Date of birth | 19 January 1980 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place of birth | Minneapolis, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 116 kg (18 st 3lb ; 256 ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Blake Burdette (born January 19, 1980, in Minneapolis) is a rugby coach and former American rugby union hooker or prop. He was a member of the United States national rugby union team and made his international debut in 2006 against Uruguay. [1] Burdette played for the USA Eagles in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. [2] Currently, he has returned to playing professionally with Utah Warriors having come out of retirement aged 39, 12 years after previous professional rugby playing experience.
In 2002, Burdette played as a University of Utah football walk-on. [3] In his senior year, Burdette was nicknamed the 'Utah Man' on the campus' football team. [4] Burdette played every game in the 2004 season for the Utah Utes football team, and played for the Utes as an 4x All-American rugby player (2003-2006), before dedicating his time to playing professional rugby in England. [4] [5] His England rugby career lasted only one season due to injury. [3]
In 2007, Burdette joined the Utah Utes rugby team as assistant coach, taking over as head coach in 2009, but resigned after the team was suspended for misuse of branding. [6]
In 2015, Burdette was hired as head coach of The Pennsylvania State University's Men's Rugby Team. [7] Burdette is the first full-time, university employed head coach in the history of PSU Rugby.[ citation needed ]
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby XIII in non-Anglophone Europe and South America, and referred to colloquially as rugby, football, footy or league in its heartlands, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 m (74 yd) wide and 112–122 m (122–133 yd) long with H-shaped posts at both ends. It is one of the two major codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union. It originated in 1895 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, as the result of a split from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) over the issue of payments to players. The rules of the game governed by the new Northern Rugby Football Union progressively changed from those of the RFU with the specific aim of producing a faster and more entertaining game to appeal to spectators, on whose income the new organisation and its members depended.
The United States men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States of America Rugby Football Union in men's international rugby union. USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States, and is a member of Rugby Americas North, one of six regional governing bodies under World Rugby. Until rugby returned to Olympic competition, with sevens at the 2016 Rio Games, the United States was the reigning Olympic rugby champion, having defeated the one other competitor in 1920 and the two other competitors at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
The Canada men's national rugby union team represents the Canada in men's international rugby union competitions. They are overseen by Rugby Canada the governing body of rugby union in Canada.
While rugby league has been played in the United States since 1954, with Australia and New Zealand playing games there on their return from the Rugby League World Cup in France, serious attempts to start the sport in the United States began only in the late 1970s. The establishment of a national team and a domestic competition in the late 20th century has seen more recent progress.
Kyle David Whittingham is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at the University of Utah, a position he has held since 2005, and is the all-time leader in wins at Utah. Prior to becoming the head coach at Utah, Whittingham served as Utah's defensive coordinator for ten seasons. He was named head coach of Utah after Urban Meyer left for the University of Florida in 2004. He won AFCA Coach of the Year and the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award in 2008 after leading the 2008 Utah Utes football team to an undefeated season and a win in the 2009 Sugar Bowl over the 2008 Alabama Crimson Tide football team. He and Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy are the second longest tenured FBS coaches, trailing only Kirk Ferentz. He is the longest tenured head coach in the Pac-12.
Eddie O'Sullivan is an Irish rugby union coach, player and a former Gaelic footballer. He is a former head coach of Buccaneers RFC the United States national rugby union team and of the Ireland national rugby union team. He was head coach of Biarritz Olympique, who play in the second tier of France, until October 2015.
Rugby union in the United States is played at youth, high school, college, amateur, professional, and international levels and governed by USA Rugby. There were over 125,000 players registered with USA Rugby as of 2016. Over 2,500 rugby union clubs exist around the country, including those who are part of college rugby. Professional club competition has existed as Major League Rugby (MLR) since 2017.
Nigel David Melville is a former England national rugby union team scrum half and captain and currently serves as Director of Professional Rugby for Rugby Football Union.
The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' Utes; the women's gymnastics team is known as the Red Rocks
Bernard Laporte is a rugby player, coach and former French Secretary of State for Sport. From 1999 to 2007, Laporte was the head coach of the France national team. In 2011, he became the head coach at Toulon, after Philippe Saint-André became the new national team coach. He was previously the coach at Stade Français. He was the first fully professional head coach of France. Laporte was president of the French Rugby Federation from December 2016 to January 2023.
Ronald Douglas McBride is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1990 to 2002 and at Weber State University from 2005 to 2011, compiling a career college football record of 131–101.
Joseph Paul Lydon is an English former professional rugby league footballer and rugby union coach. He played during the 1980s and 1990s as a fullback, wing, centre, or stand-off for Widnes, Wigan and Eastern Suburbs. He also represented Lancashire, and won 30 caps for Great Britain.
Philip John Larder MBE, is an English rugby league and rugby union coach, and former player in both codes.
James Francis Boylen is an American basketball coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Boylen served as head coach for the University of Utah, coaching the program from 2007 to 2011 before being fired on March 12, 2011. The Utah job was his first head coaching position after spending over a decade as an assistant at both the NBA and NCAA levels. He replaced Ray Giacoletti, who was fired from Utah on March 3, 2007. Prior to joining Utah, Boylen spent two years at Michigan State University (MSU) as assistant coach under Tom Izzo.
Marc Lièvremont is a former rugby union footballer and was the head coach of the French national rugby union team. He played as a back-row forward for France, gaining 25 caps from 1995 to 1999, and was selected in France's 1999 Rugby World Cup squad. He also played with the French Rugby Sevens team and with the French Barbarians.
Thretton Palamo is an American rugby union player who plays centre for Old Glory DC of Major League Rugby (MLR).
Gideon "Kees" Lensing is a former Namibian rugby union player and former head coach of the Seattle Seawolves of Major League Rugby (MLR). He played as a prop for six different teams over more than 11 years.
Highland High School is a high school in Salt Lake City, in the U.S. state of Utah, that opened in 1956 and has a student body of 1,546. It is located at 2166 South 1700 East, next to Sugar House Park, and is part of the Salt Lake City School District. The current principal is Jeremy Chatterton.
Alex Jensen is an American former professional basketball player, and current assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a standout college player at the University of Utah.
San Diego State Aztecs Rugby Club is the rugby union club of San Diego State University in San Diego, California. It fields both men's and women's teams, the men compete in Division 1-A in the California conference and the women play in the Pacific Desert conference of Division II. The Aztec men's team won the US National Collegiate Rugby Championship in 1987.