Atlantis Rugby 7s, an invitational 7s rugby club whose mission is to encourage and develop American rugby by playing domestic and international tournaments, recently participated in the Rugby Barbados World 7s tournament, as well as the newly formed Freetail 7s tournament in Austin Texas and ended up winning both tournaments. The roster for the Barbados tournament featured six past or present Skill Rugby 7s players and the Austin roster featured Mitch Vannoy on the field and Coach Chris Ryan on the sidelines along with our friends from Dallas RFC, Chris and Lynn Howard. Ahead of these tournaments Atlantis released player profiles as part of their team announcement. The bios for our guys are provided below:

Tyler Barberi is a native of Damascus Maryland and currently resides in Baltimore. Prior to joining Towson Rugby he was also a collegiate wrestler. His first Atlantis tour was in 2013 and he has competed at Club Nationals in 7s with both Skill Rugby and Beltway Elite in addition to earning a spot in the City Select Tournament. Tyler currently plays 15s for Baltimore Chesapeake and was part of the inaugural season for Old Glory DC. When Tyler isn’t playing rugby he’s hanging out with Huck the bassador and likes fishing, golfing, and being outdoors.

Danny Giannascoli has been playing rugby for 4 years and first played 7s in 2018. He learned the basics from playing catch with his brother Matt Giannascoli before joining Loyola University of Maryland Rugby. He is a 2 time NSCRO All American and competed with the Collegiate All American side at RugbyTown in 2019. In 15s and 7s his Loyola squad has consistently placed in the top 3 Nationally for NSCRO over the past 3 years and he participated in the 2019 Bermuda International 7s tournament. This past summer Danny played 7s with Skill Rugby and earned a spot on the Dream Team at Club Nationals as the team finished 4th.

Mitch “Full Boar” Vannoy started playing rugby for Christiana High School before playing collegiately for Delaware Rugby. He is one of Atlantis’ most consistent players and is making his 12th appearance for us this weekend. Mitch plays 15s for Wilmington and 7s for Skill Rugby in Philadelphia where he is a co-founder of the Beefcake Bunker. You can also catch Mitch in The Nomads Movie.

Grayson Haynes originally started playing rugby in Italy where he attended Naples American High School in Campania before moving to McLean Virginia. During his collegiate days he played for Delaware Rugby and played 7s with Skill Rugby. He is currently a member of the Potomac Exiles and Beltway Elite. This trip is something of a homecoming for Grayson as his grandfather was born and raised in Barbados.

Jack Ramirez recently graduated from Loyola Maryland where he played 4 years of national small college rugby. His team made appearances at the national championships for both 15s and 7s, most recently finishing 3rd in the country at the 2019 NSCRO CRCs. Before that he was a standout for Roman Catholic High School. This past summer Jack began his rookie season with Skill Rugby in his hometown of Philadelphia. This is his first tournament with Atlantis and he’s looking forward to continuing to step his game up to the next level.

Brian Keown is a Philadelphia native who played high school rugby for St. Joe’s Prep before playing collegiately for South Carolina as an undergrad and briefly for West Chester as a grad student. During his collegiate years Brian played for the Skill Rugby U23 program before joining River fulltime where he is currently the Club Captain. Brian has made numerous appearances for Atlantis and recently helped Schuylkill River finish 4th at 7s Nationals.