Legion Academy Youngsters Enjoy Hugely Successful Tours

02.04.2026Youth

Legion U14s about to score in Melrose.

Author: Alex Goff

The Legion Academy finished 2025 with an international record of 20-9 after tours to five different countries.

The 2025 Teams traveled to Scotland, England, Wales, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Legion Academy started as an affiliate of the San Diego Legion in Major League Rugby. The realignment of the league, with San Diego and Los Angeles merging into the California Legion based out of LA hasn't changed the Legion Academy mission. They remain strong and recruit players looking to play at higher levels from 55 High Schools and 31 Clubs across California and Hawaii.

There are 93 players across the age groups currently in high school that have worn the Legion jersey overseas. The USA Rugby U18 and U20s camps have included 26 Legion Academy players.

The Academy begins young, and as part of their tours in 2025 they took the U14 team to Scotland and England.

Over Easter break the Legion Academy U14s went 9-0 in their tour of Scotland and England.

The program invited 62 to team trials the week after the Southern California U14 season concluded in March. After two days of trials, the five coaches on the selection panel selected 27 players to travel.

Legion U14s Backs Coach, former USA Eagle Derek Dahlen, selected a starting backline of seven players from five different counties in California. Forwards Coach, former USA Eagle Brian Surgener, prepared the team in just five weeks and transformed their defensive understanding of the breakdown, turning every counter ruck situation into a potential turnover. This approach certainly paid off in the UK.

The team played a warmup game against themselves during halftime of the Legion vs Chicago Hounds game on April 5. The following week they flew to Edinburgh, Scotland. Upon arrival they watched Edinburgh play the Sharks in URC action at Murrayfield Hive.

The team took the field for the first time on tour at the Edinburgh Accies Easter Tournament, beating Gosforth (from the Newcastle area), Edinburgh Bats, and Dumfries Saints to win the tournament. The Legion was led by the playmaking halfback combination of flyhalf Klahsyk Taele (Oceanside HS) and scrumhalf Diesel Dahlen (Cathedral Catholic), while Siumisi Afu from De La Salle led the team in tries and No. 8 Loc Mahoney (Laguna Hills) set the tone with his punishing defense.

One highlight of the day was Point Loma's Justin Ellsworth scoring an impressive try on his 13th birthday, making the team dinner a bit of an impromptu birthday party.

Next up the Legion visited Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh where again they won the tournament.

This event was played at Scotland Rugby's indoor Rugby Facility at the Oriam. For many of the players it was the first time they had played rugby indoors on a full-sized pitch.

Notable performances included Eli Surgener (Ladera Ranch), Gavyn DiGiacomo (Huntington Beach), and Austin Niglio (Cardiff).

Day 3 was a much-needed rest day. The players toured Edinburgh Castle and attended the Highland Games, where they competed agains the dads in tug of war (dads won), and caber toss (kids won).

Day 4 was a short trek south to the grounds where Rugby 7s was invented, Melrose, Scotland. The team won a full length match vs the Melrose U14 side with standout play by Isaac Tingey (San Clemente), who scored a hat trick, Eli Purcell (Solana Beach), Cruz Delgado (Wildomar), Kaleb Mendez (Yorba Linda), and Duke Curran (Laguna Hills).

On Day 5 the team crossed the border into England and visited the 1,000-year-old Bamburgh Castle, the site of several movies including the most recent Indiana Jones film, and two versions of Macbeth (both the good one, and the most recent one). After a nice dose of history the players stopped at the beach to play some tough before going on the Alnwick RFC in Northumberland (in a town that has its own nice castle).

The Legion Academy played two games against Alnwick and nearby Tunedale RFC, winning both. Leonidas Lilio (Oceanside), Austin Biggs (San Marcos), and Nehemia Tofu (Whitier) all excelled.

Overseas tours are the lifeblood of improving rugby and certainly the Legion Academy embraces that. The program leaders discovered early on that it wasn't that much different cost-wise to go overseas as opposed to across the country, and the benefits in terms of broadening horizons, and learning about the game, were huge.

