By Emma Deo
For the first time ever, the Plattsburgh State women’s rugby team took home the TNT Rugby tournament championship on their home pitch Saturday.
The current Plattsburgh State men’s rugby team also participated in the tournament, but the Plattsburgh alumni team was able to take home the men’s trophy.
Saturday marked the 27th year of the Plattsburgh State TNT Rugby tournament, but there is more to the tournament than just competition on the pitch. All proceeds from the day are donated directly to the Anthony Santandrea Memorial Scholarship Fund, which pays scholarship money for one Plattsburgh undergraduate student. The scholarship is an homage to Anthony Santandrea and Trevor Green, two former Plattsburgh State rugby players who died as students.
“We had food, music and raffles, everybody had a really good time. It feels good to be able to provide for the alumni and the community,” senior men’s rugby captain Ethan Ehrensbeck said.
Paul Smith’s College, Albany Law, Potsdam and Hamilton College all competed for the championship along with the current Plattsburgh men’s and women’s rugby teams and their alumni counterparts.
The Plattsburgh women’s team was dominant, defeating every team they faced Saturday, ultimately taking down Potsdam in the championship.
Senior women’s rugby president Evie Hatch said TNT is the event of the year that everyone on the team looks forward to.
“I think we were all just excited to be there. Morale was high, communication was good and I think we were just focusing on playing and enjoying everything and less on winning,” Hatch said.
Hatch said that a lot of preparation goes into the event, from inviting teams to come up to the North Country and play to getting to the field early to set everything up, so it becomes a community event for the rugby squads.
Senior women’s rugger Natasha Sheffer credited a lot of the team’s success Saturday to the camaraderie of the Plattsburgh rugby programs coming together to put on the event.
“The men’s and women’s teams are together and the alumni from both sides are there,” Sheffer said. “A lot of the teams that come are teams that we play against a lot so it’s very fun playing and makes a very good atmosphere.”
As a program, the men’s team also had a good day out on the pitch, although the current team fell in the first round to the Plattsburgh alumni, they were able to defeat Hamilton College and take home the championship.
Ehrensbeck said the men’s team came together to set up for the day and created a great sense of community for the players, alumni and fans.
“You feel a great sense of pride hosting a bunch of teams and having them come up to you and say that they love coming up here and that they had a great time. It feels good to be able to provide for the alumni and the community,” Ehrensbeck said.
Moving forward, the men’s and women’s programs are focused on increasing recruitment efforts and keeping the programs operating at a high level.
“It’s really important to have numbers, getting more kids to come out and play and teaching the newer guys the game so they can get out and compete,” Ehrensbeck said.
Hatch said the women’s squad has a large senior class leaving so recruitment and getting students to realize that there is much more to rugby than just the sport, there’s an entire community aspect.
“We also got a good chance for our seniors to take a step back off the field and let some of our younger players take a chance and be on the field. There were a few games where neither one of our captains were on the field, so one of our younger players could step up and take control. I think that is always good to see, as a senior, to know that your team is going to thrive, even when half of them graduate,” Hatch said.
