EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of three articles about how a graduate of Jessieville High School has worked his way through the professional and national ranks in rugby in his first year out of school.
Jessieville alum Josh Zamudio's path from high school to the professional rugby ranks accelerated last fall after he took advantage of opportunities with USA Rugby.
Zamudio graduated in 2017 and moved to Tennessee with plans to play at the college level for the Middle Tennessee State University Rugby Club Moosemen. He played for Tennessee's state team at the USA Rugby Regional Cup Tournament at Life University in Marietta, Ga., and earned a chance to play for the USA Rugby Boys High School All-Americans last summer.
The former Lions football player featured for the Little Rock Junior Stormers in high school. The Junior Stormers are the state's only youth rugby club.
His performances with the BHSAA team in Canada and the USA South Panthers Rugby club gave him even more exposure as Major League Rugby planned its inaugural season in 2018. Zamudio was invited to play for the Glendale Raptors' Under-23 developmental team in Denver through the fall.
Zamudio specializes as a loosehead prop among the forwards. A loosehead prop is positioned on the outside of the scrum, while the tighthead prop is positioned between the opposition prop and hooker.
"That is on the left side of the scrum," