Rebel Academy Determined Not to be a One-Off at NAI 7s
Rebel Academy Determined Not to be a One-Off at NAI 7s
It's fair to say that 2022 was a breakout year for the Rebel Rugby Academy.
A select side formed in the West with an eye toward chasing the more established teams such as Atlantis and EIRA, Rebel not only chased effectively but, in 2022, caught them.
Big Weekend at NAI 7s for Rebel Rugby Academy
With NAI championships in U18 Elite Boys and, perhaps key for our purposes here, the U16s, Rebel has now established itself as a contender in every tournament.
As defending U18 Elite champs Rebel is champing at the bit to repeat. Returning captain Arnaud Agasse will be joined by Finlay Mitchell, Andrew Newell, Jake Schumacher, and Gavin Oleson from the team that won it all last year.
Rebel already won the Elite HS division at Bloodfest in Texas, and in fact also finished 3rd. Among the players that showed well there were Ben Suanders, James Rose, Niko Zaharas, and Zach Maughan and all of those players will be expected for the NAI 7s.
So it's been a fairly methodical march toward being a team to watch for Rebel, and while they return players from last year's U18 team, it's their success at U16 which indicates that Head Coach Ethan Pougnet has an eye squarely focused on the future.
all had very impressive performances in Texas and will be back for NAI. Our crop of Juniors this year might be the best in program history and they just showed some serious ability at Bloodfest last week where the Rebels Teams finished 1-2-3 in the Elite Division. Luke Peters, Matt Hunter, Brennan Boyle, JD Martin, Ryan Paul and Anthony Valentine will all be worth a watch as they look toward their senior years. Finlay, Jake, James, Niko, & Zach are all juniors as well. We made the decision to add another team in the u-18s division to allow these young bucks an opportunity to showcase again.
"The boys have all been training hard this summer with the mindset to defend the titles we won last year," said Pougnet. "I think our fitness will be an edge as it was last year and the fact that we have had more time in assembly with all of our players."
They will of course have their work cut out for them with the likes of EIRA, Atlantis, Layton Christian Academy, and new competition such as Next Phase Rugby and the California Grizzlies.
"We look forward to the tough tests," said Pougnet. "The NAI 7s has the best competition each year and the best availability for Rebel Academy players. We spend the full week in Utah in preparation and find a great balance between a high performance environment and fun rugby tour."
Certainly they found that balance last year.
