Top U23 players have been spending some weeks in a USA Academy residency camp in Glendale, Colo. as part of USA Rugby's partnership with the city that gives USA Rugby consistent access to the Infinity Park facilities.
Under the watchful eye of Men’s HP Pathways Manager Brendan Keane and a slew of coaches, the players are getting a taste of what life as a professional rugby player is like.
Most of these players excelled in high school and college, but many of them were a little under the radar because they were in an out-of-the-way state (Hawaii) or a lower-division college program.
This camp brings the players together—as many as 80 U23 and U18 players at some point this summer—to train, learn, and grow.
“We training in the morning when it isn’t so hot,” explained Keane. “Then they have time in the afternoon for school or work.”
Then it’s film and meetings in the evening. The players stay in housing near Infinity Park and the Glendale complex, with their living expenses subsidized by a World Rugby High Performance Development grant.
“The guys have a really good attitude and there are players who have the talent to play in the MLR and, hopefully, the Eagles—that’s the whole idea,” said Keane.
“Everything’s in place for us, like for our lifts, for our drills; everything’s professionalized,” said Shemar Lewis, who played for the Maryland Exiles U19s and then went on to Mount St. Mary’s.”
“It’s an almost daily training environment,” said John Lefevre, who played at West End in high school and then Old Dominion. “We train every day 7am to 1:30pm and then there are things we have to do in the evening too.”
“It’s a change for us,” added Lewis, “but I wouldn’t call it difficult because we’re all here working hard.”
All that hard work is supposed to make them better rugby players and better teammates. Zachary Bastres, who played his high school rugby at Boulder HS and then went on to be a standout at Northern Colorado, said it’s almost a guarantee.
“The people we’re all playing with are some of the best U23 in the country, so any time you play in that environment you’re going to have to get better,” he said.
The ultimate goal for these guys?
“The USA team,” said Fred Apulu, who played for Kahuku HS in Hawaii. “That’s always the goal.”
The players are also working on their life skills, living in the apartments, cooking their own meals, and they have been getting help learning to cook more healthy, more athlete-friendly meals. Lefevre already has that figured out.
“You can’t go wrong with chicken,” he said.
This is a little bit of a newer approach for USA Rugby. It’s not a camp to name a Collegiate All American side, and it’s not an assembly with a high-profile game or tour at the end (as much as fans enjoy that). It’s an introduction to the assembly grind. There are games to be played, but they are for coaching purposes. What the players are learning, in the end, is how to train and live like a high-level rugby player, how to cook chicken and pasta three different ways, and what they need to do in order to measure up.
The is the list of players and coaches who kicked off the Pathways summer in July. Out of this group one, Tavite Lopeti, has already made it into the USA team. Several are U18 players, but the residency camp in September was for U23s.
STAFF
Men’s U18 7s Head Coach | David Fee
Men’s U20s Head Coach | Kyle Sumsion
Men’s U23 Head Coach | Todd Thornley
Men’s U23 Assistant Coach | Dominic Wareing
Men’s U18 Head Coach & HP Pathways Manager | Brendan Keane
Director of Men’s Pathways Coaching | Mike Tolkin
Operations and Logistics | Kieran Browner
Athletic Trainer | Janie Kluempers
Athletic Trainer | Anna Unnasch
Strength and Conditioning | Albert Sasu
