Building an International Sevens Team for the Las Vegas Sevens Tournament by taking advantage of Social Media

from Lee Bennet:

During the summer of 2011 in Toronto the coach of the Senior Womens Toronto Saracen’s team Andy Ireland hatched the idea of taking a team to participate in the Vegas Sevens tournament. Initially the team would be made up of the Saracen players but as the fall came it became obvious that due to University schedules , work schedules and other reasons Andy would have to build his team around a core of Saracen players but he needed to recruit additional players. In discussions with sevens team manager Lee Bennet they decided to take advantage of the social media sites on the internet (facebook and linkedin) , to build a team. One key factor in building the team was Andy’s desire to have the team play in the Elite Level at the tournament one division down from the national teams. We were amazed at how fast the news spread that a team from Toronto ‘ The Beavers’ were looking for players. After a significant screening process 15 players were selected to travel to Vegas 6 from Canada , 4 from Europe and 5 from the USA.

When it came time to look for a kit sponsor we turned to Linkedin and was able to find a great company in Hong Kong Playmore Sports owed by Eddy Ou Yang that has an exceptional website that allows you to design your kit online. It took less than six weeks from the time we finalized the design to manufacture the shirts , shorts and socks and deliver it all to Slough in the UK.

Las Vegas bills itself as an International Sevens Tournament the Beavers are truly an International team. Stay tuned for game reports and updates during the Tournament from the Beavers. Andy has announced that he would like to continue to build on the development of the Beavers Sevens team and enter the Hong Kong Sevens and other sevens events scheduled in 2012.

Players from Canada
1. Tanya Bennet Toronto Saracen’s
2. Sabrina Mcdaid Toronto Saracen’s
3. Airelle Dubissette-Borrice Toronto Scottish, Uni Western Ont
4.Tiera Reynolds Toronto Saracen’s
5.Natalie Tam Toronto Saracen’s
6. Karla Telidetzki University of Toronto

Players from the UK and Europe
7. Meg Williams London Saracens/Toronto Saracens
8. Davinia Monteiro London Wasps
9. Desiree Emery Richmond RFC
10.Sandra Elfast Gothenburg RFC

Players from the USA
11. Liz Entwhistle Chicago Women’s Rugby Club
12. Lauren Daley TBA
13.Val Griffeth San Diego Surfers
14. Teresa Kane Chicago Women’s Rugby Club
15. Anne Venner Cambridge University

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