Three squads take gold, silver and bronze
Published in the August 14, 2015 edition
THREE MYSTIC youth rugby teams medaled at the Bay State Games. In the three photos are the medalists from the Mystic Blue and Mystic White teams. Melrose was well represented on both rosters. Also, the U19 team won silver and one of its coaches is a Melrose resident.
MELROSE — The Mystic Youth Rugby had three teams that medaled at the recent Bay State Games and many of the players on the squads were from Melrose. The Mystic Blue team were gold medalists, the Mystic White team were bronze medalists and the U19 varsity team took silver.
The Mystic Blue and Mystic White flag rugby teams were made up of fourth, fifth and sixth grade players. They won gold and bronze in their respective divisions.
There were eight players from Melrose that were members of the Mystic Blue gold medalist team. Those players included Alyssa Champagne, Xavier Meade-Kelly, Adriana Centrella, Cameron Bird, Gabriel La Verde, Paige Carter, Jackson Sorice and Alexis Thomas.
The bronze medalist Mystic White team had seven Melrose residents and two from Lynnfield. The players from Melrose were: Jenna Champagne, Noah Meade-Kelly, Ian McMaster, Mia Swift, Rosie Egan, Sofia Centrella and Derek Aquino. From Lynnfield were David LoGrasso and Nicolas Marcinowski.
The U19 team won the silver medal had Tom Clark as the head coach and Melrose resident Alex Brussard as the assistant coach. The U19 team also finished in second place against its rival for the summer, the Boston Irish Wolfhounds, who it traded wins and losses with throughout the season.
While there were no Melrose players on the team, one player was from Wakefield. Liam Smith is a junior at Malden Catholic and was the team’s captain for the season.
