The American Raptors is a professional
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
team based in the
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
of
Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''.
It may refer to:
Places Australia
* Glendale, New South Wales
** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre
*Glendale, Queensland, ...
in
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. The team plays in the transcontinental
Super Rugby Americas competition . Established as the Glendale Raptors in 2006, the team was a founding member of
Major League Rugby
Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Off ...
in 2017,
[ but they played there only three years, competing as the Colorado Raptors in their final shortened season of 2020 before withdrawing from the league.][
Following withdrawal from ]Major League Rugby
Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Off ...
, the team renamed themselves the Colorado XOs turning their attention to player development of players originally playing other sports, before becoming the American Raptors in 2021.
History
The Glendale Raptors were founded as an amateur rugby club in 2006.[ They won the national Championship in 2011, and were back-to-back winners of the Pacific Rugby Premiership in 2015 and 2016.
In 2017, the Raptors were accepted into the professional ]Major League Rugby
Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Off ...
competition. The amateur Glendale teams were renamed the Glendale Merlins
Glendale Merlins is an amateur rugby club based in the municipality of Glendale in Colorado, United States. The club was founded in 2006 and first played in 2007 under the name Glendale Raptors.
In 2017, a Glendale Raptors team was accepted into ...
before the inaugural MLR season in 2018. The Raptors finished the MLR regular season in first place in 2018, but lost the Championship final to Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
. In 2019, the Raptors finished the regular season in sixth place and did not play in the finals.
The team was renamed the Colorado Raptors ahead of the 2020 season[ but the season was shortened and eventually cancelled due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
]
Withdrawal from Major League Rugby
On April 9, 2020, the Raptors announced that they would withdraw from Major League Rugby, effective May 2, 2020,[Petersen, Will, "Updated: Colorado Raptors withdraw from Major League Rugby," 9news.com, April 10, 2020 Accessed March 27, 2021]
/ref> the first team to do so. Their announcement explained their withdrawal by saying that "our greater responsibility lies in the development of American players who can win the World Cup for the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
."[ Asked to explain how the Raptors withdrawing from the league would help to develop American rugby players, Glendale ]City Manager
A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a "Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief execu ...
Linda Cassaday said that MLR had been founded with a core mission of developing American rugby players and originally had limited teams to three foreign players, although this expanded to five players before the first season began in 2018.[ MLR had expanded from seven teams in 2018 to 12 in 2020 without having enough American players to fill out rosters and had raised the ceiling on foreign players to 10 per team.][ The Raptors believed that both this overall number of foreign players and the higher proportion of foreign to American players no longer best served the goal of developing American players who could compete successfully in the ]Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
, and therefore chose to withdraw from the league to better focus their efforts on the development of American players who could compete on an international stage.[
In June 2022 Raptors played in Challenge Cup of the Americas against Canadians UBC Old Boys Ravens and South Americans Peñarol Rugby and Jaguares XV.
]
Current squad
The American Raptors squad for the 2023 Super Rugby Americas season is:
* Senior 15s internationally capped players are listed in bold.
* * denotes players qualified to play for on dual nationality or residency grounds.
Head coaches
* David Williams (2018–2019)[
* ]Peter Borlase
Peter Borlase (born 22 May 1985) is a New Zealand rugby union former player and former head coach of the Colorado Raptors in Major League Rugby (MLR).
Playing career
Canterbury and Crusaders
He has played 33 times for Canterbury in the IT ...
(2019–2020)
* Paul Emerick
Paul Emerick (born January 24, 1980) is the head coach of the American Raptors in Glendale, Colorado. He was the defense and skills coach and the 2019 interim head coach for the Houston SaberCats of Major League Rugby. He was a former USA intern ...
(2022)
* Sarah Chobot (2023-current)
Captains
* Shaun Davies (2018–2019)
* Luke White (2019–2020)
Records
Season standings
Home field
The team plays at Infinity Park
Infinity Park is a stadium in the Denver enclave of Glendale, Colorado, and was formerly the unofficial home venue of the United States national rugby union team. The stadium has a seating capacity of 5,000 people. It opened in 2007, at a cost of ...
,[ the first rugby-specific, municipally-owned stadium in the United States.
]
Sponsorship
Honors
*Major League Rugby
Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Off ...
**Runner-up: 2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
**Playoff appearances: 2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
2018 season
° = Preseason game
°° = Playoff Semifinal
°°° = Final at Torero Stadium
Torero Stadium is a 6,000-seat multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, located on the campus of the University of San Diego in San Diego, California. Opened in 1961, it serves as the home of the school's football and soccer ...
in San Diego, California
2019 season
Exhibition
Regular season
2020 season
On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic. It was cancelled the following week
Regular season
See also
* Glendale Merlins
Glendale Merlins is an amateur rugby club based in the municipality of Glendale in Colorado, United States. The club was founded in 2006 and first played in 2007 under the name Glendale Raptors.
In 2017, a Glendale Raptors team was accepted into ...
– Formed in 2017, when the club's top side moved to Major League Rugby.
* Denver Stampede – the now defunct PRO Rugby
Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional".
Pro, PRO or variants thereof may also refer to:
People
* Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest
* Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter
* Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African retire ...
team that played at Infinity Park in Glendale during 2016.
References
External links
*
{{American Raptors squad
American Raptors
Major League Rugby teams
Rugby union teams in Colorado
Sports teams in Denver
2017 establishments in Colorado
Rugby clubs established in 2017