Atlantis Rugby Women and Girls go on tour!

The Atlantis Rugby Women and Girls recently went on tour in the Summer of 2026.

It has been a very busy summer for Atlantis Rugby! We started out with our XV Academy following the conclusion of the local state-based seasons and went 8-4 overall across three age groups (U18 Girls and Boys, U16 Boys) in Ohio and Maryland. We then turned our attention to 7s where our senior women recently competed in Colombia, and our U16 girls went to San Diego.

The Colombia trip was a product of the collaboration between longtime Atlanteans Josie Ziluca and Adam Dick. In fact, Adam actually coached Josie when she played for Atlantis in the Caribbean in 2013. Adam has since moved to Ecuador and now coaches their National team while Josie remains the Head Coach and Program Director for our Women’s program. The bold plan that the coaches came up with was for half of the team to come from Warmi Rugby in Ecuador and half to come from Atlantis. The players met up in Barranquilla, Colombia and quickly got to work training together and working to overcome language and cultural barriers.

The players bought into the concept and ended up with a 5^th place finish in the very competitive Crea Pro 7s tournament. Doing a combined side across National and language barriers may have been a brand new step for Atlantis Rugby in our 40 year history but we were helped tremendously along the way by Captains Erika Farias and Tina Aprahamian who worked on making the team cohesive culturally, and on the field. The rest of the roster included:

Danielle Pola Walko-Siua

Marcaya Bailous

Brittany Royes

Renata Minda Herrera

Angie Gonzalez Salazar

Kiana Lally

Madison Hovren

Claudia Castro Lita

Emily Lopes Gutierrez

Morgan Walker

Erin Wholey

Valerie Cabrera

Maria Jose Moreano Vasconez

Captain Erika Farias Moreno

Captain Kristina Aprahamian

New Atlantis Rugby Player Numbers awarded for this trip include:

2257 – Kristina Aprahamian

2258 – Valeria Cabrera

2259 – Claudia Castro Lita

2260 – Angie Gonzalez Salazar

2261 – Madison Hovren

2262 – Maria Jose Moreano Vasconez

2263 – Kiana Lally

2264 – Emily Lopez Gutierrez

2265 – Renata Minda Herrera

2266 – Morgan Walker

2267 – Danielle Walko-Siua

2268 – Erin Wholey

Next up for the Atlantis Women will be the FISU World University Championship in Stellenbosch, South Africa taking place in September. The U23 event will see Atlantis take on a field that is expected to be made up entirely of U23 National teams from around the world. It is going to be an amazing experience for the players and another outstanding tour!

The other recent Atlantis Rugby tour occurred in San Diego, California as we sent two U16 sides to the San Diego Surfers Surf n Turf tournament. The Surfers have won 5 National Championships in 7s (note that the women’s 7s championship has only been around since 2011 so this is even more impressive) to go along with their 15s success (2 WPL National Championships and 3 D1 National Championships) so we knew this would be a fantastic event and an excellent way for us to continue branching across the country. We’ve always gotten amazing coaches and players from California but we had been looking for an opportunity to compete on the west coast so we can’t thank the Surfers enough for including this division.

The Teal Squad included:

Adalyn Brown

Tatum Law

Emma Sutherland

Hiilei Vuta

Laila Mack

Laura Brosevic

Mackenzie Shafer

Addi McGettigan

Ady Staines

Marleigh Szymendera

Coach Elijah Seay

Coach Kris Thomas

While the Black Squad was:

Melanie Wilhoit

Jayla Rugani

Pippa Hoffman-Long

Celina Martinez

Alex Myers

Gemma Delia

Addi Scrogham

Savannah Horn

Millie Ritz

Coach Talia Carrasquillo

Coach Karl Barth

The teams, led by an outstanding group of coaches, assembled earlier in the week and in true Atlantis fashion had a training camp that was a mix of on-field activities, social events, and team building opportunities. They played very well on tournament day to bring home second and third place finishes. Our congratulations go out to Belmont Shore (another of the country’s premier rugby clubs from top to bottom) on bringing home the championship.

New Player numbers from San Diego include:

2246 – Savannah Horn

2247 – Celina Martinez

2248 – Alex Myers

2249 – Millie Ritz

2250 – Jayla Rugani

2251 – Laura Brosevic

2252 – Tatum Law

2253 – Laila Mack

2254 – Addi McGettigan

2255 – Mackenzie Shafer

2256 – Emma Sutherland

Next up for the Atlantis Girls will be our Player Development and ID Camp in September, our Fall XV Academy, and then New York 7s.

Congratulations to everyone for earning their numbers and for their strong performances on the field! Atlantis Rugby will be in action this upcoming weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah for the North American Invitational where we will be field two U14 Boys sides, two U16 Boys sides, and a U23 Men’s side. Good luck everyone!