Jul
23-29, 2002: Coed Atlantis Tours Brazil
NOTE of July 2013: What follows is mostly an article I wrote
and submitted on August 7, 2002 to Rugby for publication,
where it was published in an edited form. (NEED TO FIND RUGBYMAG ARTICLE) The pictures were selected from my
files in 2013.
I also found some emails I sent to the
old Women's Rugby Discussion Group during the tour, giving
updates. Where this information was not in the article
submitted to Rugby, it's incorporated in blue, below.
The invitational team Atlantis made its first visit to Brazil this
July, stopping in Rio and São Paulo before settling into the
mountain town of Atibaia for the 7th annual Brazil Winter Sevens
(Torneio do inverno).
Tuesday, July 23:
Hello Brazil! ☺
We expected to have 10 women and 10 men players, but when we
finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro Tuesday July 23, the final
numbers were 9 and 7, respectively, plus three non-players.
The original plan was to arrive in Rio at 11 AM, check into our
hotel in Niterói, practice on Niterói’s field, then scrimmage them
(both women and men). Following that we were to enjoy a
social evening.
Our connecting flight from São Paulo to Rio, however, was more
than 3 hours late and we didn’t emerge from the Rio customs area
until nearly 3 PM. Even worse, we spent those 3 hours in a
São Paulo departure lounge with no food available (well, there
were cheese-filled potato rolls).
We were taken immediately to the field, where the players changed
from the bus, warmed up (minimally), and kicked off at 4:30 (still
no food since our airplane breakfast).
With no idea of what to expect, the women went out on the field
and found themselves against a physical Niterói side. After
a jet-lagged first half (these were 10-minute halves) that saw a
12-0 lead evaporate to 12-7, the team rebounded for 36-7 win.
The men's game was even more problematic. With only seven
players - all from NYAC - we were praying for good health.
Early in the second half, with the score 14-14, a yellow card
forced us to play 6 on 7 for awhile. No scores ensued and
when the 7 on 7 parity was resumed, the New York boys scored 3
tries in a half that lasted 14 minutes (we had agreed to play 10s
. . . ) The final score was 31-14.
We were too tired to think too much until
after we got to our hotel, the Icarai Praia, following the
games, and no pictures were taken.
We gathered after cleaning up and
prior to heading out and had our first group picture taken.
Tuesday night 7/23 at the
Hotel Icarai Praia in Niteroi. From here we went to
party.
Top step: Matt Frank, Meredith, Pam, Kermit
2nd step: Linne, Shoshona, Emil, Matt Rader, Drew
3rd step: Sarah Schooler, AJ, Sarah Sall, Koma, Andrew
Bottom 2 steps: Nicky, Beet, Dana, Joan, Sean
The dinner afterwards at “À Mineira” – a restaurant featuring food
from the Minas Gerais province –turned into a party, with Matt
“Head” Frank – AKA Lola – taking over the role of social chairman
and leading all 4 teams (men & women x 2) into a rousing
chorus of “Father Abraham [had seven sons, seven sons had Father
Abraham].” More singing, a boat race (won by the home team)
. . . just like “the good old days.”
And – an introduction to Brazilian prices – a fabulous “all you
can eat” buffet dinner plus a generous consumption of liquid
refreshment, all for less than $10 per person.
This was certainly one of the craziest first days of a tour ever,
but also, as I stated at the joint dinner / social session that
evening, after 96 tournaments and 23 countries, in the end it
turned out to be possibly the best-ever first day of a tour.
Let it be known that singing has not
disappeared from rugby.
And there were six more to follow. All would be great.
