10th North American UW Rugby Tournament – Montreal 2015

Leave a comment

Teams are ready to participate on the 10th edition of the North American Underwater Rugby Tournament, the weekend of May 30, 31st in Montreal, Canada, hosted by Club Camo.

Five teams from Canada and the US will participate on this tournament. Club Camo from Montreal as the host team, Toronto UWR and Club Liberation from Ontario, a mixed team from Quincy (MA) and the East Haven Makos (CT) and the NJ Hammerheads from Newark, New Jersey as current and defending champions.

This is the first time two teams from Ontario will participate on the North American tournament  outside of their hometown as a good sign of growth. The host team Camo will be a trong contender and candidate to win the championship as most of his players are part of team Canada that will participate this summer on the World Championships in Colombia. Club Camo will try to regain the championship after two runner up places after the NJ Hammerheads on the last tournaments. Players from Quincy UWR and the East Haven Makos are participating as a mixed team just as the past tournament on which they got the third place. The NJ Hammerheads will try to maintain their championship title that they got during the last two NA UWR  tournaments in Toronto and Newark.

This tournament will also serve as the last competition and preparation event for teams Canada (men) and USA (men and women) before the World Championships. The following North American UW Rugby tournament is scheduled on October 17-18, 2015 in Brantford, Ontario.

 

The Newark Hammerheads win the 1st Newark UW Rugby Tournament

Leave a comment

Hosted by Newark Underwater Recreation and thanks to the City of Newark, the first ever Underwater Rugby tournament in Newark, New Jersey was a complete success. The two day tournament had the participation of teams from the US and Canada, and UW Rugby players from as far as Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, South Carolina and Norway. Five teams played a round robin during Saturday and final games on Sunday. The host club participated with two teams Newark Hammerheads A, and Newark Hammerheads B, The East Haven Makos from Connecticut, Club CAMO from Montreal and for the first time the Women’s Team USA.

The Host club teams Hammerheads A and B  played the inaugural game with a clear victory of team Hammerheads A  10-0. The round robin ended on saturday evening with The Newark Hammerheads A undefeated with 12 points, followed by Club Camo from Montreal, Hammerheads B in third place, the East Haven Makos in fourth and the final spot for the Women’s team USA on their first tournament as a team.

Sunday pool time served as the third and final round for the Men’s team USA and the first official practice for the women’s team. Right after this, the final games of the tournament were played.

The game of third place was between the local Hammerheads B and the East Haven Makos. The Hammerheads B who played a very strong game the day before during the group round, defeating the Makos by 7-6, lost the final game 3-6 giving the third place to the East Haven Makos.

The final game was between Hammerheads A and Club Camo. As great rivals the game was very close and strong 0-0 during all the first half and most of the second half until about  the 8th of 9th minute when the Hammerheads took advantage of a few mistakes that turned into a very quick 3-0 lead and final win for the Hammerheads A.

 

Champions: Newark Hammerheads A - New Jersey

1st Place: Newark Hammerheads A – New Jersey

2nd Place: Club Camo - Montreal

2nd Place: Club Camo – Montreal

3rd. Place East Haven Makos - Connecticut

3rd. Place East Haven Makos – Connecticut

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Newark tournament showcased several milestones for underwater Rugby in the US. The first Underwater Rugby tournament in the NY/NJ area, first UW rugby tournament to have electronic referee signal system , cameras, large screen and livestream.

The Newark Hammerheads will defend their title on the 10th North American Underwater Rugby Tournament – Montreal 2015 on May 30th-31st.

FInal Standings

1st – Newak Hammerheads  A

2nd – Club Camo

3rd – East Haven Makos

4th – Newark Hammerheads B

5th – Women’s team USA

Great pool 13'-10"

Great pool 13′-10″

IMG_0403

Cameras and large screen

 

 

 

 

 

2nd Team USA try-outs in Connecticut

Leave a comment

The past Saturday March 7th the East Haven Makos UW Rugby club hosted the 2nd try-outs for the men and women National teams. Candidates from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and DC met with coach Jose Echeverry (US men’s coach) and Juan Sevillano (US women’s coach) to review exercises, tactics and play several friendly matches with the East Haven Makos.

This was the first meetong for the women’s team under the direction of coach Juan Sevillano.

The next team USA tryouts will held on April 11th-12th during the Newark Underwater Rugby Tournament in Newark, New Jersey

IMAG1466

2015 CanAm UW Rugby Tournament Results and Team USA tryouts

Leave a comment

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

The New Jersey Hammerheads are ready for Berlin

Leave a comment

The top US Underwater Rugby team, the New Jersey Hammerheads will participate in the 2014 Champions Cup in Berlin, the most important Underwater Rugby Club tournament in the world.

