Canadians are making themselves seen and heard down at several rugby tournaments over the past few weeks.

Mike Whitehead, playing with his Hoveround Gunners team, and Dave Willsie, leading the charge with a team made up of 2.0 classified players from within our national team program, called "Deuces Wild" were both selected as tournament all-stars at the Coloplast International.

One week earlier, they had been named "Best High-Pointer" and "Best Mid-Pointer" at the Knock and Roll tournament. On the same weekend, Erika Schmütz was named "Best 1.0" at the 1st annual Shepherd Classic tournament in Atlanta.

The event with the most Can-Con was the Coloplast International, which featured a top-notch lineup of teams, which consisted of the worlds 7th ranked international team from Germany, along with the following American teams, along with their club's current ranking in the USQRA: #2 Phoenix Heat, #3 Texas Stampede, #4 Hoveround Gunners, #5 Denver Harlequins, #6 Portland Pounders, and the host team from Tampa, the Tampa Generals, who are ranked 16th in the League.

An interesting write-up by the longtime tournament director on their 15th annual tournament features some good comments on the Canadian players.

The Deuces Wild team logo was put on a variety of different pieces, and was so well liked, Say Luangkhamdeng is going go be making some more of them. The shirts will all be in black.

Here's how things are going to be printed:

- T-shirts (short sleeves) will have the big logo on the front
- Long sleeve shirts will have the small logo or big logo
- Polo shirts will have the small logo on the left chest

Say will see if they can make the diamond suit and the heart suit red and maybe with some other red highlights. Please contact Say directly for more information.


Rosters for the teams at the Tampa tournament looked something like this:

#1 seed - PHOENIX HEAT
0.5 PETERS, Matt
0.5 SMITH, Brad
1.0 HOGSETT, Scott (W-06), (P-04)
1.0 PANGRAZIO, Phil
2.0 COHN, Andy (W-06), (P-04), (W-02)
2.0 POPPEN, Brent (P-04)
2.0 JOHNSON, Josh
3.0 SHIMAKAWA, Shinichi (W-06), (P-04)
Coach: Scott Hogsett

#2 seed - TEXAS STAMPEDE
0.5 BEARDEN, Chase
1.0 LYDUCH, Norm (W-06), (P-04), (W-02), (P-00), (W-98)
1.5 BOOTHBY, Robert
2.0 BECK, Jace
2.5 COLLINS, Troye (W-06), (P-04), (W-02), (P-00), (W-98)
3.0 ZUPAN, Mark (W-06), (P-04), (W-02)
Coach: James Gumbert

#3 seed - DENVER HARLEQUINS
0.5 REGIER, Jason (W-06)
1.5 BENSON, David
1.5 BOLSETH, Ron
1.5 SCATURRO, Adam
2.5 MORRISON, Ross (W-06), (P-04), (W-02)
3.0 SUMNER, Chance (W-02)

#4 seed - HOVEROUND GUNNERS
0.5 POST, Joel
1.0 MARSHALL, Rick
1.5 HARRISON, Dave
2.0 JENKINS, Dave
2.0 SPRINGER, Nick (W-06)
3.0 O'CONNOR, Pat
3.0 WHITEHEAD, Mike (W-06), (P-04), (W-02)
Coach: Ed Hooper

#5 seed - PORTLAND POUNDERS
0.5 JOHNSON, Kip
0.5 SUHR, Ed
1.0 KAMMEYER, Dave
1.0 WOODBURY, Max
2.0 McBRIDE, Seth (W-06)
2.5 GROULX, Will (W-06), (P-04)
3.0 NELSON, Lynn (P-04)
3.0 CHAN, Ian (W-06), (P-04), (W-02), (P-00), (W-98)
3.5 PATE, Steve (W-06), (W-02), (P-00)
Coach: Ed Suhr

#6 seed - DEUCES WILD
2.0 CHARTRAND, Allan (P-04)
2.0 KIM, Jonathan
2.0 LAROCQUE, Martin (W-06), (P-00), (W-98)
2.0 LUANGKHAMDENG, Say (W-06)
2.0 MURAO, Travis (W-06)
2.0 WILLSIE, Dave (W-06), (P-04), (W-02), (P-00), (W-98)
Coach: Benoit Labrecque

#7 seed - GERMANY
0.5 SCHREINER, Peter (W-06), (P-04), (P-00), (W-98)
1.0 WIESCHENDORF, Dirk (W-06), (P-04), (P-00), (W-02)
2.0 LEONHARD, André (W-06), (P-04), (W-02)
2.0 WERNER, Christoph (W-06), (P-04)
2.5 MAYER, Wolfgang (W-06), (W-02), (P-00)
2.5 HOLZEM, Jorg (W-06), (P-04), (W-02)
3.0 BAUMANN, Maik (W-06)
3.0 PICHT, Olivier (W-06), (P-04)
Coach: Pierre Sahm

#8 seed - TAMPA GENERALS
0.5 SERVIS, Steve
1.0 CERUTI, Dave (P-96), (W-95)
2.0 STARK, Justin
2.0 WELCH, Mark
2.5 VORSANE, Vi
3.0 KRESS, Ryan
3.0 LINDSTROM, Ryan
Coach: Dave Ceruti

Players with a (W) or a (P) played for their countries World Championship or Paralympic team in the year indicated.

Meanwhile, on the home front, teams in Ontario and Quebec will be getting geared up for a few tournaments closer to home, including:

- Ontario League #2 - in Barrie, ON (Feb 24-25)
- Windsor Classic Indoor Games (March 23-25)
- Défi Sportif (April 27-29)

Links to all these tournaments, and more, can be found on the CWSA's calendar page.

We hope to hear some more details on an upcoming tournament in Winnipeg soon, and info on the annual tournament in Vancouver is available through the calendar page.