Tuesday night 7/23: Atlantis men & women
and Niteroi men & women at À
Mineira restaurant
Our tour party comprised (Atlantis number, Name, Age, Club):
Atlantis Women
615 Linne Amundson, 25/26*, Colorado She-Wolves
428 Dana Creager, 29, NOVA
512 Koma Gandy, 27/28*, San Diego Surfers
616 Pam Kosanke, 24, Chicago North Shore
617 Shoshona Le, 25, Black Ice (CO)
582 Joan Norton, 21, Philadelphia
578 Sarah Sall, 24, Brandywine
499 Sarah Schooler, 28, Maryland Stingers
510 Meredith Whalen, 23, New York (captain)
* Two tour birthdays
Atlantis Men (all of these “Iron Seven” play sevens for NYAC)
610 Andrew Cruz, 20 (15s for Le Moyne College)
611 Andrew di Veglio, 19 (15s for Univ. of Delaware)
522 Jim "Kermit" Egan, 29 (captain, 15s for Rockaway)
612 Matt Frank, 22 (15s for Rockaway)
613 AJ Goodman, 20 (15s for Queen’s Univ., Ontario)
614 Sean McDermott, 34
587 Matt Rader, 26
Non-players
S1 Emil Signes, Coach
S49 Beet McKinnon, Physio
S60 Nicky Barrett, Much-Needed Support
July 24-26
On Wednesday we practiced on a beautiful beach in Niterói (just
across the bay from Rio), but were warned not to go in the water
(pollution). With our trusty guide 16-year-old "Baby"
Futuro, we took public transportation to Itacoatiara (pronounced
"EE-ta-kwuh-CHA-ruh"). The water was pristine but very
rough, and the lifeguards pulled out our entire team for swimming
in dangerous conditions. Turns out this is one of the stops
on the international surfing championship tours . . .
At the beach: Baby Futuro showing Dana and
Sarah Schooler some (henna) tattoo designs
The henna tattoos were a popular item.
After another good evening in Rio (dinner was all you can eat
pizza & pasta - $3.00 for men, $2.50 for women), we took a bus
to São Paulo. It was a luxurious double-decker bus with
fully reclinable seats, and seats on the upper deck for the
six-hour ride cost less than $15.
I remember we were out late again and our
bus left at some ridiculous time like 5:30 AM. Needless
to say, the luxury of the bus helped us sleep the entire 6
hours.
Sleeping on bus. Head, Cruz, Emil, Joan, Sean, Sho
These could have been taken of the entire party for just
about the entire 6 hours
Nicky, Dana, Emil in São Paulo bus station
Our scheduled game vs. a São Paulo side never happened but we
spent an evening a) eating food from the region of Bahia and b)
visiting O'Malley's pub. (I personally visited relatives whose
branch has been lost to mine for 100 years . . . )
The team had dinner at a restaurant that
specializes in food from Bahia
I wasn't there, but I recognize a few
caipirinhas on the table :)
One branch of my family, the Graziani,
moved from Italy to Spain in the 1820s (where they became
Graciani). My immediate branch of the family lost touch
with all the Spain Graciani about 100 years ago, but I managed
to make contact. (Lots of research!) I found out that one
branch of the Spain Graciani moved to Brazil many decades ago,
and - proud of myself for doing this - found them. While
the team went for a Bahian dinner, I joined my relatives for a
meal in one of the better Spanish restaurants in São Paulo.
(The entire Graciani discovery has been an amazingly enjoyable
project, still in progress: http://emilito.org/family/emilito/graziani/finding_graziani.html).
There is another part of this Graciani branch in Brasilia, but
I couldn't manage that on this trip.
With long lost relatives, the Graciani of São
Paulo:
Luiz, Clotilde, Bernardo.
Luiz's brother Henrique, also there, took the picture.
Friday after lunch we headed to Atibaia, site of the tournament
and the place where, for the first time on the tour, we were to
have the chance to practice on a full size pitch. We arrived
about 4:30, and just as we walked onto the field, a great gust of
wind hit us and . . . a large helicopter landed on the 50-m
line. Grrrr.
It was an important politician from São Paulo visiting for an
hour.
We worked around the helicopter, and when it finally left (flying
directly over us and buffeting us in the helicopter's wake), we
had the full field for about 20 minutes.
The next two hours added to the craziness of the tour.
It all started as an uneventful bus ride. We were heading to
our hotel, located at 1100 meters (about 3600 feet) in a rain
forest that houses some endangered species, including Pumas.
