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KATONAH, N.Y. The Harvey Club Rugby team, with a roster of players from several Westchester and Connecticut communities and local high schools, has become a proud tradition in the Katonah community and a hotbed for Westchester rugby.
Coached by Philip Lazzaro, who founded the Harvey School rugby program in 1996 with assistants Mark Brandon, Howard McManus and Tom Feighery, the sport was offered to Harvey students as an alternative to the spring sports of baseball and lacrosse and has expanded to included rugby players from all points.
We are in our 17th year of competitive play, Lazzaro said. Over the past five years we have been able to have non-Harvey student-athletes participate in our program. We currently have student-athletes from John Jay, Pleasantville High School and Horace Greeley playing on our squad. A majority of our graduates go on to play in college, which is important.
The team was founded as an offshoot of the schools nationally-competitive Model United Nations program and has qualified for Northeast Regional Playoffs on three occasions and in 2004 qualified for the USA Rugby National Championships where it finished ranked 11th in the country.
Since its inception, the team has traveled extensively to train in the preseason and also to tour. The team has trained in North Carolina, Texas, Louisiana and Arizona. In 1999 the team traveled to Scotland.
The members of the 2012 Harvey rugby team are:
Nathanael Alexander (Katonah), Christian Artuso (Pleasantville), Alexander Bank (Mount Kisco), Benjamin Brimelow (Greenwich, Conn.), Bradley Browne (Old Greenwich, Conn.), Zachary Buckwald (Brookfield, Conn.) Matthew Castleton (Lincolndale) Cameron Chase (Mahopac), Jonathan Chirico (Bronxville), John Cunningham (Mahopac), Barry Falk (Cortlandt Manor), Nicholas Gattuso (Mount Kisco), Christian Harrington (Stamford, Conn.), Steven Karsanidi (Dobbs Ferry), Sharif Koonce (Peekskill), Guillermo Leon (Katonah), William Leventhal (Stamford, Conn.) Jesse Matts (Port Chester), Michael Meehan (West Redding, Conn.), Alexander Moore (Greenwich, Conn.) John Mulhern (Rye,) Aidan Novins (Stamford, Conn.) Kieran O'Connor (West Harrison), Robert Palladino (New Rochelle), William Rice Ridgefield, Conn.), Paul Riverain (New Rochelle), Taylor Robinson (Stamford, Conn.), Daniel Schonning (Ridgefield, Conn.) and Charles Seider (Scarsdale)
For more information, visit the Harvey Rugby Club website.
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