Noah Fry

PRE452A
3/4/16
Prof. Ouellette

Silver Anniversary for TnT Memorial Rugby Tournament

For the last quarter century, Plattsburghs rugby clubs have been honoring two former
Plattsburgh State students and rugby players the best way they know how; a rugby tournament. On
April 23, the tournament will be played yet again for the 25th year. The tournament will be featuring
teams from schools all over the state of New York and Vermont, an adult club team and a team made up
of alumni rugby players.
The TnT, or Tony and Trevor, tournament is held every year to honor and remember Tony
Santandrea and Trevor Green who both lost their lives as students at Plattsburgh State. More recently
than that, the tournament also began to honor Billy Erwin, another rugby alumnus who lost his life
during the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. After their passing, trees were planted at
the field and remembrance plaques were displayed. On top of that, the profits from the tournament are
donated to the Tony Santandrea Memorial Scholarship Fund through the College Foundation. The
donation to the organization is used to provide scholarships for students entering their sophomore,
junior or senior year majoring in Ecology, Adolescent Education (Biology/Chemistry/Geology/Earth
Science), Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Geology, and Expeditionary Studies.
Both the mens and womens teams will be competing in the tournament and will be having full
brackets to compete against. The TnT Memorial Tournament is a sevens rugby tournament, which
means that there is only seven players on the field per team at one time, as opposed to fifteen. The
scoring is still the same, but instead of 40 minute halves, there is seven minute halves. The game of
sevens is much more wide-open and fast-paced than a traditional 15 man match. At last years mens
tournament, SUNY Potsdam took first with Paul Smiths College taking second and SUNY Plattsburgh

finishing third. Being ranked number four in the nation for small schools, SUNY Plattsburgh is looking to
fare much better this year.
I think I can speak for everyone on the team when I say that Im expecting us to play a lot of
great rugby with a lot of great people. We are really close with our alumni, so its always awesome to
get to play with them even after theyre graduated and living real lives. Even after the tournament ends,
hanging out with the alumni is fun because of how close we have remained even though we do not see
each other nearly as frequently. Since we had such a successful fall season, I am really hoping to win TnT
this year. Its a great day of rugby for a great cause, hard to have a bad time, said senior Business
Administration and Marketing major, team member and team treasurer, Gavin Cheeks Reken, when
asked to sum up the teams feelings going into the TnT Memorial rugby tournament.