Other occupants of the area include several species of monkeys,
wild boars, various snakes and other creatures.
We ran into a “minor” problem: the hairpin turns on the route to
the hotel are not made for buses. We got completely stuck on
a steep uphill hairpin, with the rear end of the bus jammed into
the ground and the tires spinning madly. We all disembarked,
re-embarked and tried to “weight” the bus (all to the right, all
in the front, etc. Attempts to free the bus included
dislodging a large concrete sign post to use as a lever, using
sticks, branches, and other amusing failures. Finally – much
to our relief – the engine was jacked off the ground (Bruxo's original suggestion), and we
were freed. This was not the end, however. Just shy of
our hotel we crossed a one-lane bridge (one car, not bus, width,
that is). Our bus hit a rock just on the other side of
the bridge, and the entire front bumper (about 2 feet high and the
entire width of the bus) dropped to the ground.
Left: Rear of bus, left side stuck on ground //
Right: Front of stuck bus
Note at left driver had wedged a post under
the bus to free it ... Low probability of that working
:(
Left: All to right of bus! (about this time a Cheez-It dropped from
Socks' mouth onto Beaker's head)
Right: next AM, Chefe helps driver fix bumper
Next AM: the curve in retrospect.
Roughly where the red car is is where the front end was when
we got stuck
We disembarked again and carried our luggage several hundred yards
to the hotel.
My only interest while people worry what the
night's future will bring is in finding the Southern Cross (the
view of the stars is amazing!) Unfortunately, no one else seems
to consider that a priority.
Kermit found a song on one of his Irish CDs with a selection that
might have been the theme for our adventure: "We're on the
one road, it might be the wrong road, but we're together now, who
cares!"
For those who were there, a bit of
memory jogging: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X44OfwqiZAw
Our hotel, by the way, turned out to be a spectacular mountain
resort. Had we known how nice it was, it would have been
worth a couple of days’ stay before the tournament. It even
has its own soccer field! (Visions of all-day practices
whirl in my mind . . . )
Beet found a room to set up his massage table and was kept busy
working on beat-up athletes until after 1 AM. (In my note to the women's rugby group:
"Bruxo finds a massage room at the rain
forest resort and works on Mamãe, Silent Bob, Pimp Daddy,
Carmen, Socks - and others - and bedtimes extend past 1 AM."
Saturday, July 27:
Winter Sevens in Atibaia, Day 1.
Atlantis Men and Women in Kit on Game Day. Top left is
the town of Atibaia
Top: Beet, AJ, Koma, Pam, Matt Frank, Dana, Matt Rader,
Linne, Emil
Bottom: Andrew, Meredith, Kermit, Shoshona, Sean, Sarah
Schooler, Sarah Sall, Drew, Joan
The Brazil Winter Sevens are held annually in a mountain town in
São Paulo state: previously held in Campos de Jordão, this year
they moved to Atibaia.
It is a beautiful area, and we had perfect rugby weather: daytime
highs in the 70s and nighttime lows in the upper 40s. Only
one field is available, however, and to cover the needs of 33
teams (16 men, 9 women, 5 youth and 3 Old Boys), the day is long,
as is time between each team’s games. All teams get exactly
2 games per day, win or lose.
Rugby in Brazil struggles even more than it does in the US: in the
country of the soccer world champions there is not much interest
in other sports, especially one as foreign to the Brazilian
culture as rugby. Interestingly, rugby in Brazil was
introduced to Brazil about 100 years ago, at roughly the same time
as soccer.
Today, in a country of 180,000,000 people there are only about
1,000 rugby players. Men’s rugby comprises roughly 30 clubs,
with half in São Paulo. Other states with clubs include Rio
(3), Paraná (1), Santa Catarina (3), Rio Grande do Sul (1), Mato
Grosso do Sul (1), Minas Gerais (2) and Amazonas (3).
Brazil men rank #5 in South American rugby, and barely missed
moving to #4 with a close loss to Paraguay this year. Their
double win over Trinidad & Tobago in the World Cup qualifying
round was huge; before this, they had never scored against
T&T. According to Niterói coach Nei Vasconcelos, Brazil
made the greatest progress of any IRB nation in rankings based on
the World Cup qualifying process: going from #84 to #46. Note of July 2013: Brazil is now ranked 33rd.
