CHULA VISTA, Calif. (Dec. 17) – Four Central Washington University men's rugby players were selected as attendees for USA Rugby All-American Winter Camps in Chula Vista, USA Rugby announced.
Jonah Auvaa,
Doug Mitchell,
Jack Wendling, and
Noah Wright were selected for the winter camps. The camps take place from Dec. 26-31 at the U.S. Olympic Training Site.
Auvaa, Mitchell, and Wright were High School All-American selections last year, while Wendling was a Juinor All-American (U20).
"We are always excited for our student-athletes when they get a chance to go for higher honors and immerse themselves in another high-performance environment," CWU Head Coach
Todd Thornley said. "These four young men had a very productive fall in our pre-season training block which will put them in a good spot to compete at camp before returning to focus on Wildcat Rugby. I could not be prouder of these guys and where our program is at."
The four camps will include the under-18 Girls and Boys High School All-Americans and under-19 Women's and Men's rising Junior All-Americans. Each group will participate in its own schedule of training and trial games with the men's teams arriving on Dec. 26 and the women's teams arriving on Dec. 27. Each under-18 camp will feature 60 girls and 51 boys with each under-19 camp hosting 36 girls and 31 boys.
The rising Men's Junior All-Americans (U19) were originally intended to play a Canadian side as well, but with Canada's U19s unable to attend, the All-Americans will instead play Belmont Shore Rugby. Runners up in the 2018 Men's Division I Club Championships, Belmont Shore and the USA U19s will play a single match on Dec. 30.
Athletes for each camp were selected from recent age-grade assemblies, Regional Cup Tournaments (U18), college and club competitions across the nation. The under-18 boys will be led by Director of Boys High School All-Americans Brendan Keane with Men's Junior All-Americans Head Coach Scott Bracken leading the under-19s. Both women's camps will be led by Director of Girls High School All-Americans Martha Daines.
Rising Men's Junior All-Americans will see Bailey Wilson and Ethan McVeigh serve as Captain and Vice-Captain, respectively. Both Wilson and McVeigh displayed outstanding leadership skills over the summer during the World Rugby U20 Trophy Qualifier Series with Canada.