The Champions Cup was originally named the “Masters Cup” in 1987 by the German Club F.S. Duisburg. It is a yearly tournament that invites the champion team from each country. In 1999 the tournament was renamed “Champions Cup” and in 2004 the women’s tournament was held for the first time.

The  New Jersey Hammerheads are already making history being the first team from the US participating in this top level tournament. During 2014 the NJ team finished 3rd. on the Canam UWR Tournament held in Milwaukee early in february. Later on March the Hammerheads got second place at the 7th North American UWR tournament in Montreal on which Club Camo from Montreal got the first place. Recently the NJ team won the first place on the 8th NA UWR tournament held in Toronto last October after winning on a couple of exciting games to their long time rivals Club Camo. The main objective of this participation is to gain expericence with the highest level clubs in UW Rugby today, as Molde from Norway (the current  and 4th consecutive winner of this tournament), Bamberg (Germany), Orcas (Colombia) among others.

2014 will be a record year for the Champions Cup. A total of 14 men’s and 12 women’s teams representing equal number of nations  will participate to fight for the gold.

The New Jersey Hammerheads win the 8th North American Underwater Rugby Tournament

Leave a comment

Finally after several consecutive championships from Montreal’s UW Rugby team Club CAMO, the previous runner-ups, the New Jersey Hammerheads took the Championship title in a very exciting final game after winning all the group games, the semifinal and final games during the weekend of October 4th-5th. in the city of Toronto, Canada.

logo 4

A total of 4 teams participated in this event, CAMO (Montreal) and Toronto UWR (Toronto)  from Canada, the NJ Hammerheads (New Jersey) and the new team SF Giant Sea Basses from San Francisco California, USA .

Toronto UWR, a new canadian club with a few players from Club Liberation (Brantford, On.) was the club host for this tournament. For the first time, the city of Toronto hosted a tournament  with a new venue for UW Rugby at the Riverdale Collegiate Institute.

The tournament was played as a round robin where the New Jersey Hammerheads and Club Camo won their games against Toronto and the New San Francisco teams. The first game between the favorites CAMO and the NJ Hammerheads ended with a close victory 3-2 of the american team from New Jersey over the previous champions, Club CAMO.

On the final game despite the advantage on number players from Club CAMO (11) over the Hammerheads with only 9 players, The club from New Jersey got an impressive victory over Camo for 4-1

Rafael Brunet (Camo) got the top scorer award with 10 goals followed by Mateo Galeano (New Jersey) with 9 and Cesar Florez (Camo) with 8.

IMG_9188

The New Jersey Hammerheads won the best defense and best top sorer team awards.

All the teams are looking forward to the next tournament in the US, the Canam UW Rugby Championship to take place in Milwaukee Wisconsin on February 6-8, 2015

CAMO wins the 7th North American UW Rugby Tournament!

Leave a comment
Sunday Games

Sunday Games

Club CAMO the host team from the 7th North American Underwater Rugby tournament retained their Champion Title after winning all the group games, the semifinal and final games during the weekend of June 4th-5th. in the city of Montreal.

A total of 4 teams participated in this event, CAMO (Montreal) and Club Liberation (Brantford)  from Canada and the Quincy Nahrwals (Boston) and the NJ Hammerheads (New Jersey) from the USA .

Club Liberation from Ontario despite losing all their games came with a full 12 player team, most of new players from the Toronto area for which this was their first tournament experience. Ontario now has a new team in Toronto and the is the first province in Canada with two teams.

The Quincy Nahrwals came to the tournament with a total of 9 players, being a  mixed team with experienced, international and a couple of new players.  Quincy had a very strong group round, winning  two out of three games  losing only with the host team CAMO.  In the semifinals Quincy lost against New Jersey, having to play for third place against Club liberation.

The New Jersey Hammerheads participated with only 7 players and one of them was completely new to the sport. The Hammerheads won only one game during the group round but in the semifinals against the Quincy Nahrwals they had a great comeback. During the group game the NJ hammerheads lost 3-5 against Quincy in a very well played and even game, but in semifinals New Jersey won a spot into the finals winning 6-1.

Club CAMO with won all the group games and during the final game against New Jersey they took the advantage of being locals and having 12 players to win the tournament. The game was very strong and even and by half time the score was a 2-1 lead for CAMO. During the 2nd half, the defense of New Jersey got exhausted due to lack of players and the game finalized with a clear victory 9-1 from Camo.

Marco Cardona (Camo) and Max Van Recham (Quincy) got the top scorer award with a total of 13 goals.