Women’s rugby in Brazil began less than 10 years ago, and now
comprises more than 10 teams, most of which take part in Brazil’s
many sevens tournaments. So far it has been mostly sevens
that the women have played, but they have moved to 10s and hope to
be playing 15-a-side rugby shortly. According to
Vasconcelos, who coaches the Brazilian women, improvement in
women’s rugby has been very rapid, even more so than that of the
Brazilian men.
Note of 2013: Brazil was one of only 3
countries from the Americas (with Canada, who ended up 2 in
the world, and US, 3) to make the Women's Rugby World Cup
Sevens 2013 (as they had in 2009). An unofficial blog ranks the Brazilian
Women as #13 in the World (http://les-archives-de-serge.over-blog.com/pages/RUGBY_A_VII_FEMININ-8131036.html).
At any rate, they'll be automatic
qualifiers for the Olympics in Rio in 2016.
We headed to the field at 8 AM, and the rugby finally began.
The women looked very good in two convincing victories, 24-5 over
São Paulo Athletic Club, and 40-0 over USP (University of São
Paulo).
The men easily defeated “FEA,” a São Paulo Club, 43-0, and then in
the evening played their first “tough” competition, Pasteur, one
of Brazil’s top clubs. The score was 21-0 to us, but it was
a very difficult match, one in which our young boys grew up.
Sean (AKA Commando) wins LO
vs. FEA. Perfect throw by QB Matt Rader ... but
are the backs ready?
On the periphery & in the stands.
July 2013: Dug up lots of old photos. The stands were a great
place to be over the weekend; lots of things were going on.
(Oh, I nearly forgot one great
tour moment - Benny's cheer-leading performance. Having
made a false accusation on the tour, she was condemned by the
group to public humiliation. In this case, it was leading
the entire stadium, between games, in "Father Abraham," which
she had just learned from Lola on this tour. She succeeded, and
even got a couple of the players that had just finished their
game to join her dance.)
Sarah Schooler (Benny) gets good audience
participation with her spirited rendition of Father
Abraham.
Sadly, she had to leave at
the end of the first day of games.
Left: Beet ready to massage norteamericanos and
brasileiros alike
Right: The American flag
marked the spot for Atlanteans to watch, hang out or sleep
Nicknames from Benny
Sarah
Schooler had to leave our tour early. To continue to feel
useful (I guess), she sent a note to Julie McCoy, copy to
the Colleen Chapin-moderated Women's Rugby discussion
group. She included all the tour nicknames:
Hi, Jules. Since I am UNFORTUNATELY back
home 2 days early instead of partying with the team in
Brazil, I figured I might be on email sooner than Emil... so
here are the tour names (sans explanations) - Sarah
THE GIRLS
Dana "Marino" Creager: Mamãe
Sarah "father abraham" Schooler: Benny
Koma "I don't WANNA be an old girl!" Gandy: Carmen
Linne "pass the egg pizza" Amundson: Socks
Shoshona "loudmouth" Le: Vanessa
Sarah "sure, i'll play prop!" Sall: Sassy
Meredith "i never" Whalen: Christmas
Pam "me neither" Kosanke: Junior
Joan "let's go shopping" Norton: Porno
THE BOYS
Sean "fashion fine" McDermott: Commando
Jim/Kermit "take me drunk, i'm home" Egan: Beaker
Matt "the quarterback" Rader: Silent Bob
Matt "that's NOT why they call me HEAD!" Frank: Lola
Andrew it's all in the diet" Cruz: Lego Man
AJ "taxi" Goodman: Pimp Daddy
Andrew "just old enough to drive" diVeglio: Boot
THE STAFF
Emil "i have a relative in every country" Signes: Chefe
Beet "Sheen" McKinnon: Bruxo
Nicki "short stories" Barrett: Copa
OUR FEARLESS LIAISONS
Baby "i may be 16 but I sure can drink tequila" Futuro
Mauricio "the murderer" Migliano
WITH US IN SPIRIT
Al "oops, i had to work" Caravelli
Pudge "i planned the whole trip and all i got was a stupid
tshirt" Ryan
Heide "i hope my husband's not bungee jumping on our
anniversary "Signes"
Krista "i hope my wife is grabbing lots of asses on my
behalf" McFarren
OH AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST:
The Bus
"this has been the worst job of my life" Driver
Back at the Fazenda.
