The reason you won’t see his name on various major all-star and select side rosters is that he’s carrying an injury, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t influential this season.

Our 2015-16 Boys HS Player of the Season helped lead the Danville Oaks to a championships in the NorCal Varsity Premier, and a 3-0 record and a championship at the Pacific Cup. How good was Danville? Well, one of the teams they beat out for the NorCal title won the Boys HS Rugby National Championship club division (Granite Bay), and another, Jesuit, finished 2nd in the single-school division by a single point.

So when we say that Keanu Andrade was a leading player for a leading team, we mean it. The spark plug scrumhalf was the MVP of the Pacific Cup, and the go-to leader on a team of leaders.

“Keanu was born with special talents,” said Danville Head Coach Roy Helu. “That, combined with how hard he works at whatever he is doing - football, rugby, schoolwork - and the heat he brings to the game, is what sets him apart. When he’s on the field, you’re not worried about losing the game.”

Big words from the big man, and it does seem like Andrade has an easy confidence about him.

“Before the season we weren’t sure how far we were going to go,” Andrade told Goff Rugby Report. “We knew it would be a tough task in a new league, but we weren’t playing particularly well. We were playing sloppy, and it took us a while to get it together. But our tight five started to do really well in setting us up with great ball, and we started to play.”

For Andrade, it was a case of using what he had. The 2015-16 Danville team was one of power and strength. This year, they were more even-handed, with talent up front, and out wide.

With players like Chris Toetuu and Kevin Saunders he felt that any pass he made would be the right one.

“We had guys who could really play rugby, and guys with amazing speed,” he said. “But we also played as a team. It’s not like we depended on one player.”

All of that, say the coaches and observers, is because Andrade kept the clock ticking at scrumhalf.

Andrade started as a hooker in 4th grade, and has been playing ever since. He played rugby and football at De La Salle HS before opting to play his rugby with the Oaks. There they shifted him to scrumhalf.

And yes, he can play defense, too. Pat Conrad photo.

“I like it,” he said. “I like the decision-making, and being in the middle of the action.”

“He’s just a very coachable player,” added Danville Program Director Jon Straka. “But to give him to much structure would be wrong because he reads the game so well. He is going to be something special. He can take over a game when he needs to, makes other players’ very frustrated, and simply refuses to let us lose.”

Next up for Andrade is enrolling at Cal as a freshman. Very few first-year players get significant starting time with the Bears, but you have to wonder if Andrade might be one of them. His poise, and his confidence might remind some of Seamus Kelly - another who started at Cal as a freshman.

“I know it’s going to be tough, and demanding, but that’s what I want,” said Andrade. “Rugby has helped me to push myself in school, and it’s important for me to do well academically as well as in rugby.”

Andrade is resting up some battered knees and ankles this summer, and passed up several enticing opportunities to play as a result. But, he was being smart, he has more to give, and, added Straka, "we can't wait to see what he does at the next level."

Well that talent such a smart attitude, watch out. Congratulations to Keanu Andrade, who is our Goff Rugby Report Boys High School Player of the Year.