Egos Aside And Leadership From All In All American Camp

Egos Aside And Leadership From All In All American Camp

Life University captain Alex Maughan checks in from All American camp.

Aug 16, 2018 by Alex Goff
Maughan: Captain's Job Is To Calm The Boys

The Men’s Collegiate All American camp attendees knew the score when they arrive this past weekend - perform and survive.

The 83-player camp was going to be whittled down to 30 with that squad preparing to play the Glendale Raptors this coming Friday night.

Before that whittling, the players suited up in two games plus a series of trainings to showcase their skills to the coaching staff.


“There was definitely something stressful about it,” said Life University prop Alex Maughan. “You know the group will basically be cut in half and you’re conscious that you’re being judged on everything you do. There was definitely, at the beginning, a period of sizing each other up.”

Quickly, though, the players got down to business, and several have shown themselves to have a ton of potential. Among them, Jackson Day out of Western Michigan and Michael Matarazzo out of the University of Notre Dame - two players from teams that haven’t been major title contenders who could make names for themselves. Meanwhile, Ryan Rees, a little-followed scrumhalf at the beginning of last season despite being at Life University, had a superb playoff run and has continued that form in the camp.


Life Scrumhalf Ryan Rees



Many of the players are leaders of their college squads. Maughan, Malcolm May, Connor McNerney, Kyle Rogers, Kevin Sullivan, and Mike Scarcella are all either captain of their college teams or as good as makes no difference. Maughan said that’s a good thing, as long as you don’t get caught up in who is in charge.

“Coach James Willocks said if we designate someone as a leader, that can get into other players’ minds,” explained Maughan. “They might think ‘those other guys are the leaders so I don’t have to be.’ Everybody in his own right can be a leader on the team. Nobody is good at everything, so there is something any players can bring to the team. At the same time, we’re here to learn and to trust a new approach, and we need to take the egos out of it.”


After playing against each other to make this 30, the All Americans now have had to turn around and become a cohesive unit that can play against the Raptors. 

“It’s not an easy thing to do, and at the same time we’re being seen by Major League Rugby coaches and there’s that added knowledge that what you do and how you approach things can have a long-term influence on your rugby future,” the Life prop explained. “It’s a good introduction to what international and professional rugby life is about.”