After a long Saturday at the field (sunny and 70s
till the sun went down, then chilly), we had dinner at our
paradise resort, Pousada Fazenda Vale Encantado
(Enchanted Valley Inn). Our hosts Sergio and Luiza were
wonderful, and on this cold mid-winter evening provided hot wine
and/or hot chocolate to all before bedtime. Also before
bedtime was the rookie show, which was [predictably] hilarious.
Their song became a tour favorite (to the tune of "Leaving on a
Jet Plane"; "real" = Brazilian currency; Kermit = fine master):
So **** off and let me be
Kermit stop harassing me
We hate to live in fear of all
those fines.
So Kermy, why you such a d***?
Don't know when we'll be back
for kicks
Oh Kerm, we have no more
reals.
Such is the
difficult life of a sevens tour. . .
Left: Our Hosts, Sergio & Luiza
Right: Rookie Show -- got to keep the veterans amused :)
Sunday, July 28: Winter Sevens
in Atibaia, Day 2
Relief. One of the first things we did
when we arrived was to check on the status of a woman that had
been concussed on Saturday. She was unconscious for more
than five minutes, and our team member Dr. Sarah Schooler was
among those tending to her.
She left the field in an ambulance but returned an hour later,
pleased that she would be able to play on Sunday.
Sarah was mortified. As were the rest of us.
The last thing Sarah did, before leaving on her much abbreviated
trip, was to find the coach of the Rio Branco team and advise him
against playing the injured player the next day. "Why?" he
asked dumbfounded - "they said her pressure is fine, she is OK!"
"Because people die," said Sarah, from secondary impacts.
Neither of us was convinced of the outcome of her plea, but the
next day, while speaking with one of the women's teams' coaches, I
asked "The player that was injured yesterday - is she playing
today?"
"No," he responded, "they are holding her out."
Thank God for small favors.
2013: In the stands. More
great photos from the old files.
Koma whiles away the time entertaining her
neighbors
Left: Head signing autographs for one of his many fans
Right: Drew and a "Drew-wannabee"
Left: Shoshona, Cris Futuro, Linne
Right: Commando's underwear was lost when his luggage didn't
arrive, but looks like he picked up eye shades on the flight
Matt AKA Head AKA Lola looking more like the Pied Piper.
Atlantis Women: The Atlantis women won the tournament,
defeating São Jose 40-0 (4 tries by Dana Creager) and Niterói
24-0. The Niterói players were excited by the fact that,
despite the score, their game picked up in the 5 days since we
first scrimmaged and attributed it to their realization, once they
saw us, that more was possible.
The women from Brazil, tired of spending their lives playing only
each other, then organized a Brazilian All Star team to play us in
a game following the final men’s match.
The half-time score was 12-10 as their little speedster (turns out
she is only 16!!) smoked us twice on long runs. When she was
injured early in the second half they lost a lot of their
punch. On top of that our defense stiffened. We won
26-10. We were pleased by the fact that, although the
tournament was officially over and free beer was available off in
one corner of the pitch, most of the spectators stayed to watch
our game.
All the Brazilians seemed really glad we came, which made the tour
doubly rewarding.
As new and tiny as the women’s rugby community in Brazil is, they
are getting athletes! And they wanted us to know they will be very
happy to host visiting teams!
Left: Atlantis and Niteroi Women
Right: Atlantis and Brazil All-Star Women
Atlantis Men. All of the Atlantis men play sevens for
NYAC, but of those, only 2 play on the first side. Five of
the seven are forwards. In addition, most play 15s
elsewhere, mainly for college sides. So – 5 “B” side
players, 5 forwards, 4 Under 23 players – definitely not your
typical touring sevens team! Nevertheless, it was a group
that was developing character throughout the tour and had stepped
up on Saturday. Could they actually win the tournament?
