2006

2006 welcomed the 20th Anniversary of Greenwich Rugby (1986-2006).  We celebrated with another trip to the Nationals.  Youth and ignorance prevailed as the Cardinals had no plans for a rebuilding season.  After losing twenty-one seniors from last year’s team, Big Red came out on fire posting a 10-1 regular season record (6-1 in the Met Division One league).  Xavier, NY would once again be the Cardinals thorn in the side, handing us our only loss.  Captains Philippe Chaunu, Tomas Ferraro and David McCabe kept the “tradition” alive and successful molding a team made up of predominantly sophomores and freshmen.  Heading to the Northeast championships as the #2 seed, the Cardinals came back to beat the very speedy Keio Academy team with a penalty kick late in the match in the quarters; and then went on to dismantle the New England #2 seed, Bishop Hendricken in the semis.  The final was almost a replay of 2005 as Greenwich came out strong but wavered in the second half losing to those guys in Manhattan (Xavier).  Much of the success of our season was from Coach Porter and Coach Petrone who posted an undefeated Killer B season and a Freshmen team that developed three players into 1st side players.  The Cardinals were happy to take just a bus to their fifth National Championship at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.  Luck was not on our side at Nationals as we lost three heartbreakers to finish 16th in the country.  This year’s Hall of Fame inductees was one of the original founders, Barry Lyons and the team’s original faculty sponsor and supporter- the award winning teacher and coach, Terry Lowe.