The players on tour have come back to their current teams as freshmen but with an added confidence and often serve as an on-field coach for some of their teams.

U16s Go Down Under

In late June the Legion Academy U16s set off for New Zealand and they got right down to business.

They played their first game on their first full day in Auckland, facing Mount Albert Grammar School. The hosts won decisively but the Legion players took some lessons in key elements of their game.

In the loss Hawai'ian standout Kolo Kahanu, who was just asked back for a second year at Nelson College in New Zealand (Three Selected for Nelson College Scholarship for 2026), had an impressive game. Deacon Maeva from Oceanside and Villa Park's Maveric DeClark also stood out.

Day 2 the players trained at training facility of the Auckland Blues and then went whitewater rafting. Then it was another game day, this time it was South to Hamilton to play the Chiefs U16 Academy. Perhaps a little trepidacious about playing another all-star team, the tourists settled down and started to exert some of their American muscle.

The game became a back-and-forth affair with excellent defensive efforts from both teams. Both teams scored three tries, but, perhaps surprisingly, the Legion side won 21-15 by kicking all of their conversions, while the Waikato missed all of their attempts.

Landon Hawkins (Cathedral Catholic), Eion Scott (Santa Fe Christian), Bruce Barnier (Rancho Cucamonga), and Remo Robertson (Newport Beach) were outstanding.

That capped off a five-day stay in Auckland, and now the team took a plane to Sydney, Australia to compete in the Waratahs Regional All-Star Tournament. Many of the Legion players had played in this same tournament in the summer of 2024 for the Legion U14s, when they went 1-3.

Upon arrival, the team practiced at the Waratahs Training Facility and conducted a film review of their New Zealand games in the Waratahs' auditorium.

The next day the games became. The Legion lost the first round to the County Gold regional team, a team that ended up winning the entire tournament. Gavyn Doud (Carlsbad), Alex Strasner (Cathedral Catholic), and Jackson Morgan (Torrey Pines) all showed excellent work rate.

A few adjustments had to be made by the coaching staff, led by Legion Attack Coach Dave Clancy, Legion U16 Coach Jason Scott (Santa Fe Christian) and Forwards Coach Dan DeClark (Villa Park). These adjustments helped the Legion U16s beat the Sydney Barbarians team.

This marked the first Academy win over a Sydney team since 2019. Excellent play by Exzodus Taele (Oceanside), Hudson Stockmeyer (Cathedral Catholic), and Ben Zavala (Lakewood/Belmont Shore) led the way.

Following their victory, the team had to quickly get back to attend the British & Irish Lions vs Waratahs game at Allianz Stadium.

The next day in Sydney started out with a victory over Country Black with an excellent effort by Bruce Barnier (Rancho Cucamonga). The team then rode the enthusiasm into the final game of the tournament led by the front row of captain Nick Taich (Torrey Pines), Grady McMorrow (Villa Park), and Asher Wetsel (Cathedral Catholic).

They won some decisive scrums.

In the final game of the tournament the Legion U16s faced Sydney Blue, a select side made up of players from Randwick, Eastern Suburbs, Sydney University, and Gordon. The opposition was stacked with talent. That being said the Legion U16s were improving every game on tour and took a lead into halftime.

They were playing with passion and intensity. However, a couple of errors and a missed tap tackle on a breakaway meant the Sydney Blue team was able to score in their last drive to seal the game. So a 2-2 showing, with the losses against the tournament winners and a very close match against a talented select side.

Wyatt Garrabrants (Cathedral Catholic), Reese Curtis (Torrey Pines), and Sergio Camacho Ashley (Queretaro, Mexico) were outstanding.

After the tour, Kahanu was called up to the USA U18 Winter Camp, and on the day the team arrived back in the USA, Remo Robertson was selected for the Mexico U19 team.

And it's interested also to note how the coaching staff includes former National Team players—this most recent generation of retired Eagles has embraced coaching at the high school and youth level, seeing that it is there where they can often make a difference and rase the level of the game.

See the Legion Academy activity here>>

See tomorrow our report on the older team tours.