New York, NY (Northeast Academy Release) - The Northeast Academy kicks off a busy and exciting international tournament schedule this weekend at Serevi Rugbytown Sevens in Glendale, Colorado. Head coach and Director of Coaching, Steve Lewis will lead a solid mix of experience while also blooding two, possibly three new ODA standouts in his return to the Denver area’s prestigious Sevens event. Having won Plate hardware at Rugbytown 2014, the Academy team is hungry to improve on its collection, but also understand there will be no element of surprise in their favor this time around. Additional Bowl and Plate successes in last year’s World Club Championships in Limerick and London, respectively help to guarantee the Academy’s place among the ‘teams to beat’ at Rugbytown, ‘15.

Competition for each and every spot on the 12 man roster was fiercely contested in the lead-up to Academy’s 2015 debut tournament. Players in the Northeast pathway are evaluated both on their performance levels in camp and with their respective home clubs during the Northeast 7’s Championship Series. Intra-squad rivalry heated up throughout the summer as players in both of the Academy’s New York and Boston area groups met on opposite sides of the pitch week in and week out, right through last weekend’s National Club 7’s championships. The team’s depth chart is dense with talent from all over New York and New England. Players from Mystic River, Old Blue NY, as well as from NYAC, Boston RFC and the CT Bulldogs all were in the consideration for slots on the Rugbytown roster.

Barring injury, only two members of the Academy’s 2015 roster will be making their on-field debut with the ODA. Given the volume of rugby played over the past few weeks though, including National Club 7’s, there is a strong possibility that the team will use its reserve slot in Glendale as well. Connor Wallace-Sims of the USA U20s, and three-time Collegiate 7s All American Dylan Carrion are the talented rookies. University of Oklahoma standout Michael Al-Jiboori is also making his first trip with the ODA as the named reserve. Every member of the rest of the squad has previously earned Northeast minutes at other high level international tournaments such as Elite City Sevens, LVI and the previously mentioned World Club events. Most should be familiar faces to those who followed Rugbytown 2014, Old Blue at the National Club 7s in Des Moines last week, and the OTC/High Performance camp roll calls in recent years.

Gavan D'Amore-Morrison is a standout from AIC, and Marcus Henderson (Stanford) and Pono Haitsuka (Oregon State) are recent college grades.

The Northeast Academy Roster for Rugbytown Sevens in Glendale, CO:

1. Dylan Carrion, 2. Jared Collinson, 3. Vini Daley, 4. Jon Feldman, 5. Chris Frazier, 6. Marcus Henderson, 7. Rick Kirkland, 8. Derek Lipscomb (c), 9. Gavan D’Amore-Morrison, 10. Pono Haitsuka, 11. Sean Rafferty, 12. Connor Wallace-Sims

Res. Michael Al-Jiboori