Final squad preparations are underway this week under the watchful eyes of Dave Clancy Cayman Rugby Unions Strength and Conditioning coach and Richard Grizz Adams the Director of Rugby. The team departs on Monday August 12th to the highly prestigious tournament that is strictly by invitation only. Cayman will join 11 other teams in the two day tournament with Mexico, France and the Tigers in their Day 1 pool. Day 2 will be determined by day ones results. Other teams include Falcons, Serevi select, Northeast, Royal Air Force, All Americans, Rapturs, El Azul, Bermuda, USA Marines, USA Air Force, US Navy & USA Coast Guard. The team has been under the direction of Strength and Conditioning professional Dave Clancy for the past six weeks as the Cayman Rugby Union kicks off its High Performance plans in accordance with their Strategic Development plans aimed towards the 2016 and 2010 Olympic Games. Clancy’s services have been provided through a Commonwealth Games Federation grant for the five months leading up to the November NACRA championships to be held at Truman Bodden on November 9th and 10th. Clancy said ‘This tournament will offer an extremely high performance environment held at Infinity park in Glendale which is a purpose built Rugby facility. Our team is very new and for the guys going it will be a massive experience and eye opener but we have to attend these levels of tournament if we are to break into the world scene of sevens ion the next year or so. I fully expect the rugby to be fast and hard and I expect us to be able to deal with it.’ Final Squad: Mark Soto, Edward Westin, Paul Westin, Jonathan Murphy, Richard Lewis, Chris Kennedy, Josh Brown, Chris Palmer, Alex Harvey, Mike Wilson, Andrew Ibeh & Phil Fourie Director Of Rugby Richard Grizz Adams is pleased with what he has seen so far “bringing Dave in has been massive for this program, the Union and our aspirations of lifting the trophy not just in November but for years to come. The players are realizing for the first time in their careers what it means to prepare properly and be fit, strong powerful and quick. It is not easy and the squad are putting in countless hours in their preparation which I am delighted to see. It is giving our programs the High Performance touch that we have needed. Dave is also working with the Men’s XV’s the U19 and High Performance development programs of the U16 and U14 starting in September as we identify players capable of reaching the Olympics in 2016 and 2020 and all of the games and tournaments along the way. We are very fortunate to also have the services of Morgan Williams a former Professional XV’s and VII’s player and former captain and coach of Canada sevens. Morgan will fly in on Friday for the tournament and I will be preparing the team through their camp all of next week. We are also supported by a great medical sciences group in Doctor Sean Teeling and Physiotherapist Al Bartice who both provide superb services. The High performance umbrella that we started to roll out last year is now fully planned and documented over the next four years and while I am still working to finance it all, it is aimed at lifting us out of the region and into world competitions. The time I have spent in other very successful small Union nations such as Wales and Scotland have simply confirmed that in many ways we have both the athletes and potential to mirror their remarkable achievements right here in Cayman as long as we provide high performance learning environments for our athletes and we continue to invest heavily in our youth development programs. When the membership wrote the Strategic Development Plan in 2007 the ultimate goal for 2020 was to be third in the region only behind Canada and the USA above us, well our U19 have been third for the past five out of six years, our men finished fourth this year due to a silly penalty that cost us the game V USA South and we fully intend to be at least third in the November championships so we are well on our way to meeting the 2020 goal. We are currently launching a women’s recruitment and coaching program aimed at 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games for Caymanian women athletes. With Canada and the USA both in our region and expected to pre qualify for 2016 and 2020 there is a real chance of the next best women’s team from this region making Rio. We need to recruit and train these girls now if we are to have any chance at filling this spot in the Olympic roster. The first introductory camp will be September 1st at the Rugby Grounds at 3pm and no experience what so ever is necessary. In 2014 we are starting a Cayman Islands Exiles Sevens team that will participate in twelve UK based sevens tournaments. The team will be made up of Caymanians, living and playing or studying in the UK. The number is fast approaching twenty players under the age of twenty four so this is a cheap and great way to keep them playing together in a superb Rugby environment.”
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 18:51:30 +0000
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