Against Alpha in the semifinals, they continued to play their
hearts out: the halftime score was 14-0 when Alpha brought in 3
Brazilian sevens internationals as subs. The subs helped
them to a 5-0 halftime advantage but our men hung on for a 14-5
win.
The tournament moved up the final an hour to allow Matt Rader to
make his 9:30 flight (which turned out not to be enough as he
missed it anyway!), and we played São José, last year’s Brazilian
Sevens champion, in the finals. When we scored in the 10th
minute of the first half to make the score 7-12, we felt the game
would be ours. São José, however, is a great team with tons of
speed and the second half saw three Atlantis turnovers, three
kicks downfield, three São José tries. The final score was
7-29.
Nevertheless, the weekend saw an excellent performance by the
young New Yorkers and their leader Jim "Kermit" Egan.
(Incidentally, the Old Boys Division featured an interesting twist
- the player that scores a try has to try to down a beer in one
swig - if he succeeds, the conversion is good. Most were.)
Trophies
The women, of course, got the trophy for winning the
championship, but there was a nice runners-up trophy for the men
as well.
With the championship trophy
Top: Linne, Shoshona, Sarah Sall,
Koma
Bottom: Pam, Meredith, Dana, Joan
& Emil (Sarah Schooler gone
home)
Captains - and coach - with our two trophies
Sunday night
The rest of the evening was
good generic fun. Money from our fine sessions bought about
4.976 beers and other miscellaneous treats, and we all retreated
to one of the rooms at the Inn and told stupid stories and sang
songs (including a reprise of "Oh Kerm, we have no more reals"
until the wee hours. I kept trying to drag the group back to the
50s, but one rendition of "Hey, Good Lookin'," a Hank Williams
Sr. hit, was my only success.
Another feature of the evening was that a couple of the boys had
their toes painted by the girls.
Typical reactions of the evening back at the
fazenda. In picture at left is Nei Vasconcelos, coach of
Niteroi, who joined us.
Monday morning: Kermit surveys what remains of Sunday night's purchase
Could it be that we overestimated our final
evening's consumption needs?
Monday, July 29:
Goodbye, Brazil ☹
Monday morning & early afternoon was spent
sitting around the gorgeous Vale Encantado resort - bright sunny
day, temperature in the 70s (as opposed to the 40s of the night),
packing, hanging out, and thinking about
returning to reality. A couple of ping pong and badminton games.
We return to São Paulo, stop at a mall, donate our remaining
3,515 beers to the bus driver, and are on the plane as I
write.
No one is rushed, and we finally leave around 2.
The entire week has been a pleasant surprise in the expense
department: Brazil is a very inexpensive country for
Americans. At the Pousada Fazenda Vale Encantado we
added up all the room bills and divided by the number of people
and shared the cost. It came out to $74 each -- for 3
nights’ room, 3 breakfasts, 2 excellent dinners, and miscellaneous
charges. Americans can expect to spend in reais
(plural of real, the Brazilian currency unit) just a little more
than what we spend in dollars at home -- and while we were there
the exchange rate reached 3 reais to the dollar! Note of July 2013: the real is slightly more
than 2 to the dollar, so just based on that alone, things will
be a lot more expensive.
It was a slow day, and we really got to
appreciate what a beautiful place we'd been staying at. Here
are a few views.
Left: Building in back was one of our housing units
Right: Chapel, pond on the grounds
Left: Another part of the grounds
Right: Luiza brings lunch to the pool
After a quick stop in a São Paulo shopping mall we head to the
airport and the process of separation begins. Another tour
is over and we lock another set of memories away for future
reference.
Sevens - simply too good for everyone to
know about . . .
At home with Brazilian flag bandana and far too much luggage
(though a lot of it was team stuff: pinnies, cones,
whiteboard, camcorder, etc etc etc)
