Michael Zachary Petri (born August 16, 1984) is a former

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

player who played for

Rugby United New York Rugby New York, formerly known as Rugby United New York and now officially nicknamed the Ironworkers, are a professional rugby union team based in New York City that is a member of Major League Rugby (MLR). The team played an exhibition season in ...

(RUNY) 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 ...

(MLR). His position was scrum-half. He is known as "Peaches" by his teammates. He currently is the head coach for RUNY's academy development program. Petri has previously played for the

Newport Gwent Dragons Dragons RFC ( cy, Dreigiau) are one of the four professional rugby union regional teams in Wales. They are owned by the Welsh Rugby Union and play their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport and at other grounds around the region. They play in ...

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks is a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Originally founded in 1861 as Sale Football Club, now a distinct amateur club, they adopted the n ...

, and

Barbarians FC The Barbarian Football Club, known as the Barbarians is a British-based invitational rugby union club. The Barbarians play in black and white hoops, though players wear socks from their own club strip. Membership is by invitation. As of 2011, p ...

(2009).

Early life and education

Petri began playing rugby as a freshman at

Xavier High School A multitude of schools and universities have been named after St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Roman Catholic saint and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. This page lists notable educational institutions named after St. Xavier, arranged by country a ...

in New York City.http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/ubs-from-plumber-career-lands-brooklynite-slot-on-u-s-national-rugby-team?category=%2Fnews%2Fmostread%2F
/ref> Petri's father, also Mike, played rugby as a youth at St. Francis Prep and encouraged his participation in the sport. He then attended

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

where he was a four-time College All American. He graduated with a degree in

Life Sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, the ...

and a minor in Business. He was on the Deans List, the

Alpha Epsilon Delta Alpha Epsilon Delta () is a U.S. health preprofessional honor society. The organization currently has more than 144,000 members within 186 chapters at universities throughout the United States, making it the world's largest Honor Society serving ...

National Pre-Health Honors Society, and the

Phi Eta Sigma Phi Eta Sigma () is an American freshman honor society. Founded at the University of Illinois on March 22, 1923, it is the oldest and largest freshman honor society and has chartered three hundred and eighty-six chapters throughout the United Stat ...

National Honors Society.

Rugby career

Petri captained the USA U19 and College All-American sides and won the 2006 Doug Edwards Award, which is awarded to the most outstanding collegiate rugby player. Petri earned 57 test caps for the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team represents the United States in men's international rugby union. Nicknamed the Eagles, it is controlled by USA Rugby, the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United Stat ...

representing the United States at the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

in France, the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Af ...

in New Zealand, and the

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

in England. He served as captain of NYAC and led them to national championship titles in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2015. He also won a national championship title with

Belmont Shore RFC Belmont Shore Rugby Club is an American rugby union team named after the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach, California, which has a tradition of amateur rugby. History The Belmont Shore team was founded in 1974, and was one of the origi ...

in 2007 while living in Long Beach, CA. Petri signed to play with Rugby United New York in October 2018 and served as their captain for the 2019 MLR season. Australia vs USA 2011 RWC (4)

Coaching career

Petri was named head coach of New York Athletic Club Rugby for the 2019 Elite Cup season. In 2021, Petri stepped away from the playing field to become a full-time head coach for

's creation of an Academy program to identify and develop local collegiate and talent for the club.

Personal life

Outside of rugby, Petri worked at his family’s plumbing business and in construction. He also worked with a

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

wealth management team. He became more involved in portfolio analysis and trading but quit the job to pursue rugby full-time. Petri is an accomplished author, writing the children's alphabet book ''R is for Rugby'', which was published in June 2015.

Honors

Team

* Rugby Super League (4): 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 *Division 1 Club Rugby Championship (1): 2015

Individual

* Collegiate All-American (4): 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 *Collegiate All-Star Tournament MVP (1): 2006 *Doug Edwards Award (1): 2006 * NYAC Male Athlete of the Year (1): 2011 * Rugby Super League Finals MVP (1) 2010 *Division 1 Club Rugby Championship Finals MVP (1): 2015

External links

Mike Petri Video Feature by AIG

USA Player Profile

References

BroBible.com Feature

Wall Street Journal Feature (2010)

Wall Street Journal Feature (2015)

NY Daily News Feature (2015)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petri, Mike 1984 births Living people Rugby union scrum-halves American rugby union players United States international rugby union players Rugby New York players Pennsylvania State University alumni Xavier High School (New York City) alumni Sportspeople from Brooklyn