even though Tampa beat them out of the last spot in D-II, the veterans like Bill Furbish and Scott Stokes are helping coach Amy Bohn and Marty “Red” Frierson bring newer players along. It’s great to see.
Speaking of great to see, the St. Louis Rams also rostered 12 players – 2 of them women, Kerri Morgan and Ashley Rawie. It’s fun to see a woman (Morgan) go coast-to-coast, weaving her way through traffic and scoring. The whole St. Louis team has obvious desire and they will be back contending.
What struck me is how well the lower seeds played. There was a time when the last seeds in tournaments fumbled and bumbled the ball away against mild pressure. No more. Not here anyway. These teams play the basics well. They just need more game experience and to train hard. I think Wendy Gumbert, Blaze Sports, and the USQRA clinics have made this so.
Next stop for the top 4, Louisville. Congratulations to those teams and to Shepherd and St. Louis for their hard work and commitment to our sport.
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