Club CAMo won the best defense and best top sorer team awards.

All the teams are looking forward to the 8th North American Underwater Rugby Tournament to be held in Brantford or Toronto the 4th and 5th of October (to be confirmed).

Participant teams will include the newly formed Toronto Ontario UWR team and the San Francisco Bears UWR team

1st Place - Club CAMO

1st Place – Club CAMO

2nd Place - New Jersey Hammerheads

2nd Place – New Jersey Hammerheads

 

3rd Place - Quincy Nahrwals

3rd Place – Quincy Nahrwals

 

2014 CANAM MIDWESTERN CHAMPIONSHIPS – UNDERWATER RUGBY

Leave a comment

The 2014 edition of the CanAm Midwestern Championship was an excellent success. For the first time CMC’s featured Underwater Rugby as a new and exciting sport on this edition and hopefully in the years ahead.

Orcas C - 1st Place

Played on the diving pool from the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center, despite the length of the playing area, the pool was an excellent venue for the sport with 16 feet deep and goals at the bottom against the wall.

New Jersey Hammerheads - 3rd Place
The Underwater Rugby competition featured both club and mixed teams from the US including the New Jersey Hammerheads, The Orphans (mixed team from Florida, DC, and TX), Team X (mixed team from CA, WI, MI) and international participation from Team Orcas from Medellin Colombia, participating with 3 teams (Orcas A, Orcas B with junior players and Orcas C with mostly experienced players)Orcas A - 2nd. Place
The tournament for the six participating teams was design on one division with two Round Robins for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and final games played on Sunday afternoon based on the positions from the Round Robin final chart.

Orcas B team, a mostly junior player team from Colombia, improved their performance after the first round robin, finishing the second round robin games with better scores in all the games. Team X the mixed team with both new and experienced players from California, Wisconsin and Michigan ended up on 5th position. The Orphans Team with players from Florida, Texas and a few players from Colombian clubs got fourth place.

The New Jersey Hammerheads got third place against The Orphans team. During the two round robin games, they tied 1-1 and lost on the second game 1-3 against the Orphans team. But on the final game New Jersey won 3-2 in very exciting game, taking the bronze.

The final game was played between Orcas A and Orcas C teams from Colombia. Orcas C defeated Orcas A in a very close and exciting final game by 1-0.
All the teams were really happy with the organization, the pool and the venue. Each team got a great number of games (11 games during the 3 days of tournament). And the underwater Rugby Community in the US and Canada is looking forward to participate in future CanAm Tournaments.
The final rankings below:

FINAL TOURNAMENT POSITIONS
1st Place – Orcas C (Medellin, Colombia)
2nd Place – Orcas A (Medellin, Colombia)
3rd Place – New Jersey Hammerheads (NJ)
4th Place – The Orphans (FL, TX, DC)
5th Place – Team X (CA, WI, MI, MA, QB)
6th Place – Orcas B (Medellin, Colombia)

BEST DEFENSE:
1ST Place – Orcas C – 7 goals against
2nd Place – Orcas A – 11 goals against
3rd Place – New Jersey – 12 goals against

TOP SCORER TEAM:
1ST Place – New Jersey – 42 goals
2nd Place – Orcas C – 40 goals
3rd Place – Orphans – 36 goals

TOP SCORER PLAYER:
1ST Place – Daniel Lopez – New Jersey – 19 goals
2nd Place – Julian Muriel – Orphans – 14 goals
3rd Place – Juan Tejada – Orcas C – 10 goals
Ramiro Barona – Orphans – 10 goals

New Jersey Hammerheads coach on the 2013 European Underwater Rugby Championships

Leave a comment

Jose Echeverry, coach of the New Jersey Hammerheads Underwater Rugby team, and former 2003 USA National Team player, was invited to participate as referee during the 2013 Underwater Rugby European Open Junior Championship held in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark last November.

Coach Echeverry had the opportunity to participate as underwater and deck referee in over eight official matches between national teams and share with experienced international referees as Tito de Morais (Sweden), Olsson (Norway) and Lindell (Finland).

“The level of European game is remarkable for the tactics, speed, and game system ” Echeverry highlights of the teams which were distinguished by their great fitness and performance.

Echeverry says his participation and experience during this tournament will help to share with referees and teams of the North American Tournament, the latest changes regarding rules and refereeing . “The sport is evolving and we must get updated in terms of game rules , refereeing and other aspects of the game”.

Coach Echeverry plans to participate with the New Jersey Hammerheads on the “2014 CanAm Midwestern Underwater Rugby Championship” to be held on January 24-26 2014 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  http://canammidwesternchampionships.com/uwrugby/