Saranac Lake Rugby Tour 2001
Bell High Alumni go undefeated in one of
North Americas largest rugby tournaments.
After much build up and preparation, the Bell
High School Alumni Rugby Club took part in the annual
Saranac/Lake
Placid Rugby Tournament (Aug 4-5th, 2001).
Players gathered from around the province and came together
in what would prove to be a very memorable occasion.
Although missing several key players due to injuries or
unavailability, the alumni where still able to put together a very
competitive team which displayed an enormous amount of skill,
finesse, and commitment on the pitch.
Despite never having practiced or played together, the alumni
took to the pitch facing long-time Saranac participants, Ormstown
RFC from Quebec, in there first match.
It didn't take long for the team to gel and there seemed to
be an immediate bond between the players.
The quality of rugby played was absolutely amazing.
The alumni comfortably beat Ormstown by a score of 24-10 and
quickly realized that a bunch of bums from Bell High School could
compete at this level.
In the second match of the tournament, the
Alumni face a very, very big, Houston RFC from the United States
(seeded to do well in the tournament), and came away with another
convincing victory by a score of 20-14 (Houston scored a try late in
the game to narrow the margin).
The much bigger Americans were simply unable to keep up with
the skill and pace of the boys from beautiful Bells Corners.
Unfortunately, however, we had to default our next match
against Albany Knickerbockers RFC, from New York in the
quarter-finals due to injuries in the front-row, but the type of
rugby that was played in the first two matches was enough to leave
the tournament with a very good taste in our mouths!
Man of the Match vs. Ormstown, openside flanker, Kevin Beane (Bermuda Police RFC)
Man of the Match vs. Houston, fullback Andrew
'Kujo' Matsukubo (Bytown Blues RFC, Eastern Ontario
Harlequins)
Special mention to scrum half Derek
Featherstone (Ottawa Scottish RFC) and former junior national team
member, flyhalf Jason
Pither who led the team well with their play and
solid decision making. (who
can forget the long spin pass from Pither to a streaking Kujo from
fullback!). Also worthy
of mention are young Bell students of Geoff Carran, Chris Spriggs
(lost unfortunately very early to injury and Matt 'Puke' Barthe
who tackled like a demon all tournament.
Stay Brown and stay Gold!!!!!
*missing from photo: Shawn Watson, Steve McNeil & Paul (three of our props... go figure!)
Saranac Bell Alumni squad:
1. Brad Myers/Paul "the Welshman", 2. John Ruff, 3. Shawn Watson/Patch, 4. Jim Aru/Neil Chatterly, 5. Andrew Grace, 6. Sean Eaton/Chris Spriggs, 7. Kevin Beane (dude without the shirt!!!), 8. Rick Veit/Downtown, 9. Derek Featherstone (vc)/Joe Nesrallah (coach), 10. Jason Pither (captain)/Chris Stewart, 11. Colin Murphy/Chucky "The Chainsaw" O'Connor, 12. Ryan Bradford/Steve Ruff, 13. Matt"Puke" Barthe, 14. Mike Hooper/Louie Sourges/Geoff Carran, 15. Andrew "Kujo" Matsukubo/Courtney Trelevan
Coach: Bud McCrae/Joe Nesrallah
Missing in Action: Steve McNeill????
