Tag: tournaments

2015 CanAm UW Rugby Tournament Results and Team USA tryouts

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The second edition of the CanAm UW Rugby Championships ended with the victory of the Quincy Narwhals from Boston during an undefeated weekend. The team from Boston came back strong after their absence from a couple of tournaments of the North American league.

After the successful first edition that had as one of the highlights the participation of Club Orcas from Colombia with three teams, this time CanAm was expecting participation of three Colombian teams including Orcas, Quelonios and Pirañas but at the end such teams declined the invitation. However the tournament had the international participation of Team Canada (mixed team from Camo Montreal and Club Liberation from Toronto) as part of their preparation for the 2015 World Championships to be held in Colombia.

10981197_10155167436670137_8876515841236075957_nParticipants on the 2015 US National team tryouts

Four teams participated as representatives from the US. Quincy Narwhals from Boston, New Jersey Hammerheads and NUWR from Newark New Jersey and the ROW team (rest of the world) team with players from different areas of the US without a club including Wisconsin, Illinois, DC and California.

The game for the 3rd place was played by Team Canada and the NJ Hammerheads, with the victory of the Canadians for 7-2 over a weakened NJ Hammerheads who played the same Team Canada earlier that same day defeating the Canadians on the round robin 3-1.

The final game between Quincy Narwhals and  NUWR was a very intense and interesting game which was only decided on the last seconds of the game. Quincy had 11 players between experienced and new players including an experienced Swedish player and took advantage of the number of players to defeat NUWR. The team from Newark had only 7 players but made the size en depth of the pool to play in their favor as well as the speed and fitness of their players.

The game was tied 1-1 by half time and just 2 second before the end of the game one last attempt from the Boston ended on a last second goal for Quincy to win the tournament.

The tournament also served as the first event for the US National team tryouts for the 2015 World Championship to be held in Cali, Colombia. The US men’s team tryout had the participation of 24 players under the direction of US National coach Jose Echeverry.

FInal standings:

1- Quincy Narwhals

2- Newark NUWR

3- Team Canada

4- New Jersey Hammerheads

5- Row Team

Top Scorer:

1- Daniel Lopez – NUWR  12

2- Filip Mundt – Quincy 7

3- Mike Picot- Quincy 6

Mateo Galeano – NJ hammerheads 6

Tim Burke – Quincy 6

2nd North American UWR tournament – Quincy, MA

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The 2nd North American Underwater Rugby tournament was a great event thanks to the people behind the organization process. The host, Quincy UWR, put a lot of effort into having a great event.

Having a league where Canadian and USA teams play together is helping the sport to have better visibility. Underwater Hockey has been for decades the predominant underwater sport in both countries but a well-defined set of dates for UWR tournaments could attract new players and even the media.

For this tournament we had a record number of 7 teams, including two from Canada. The tournament was played as a coed event since the number of women playing the game is still small.

The tournament was arranged in such a way that teams would play an equal number of games during the classification round (which was set to be 4 games) and then an extra game will be given to those teams which would make it to the final round.

The two Canadian teams present at the event were CAMO Rugby sousmarin (Montreal, QC) and Liberation UWR (Brantford, ON). CAMO had among its ranks players who have been part of the highly competitive UWR Colombian team. Liberation UWR showed progress in their training process by displaying great improvements in their strategy and technical skills.

East Haven Makos (East Haven, CT) is the latest team to join the league. They are a group of young players and showed the great progress attained by continuously playing with their NJ Hammerheads neighbors.

NJ Hammerheads (Newark, NJ) counted with the presence of experienced players who have been to UWR international events in Colombia and even world championships. Their experience was noticeable at the semifinal stages of the tournament where the games required a more strategic planning.

The hosting club, Quincy UWR (Quincy, MA), had two teams signed for the tournament. Quincy Red was a mixed of experimented players and newbies while Quincy Blue had amount its ranks players who have been to world championships. All the North American UWR community was really excited seeing the revitalization of the Quincy UWR team.

The “orphans” team was group of players from FL, DC, NY, and TX. These players don’t have a hosting team in their respective cities of origin and as such they were allowed to put a together a team. They struggled during the first games but their combined experienced took them to win the tournament.

Cesar Florez from CAMO Rugby Sousmarin took the first place in the Top Scorers ranking.

Results and stats related to the tournament can be found at
https://usauwr.wordpress.com/tournaments/north-america-tournaments/2nd-na-uwr-tournament/

Club CAMO from MontrealEast Haven Makos will be the host for the 3rd edition of the North American tournament in June. The dates are still in the works but they should be announced shortly.

See you underwater!

The real 3D sport!

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Have you ever played a game where three-dimensional is a real thing? Can you imagine playing with someone who is 15ft underneath you?

Welcome to the world of Underwater Rugby!

We are a group of people who felt in love with the game. Many of us have either played for the USA national team or practiced the sport in other countries.The biggest development of the sport is taking place at the East Cost. Teams in CT, NJ, and MA are taking the lead. Our counterparts in Canada are working hard to develop the game as well. Teams in ON and QC have regular practices and have already organized few tournaments.