Central Washington's Jack Wendling has been chosen to attend USA Rugby's Sevens high performance camp, beginning Monday, Sept. 6.
 
Wendling recently finished a stint with USA Rugby's U23 squad, playing at the RugbyTown 7s invitational. The is yet another opportunity for him to impress the USA Rugby coaching staff ahead of fall international competition.
 
"I'm really happy to see Jack continuing his development away from our program and continuing the strong tradition of Wildcats competing for international honors," CWU men's head coach Todd Thornley said. "Jack had some great performances last month at RugbyTown 7s, leading the USA U23 sevens program, especially given he had not played sevens in over two years. Regardless of the outcome of this upcoming experience, Jack will gain a lot and come back to Wildcat Men's Rugby this fall ready to fire into his last year at CWU". 
 
A total of 10 players were invited to camp including D'Montae Noble (Tsunami Barbarians/Old Glory DC) and Lucas LeCamp (USA U23/Belmont Shore) who were unable to attend. 
 
All athletes were scouted from Club 7s National Championships and RugbyTown 7s which recently held events for the first time in two years. Both competitions breathed life back into the talent identification pathway from which the program built a longer list of potential athletes to track for a new wave of invitations later this Fall. 
 
As the pandemic wreaked havoc on the community game, credit truly goes to club coaches and players for their passion and commitment to the game in impossible times.
 
After a long standstill, talent identification has finally seen an uptick in activity with regional Talent ID Camps hosted by USA Rugby's High Performance Pathways and World Rugby, as well as the Colorado XOs initiative by the City of Glendale and the resumption of collegiate and club programs.
 
Added to the mix now are new opportunities by way of PR Sevens, a professional rugby sevens league to kick off in October. In collaboration with national team coaches, the league will provide additional talent identification and development opportunities for all up-and-coming players, as well as those included in Coach Friday's list of prospects. 
 
The USA Men depart in mid-September for the first two legs of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Vancouver (Sept 18-19) and Edmonton (Sept 25-26). Singapore and Cape Town stops have been cancelled due to COVID-19 impacts while Dubai will now host two events (Nov 26-27; Dec 3-4) to mark the start of the new 2022 season.