The first weekend of August is a notoriously hard time to get your regular 15s squad in order for the pre-season with 7s only just winding down and many other squad members actively involved with the NY Knights strong AMNRL run this year. However the assembled squad, under coaches Drew Fautley and Shane Lehane, put a strong tournament in to make the Club Division final.

At last year's Can-Am NY came off second best to eventual losing finalists Bell High Alumni, as well as Burlington in the Club Consolation final. This year, however, the team made a jump into the Championship bracket. On the first day NY opened with a comprehensive victory over the Penn State Undergrads to the tune of 34-0. They then extracted some measure of revenge for last year's defeat by beating Bell High Alumni this time around 24-22. This gave NY a semi-final against METNY D1 rivals Long Island. In a tough game NY emerged 17-3 winners to go through to the final on the main field on Sunday. Although a strong Caves and Ditches team proved too much, with NY losing 32-10, the experience of getting to a final like this has whetted the team's appetite for the coming league season.

The team that represented the club was (In no specific order):

NYRC

ADELAINE, John
ANTOIAN, Tim
CARNEY, Leon ##
CUSH-FAUTLEY, AJ
DIDIER, Sebastian
LAU, RJ ##
LANZARA, Josh ##
LEHANE, Shane (S&C Coach)
MAZZURCO, Tom
MERFALEN, Enrique
REMMEL, Larry
SCHMALTZ, John ##
SONON, Danny
SPOER, Ben
VENZIN, Matt
WITTER, Mike ##
YANULIS, Pete

GUESTS

BOUDREAU, Ronnie (Springfield, Mass)
CHAVIS, Arnold (Penn State, Ex-NYRC U19)
DANEMAN, Eric (Rutgers)
DILLALO, Mike (Rutgers)
DROGE, Brendan (Iona College Alumni)
FITZGERALD, Brian (NYAC, Ex-NYRC Captain)
KALDIVOCS, Chris (Monmouth and Ex-NYRC)
SCHWARTZ, Steve (Iona Coll Alumni)
VORIS, Frank (Rutgers)
WEISHAUPT, Tom (Schuykill River, Ex-NYRC)

## These five NYRC members did not play in the tournament but were a huge part of our team unity!

This was a great moment for our club. We played hard and fought for every yard. Standout performances by Pete Yanulis all weekend with an injured shoulder was nothing short of inspiring. However, the way every person listed above supported each other and truly played in the spirit and process we set up was incredible!

On top of this achievement for the club, several of our team also received other accolades. Ex-Head Coach, John Adelaine, was a starter for the Over 35 Champions, White Plains Classix... AJ Cush-Fautley and Brian Fitzgerald were selected to represent the American clubs in attendance for a sevens exhibition game against Canada and did us all proud... And your coach lost in the final of the Over 45's final.

What a great way to start the season! Congratulations

With that said, YEP, the season has officially begun. We start our pre-season training Tuesday night introducing our Strength and Conditioning Coach (Shane Lehane) and our format and skills that will
make us the tight unit going forward into the league season.

Be there on time and ready to work

Drew