Atlantis Rugby Victorious Again in Grenada!
- Dave Codell
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Over the weekend of December 5/6 Atlantis Rugby sent both a women’s and a men’s side to the Grenada Rugby World 7s tournament. This tournament continues a long history of Atlantis playing Caribbean Sevens with our first appearance dating back to 1995 when we traveled to Port of Spain for the tournament that was held December 2/3 in Trinidad & Tobago.
Coming into this year’s event the women had made the podium two years in a row with a second-place finish in 2023 and a third-place finish in 2024 while the men came in having won the tournament in 2019 and 2023 to go along with a second-place finish in 2024. (Note that we did not participate in 2020 or 2021).
The women once again ended up on the podium in 2025 with a third-place finish and the men made it 3 titles in their last 5 trips with an undefeated weekend. The sides were bolstered by the experience and knowledge of coaches Josie Ziluca and Chris Ryan along with a very large travelling support staff that has become a staple of this event for us over the years.
The teams also had extra motivation to put on a strong performance as they played in honor of Blake Blaylock and Erik Elken, two outstanding Atlanteans who tragically passed away this year. The team wore armbands with Blake’s initials on them and had Erik’s Atlantis jersey on the field to celebrate. As always, our condolences continue to go out to all of Blake and Erik’s friends, family, and teammates. We will seek to honor their legacies through our play.
Providing additional support as jersey sponsors this year were Dunkin’ and Pickle Juice who have continued to support our program at all levels through the years. Pickle Juice has also been kind enough to set up a link to their site that will provide a kickback to Atlantis Rugby. If you are interested in purchasing Pickle Juice and supporting our program please click this link: https://picklepower.com/discount/ATLANTIS?redirect=%2Fcollections%2Fpickle-juice
If anyone is interested in seeing what a week of rugby in the Caribbean looks like we also have a video that was put together by Danny Giannascoli and can be found here: https://youtu.be/oZzsPcXlXAI?si=Dj4quFECsMRzoh4n
And we also have a photo album on our Facebook page.
We’d like to thank everyone who supported us on this trip and throughout the last 40 years!
The rosters for Grenada 2025:
Women:
Kaitlyn “Kiwi” Sosa
Jo Asumang
Sophie Pyrz
Kit Buzby
Merrin McSorley
Erika Farias
Katie Lohaus
Jules Buescher
Julia Norwood
Coco Mendoza-Silva
Emily Krahn
Kayla Walker
Men:
Quinn Western
Garrett Lyons
James Lyons
Owen Sheehy
Corey Jones
Jim Rosato Jr
Mitch Vannoy
Luc Desroches
Tiave Watts
Dawson Smith
Danny Giannascoli