Sports

Seattle pro rugby players visit Anchorage to scout for talent and foster a love of the game

Rugby is a sport that has built bridges between many cultures across the globe. Founded in England, it gained popularity in places as distant as New Zealand and South Africa.

While the distance from Washington state to Anchorage isn’t quite as far, the Seattle Seawolves professional rugby team is hoping to build a bridge to Alaska.

That brought the team to Anchorage last week, where they held a youth camp and a men’s talent identification camp, with the hopes of starting a pipeline of Alaska talent to the Pacific Northwest.

“Fundamentally, we want to share the love of rugby,” Seawolves coach Allen Clarke said. “It’s such a great community sport and it’s a great people sport. We believe that in the Pacific Northwest there’s a real opportunity to grow rugby for all ages, and all playing abilities.”

Seawolves forward Brad Tucker said sharing the game and promoting it within communities is the best way to the inspire the next generation to get into the sport.

“Where I’m from, rugby is a massive part of our culture and was a big part of my upbringing,” said Tucker, who is a New Zealand native. “When I was young, I had high-level players come and teach me the game, and that’s what made me want to go on with rugby.”

Luke Lentfer took the field for both the youth and talent ID camps. The 17-year-old incoming senior from Grace Christian School is a star on the basketball court and doesn’t have a background in football, but thinks he could have a bright future in rugby nonetheless.

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He wanted to try rugby because he believes he possesses the physical build to thrive in the sport, and his teammates in the Alaska Youth Rugby League agree.

Lentfer earned the nickname “Captain America” on his first day of practice after one of his coaches said he physically resembles the chiseled actor — Chris Evans — who plays the superhero from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“My dad played a little bit of rugby, so I decided to give it a try. And it’s a good time and a good offseason sport,” Lentfer said.

Even though basketball is his first love, the reigning 3A Player of the Year is open to taking rugby to the next level if an opportunity presents itself.

“I’ll just try as hard as I can, the same as everything else, and see where it takes me,” Lentfer said.

He says his basketball background carries over to rugby and has helped him adjust more quickly to the sport.

“Defensive-wise, you got a man, you stick with him, catching the ball, hanging on to the ball,” Lentfer said.

Seattle has established itself as one of the top teams in Major League Rugby, winning titles in 2018 and 2019.

The Seawolves had just closed out their MLR season a week before with a 30-15 loss to Rugby New York. Still, multiple members of the team were happy to travel up to Alaska.

“It’s always a blessing to have people come up here and help grow the sport in Alaska — especially the Seawolves after their big tournament — and grow the knowledge of rugby here,” Alaska youth coach Samantha Poe said.

Alaska has already seen one resident develop into a premier player. Eagle River’s Alev Kelter has played in two Olympics for Team USA.

[Alaska Mountain Rugby Grounds impresses teams from around the world]

Tucker has two younger brothers who also play rugby professionally and actually played against his younger brother Will in the MLR championship game on June 25.

“He got the better of us in that one, and my other brother plays in New Zealand for the Blues,” Tucker said.

The 29-year-old from Canterbury, New Zealand, said playing rugby teaches kids how to build camaraderie, discipline, leadership and teamwork.

“The contact isn’t for everyone, but if you’re into that side of things, rugby has the opportunities to take you a lot of places,” Tucker said.

His advice to parents who believe that rugby is too rough because the players don’t wear any pads or helmets is to think of it as an “invasion sport” more than a collision sport.

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“That’s how you really have to look at it,” Tucker said. “You only get hit if you’re not looking where you are going.”

Both Clarke and Poe echoed similar sentiments and illustrated the kind of mechanisms in place to promote and maintain player safety.

“The welfare in the rugby union is second to none and there’s a huge protection,” Clarke said. “We’re trying to avoid contact. We’re trying to move the ball, play within the collective.”

He says the game is more than just players running into one another and running in a straight line. It’s about agility, speed, quality passing and simply going forward.

Poe says that the youth rugby league she coaches in doesn’t have rules, it has strict laws that help make the sport increasingly safe to play.

“We have these laws in effect so we can play safe,” Poe said. “You can’t do high tackles, hit someone in the air, come in from the side and make head contact.”

Tucker says talent identification camps like the one the team held following the youth camp can help provide opportunities for aspiring professional rugby players who are longtime participants as well as those who are relatively new to the sport.

“It’s awesome to come out to Alaska and see what’s brewing here because you never know who you could find,” Tucker said.

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He said the Seawolves have three former college football players on the team they discovered from a camp in Portland, Oregon, and there are positions for those of all physical dimensions.

“It doesn’t matter what body type you are, there are positions for you,” Tucker said.

When it comes to what the team looks for in prospective players at the talent ID camps, Tucker said they focus on speed and skill in the basic functions of the sport and finding players with “minds for the game.”

Clarke says that the ultimate goal of helping sponsor and organize youth and identification camps is providing opportunities for the next rugby star to be uncovered, even if usually only 1% of players in tryout camps actually make professional teams.

He cited Seawolves inside center Tavite Lopeti as an example of a player who was discovered and now plays on the Team USA men’s national team.

Clarke says the support he has seen for American rugby at all levels has been fantastic, and he has no doubt that the game is going to continue growing in the U.S., which will host the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s World Cup tournaments.

He believes that the success of the Seawolves in recent years will help grow the interest in the region and that they will continue to recruit players from all walks of life.

“If there is a young player from Alaska or the Alaska broader area that makes it through the pathway and gets to play with the Seawolves, imagine what that does for other people in the community,” Clarke said.

Josh Reed

Josh Reed is a sports reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He's a graduate of West High School and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

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