THE RUGGLES CUP
Last month, the Tigers travelled to Houston to take on the Lonestars in the annual Ruggles Cup. All in all, eight Tigers took the field that weekend. Veterans Tom Gillespie, Mitch Gray, Brady Moran, Garrett Remson, and Neil Stebbing played alongside newcomer Ryan Hicks and Billy “Deebo” France dusted off his cleats as well under the leadership of coach Matt Heintze.
Despite some bizarre weather (sunshine, wind, rain, and even hail), the Tigers held serve for most of the day in a tightly contested match. Eventually, however, the home team pulled away with a 15.15.105 to 8.9.57 victory.
SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL TOURAMENT
Then two weekends ago, The Tigers returned to Houston for the 2nd Annual South Central Regional Tournament. The day was eventful from the very beginning as the ever-reliable team bus parked on the side of the road for several hours after a blowout. Despite that setback, the bus eventually got moving and arrived in Houston at about 4:00 a.m.
Making their second appearance in as many months, Tom Gillespie, Ryan Hicks, Neil Stebbing, Mitch Gray, and Coach Heintze were this time joined by Josh Cartmill, Caleb Covington, Cole Hilgenkamp, Chase Rawson, Christian Roubique, John Zimmerman, Rob Montanaro and another newcomer, Tim Cannon.
Although expectations were high coming into the game, the injury bug struck early and often. After dropping the opening match against the Austin Crows by a score of 5.6.36 to 1.5.11, the Tigers played their next two games without a bench, falling to the Houston Lonestars 10.14.74 to 3.7.25 and a nail-biter to the Dallas Dingoes to 7.4.46 to 5.3.33.
Despite coming away from the tournament without a win, the team left in high spirits after having shown marked improvement in each game and looks forward to the rest of the USAFL slate:
Next Up:
June 1st – Baton Rouge Family Day Event sponsored by Fred’s in Tigerland
June 15th – Eastern Regional Tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina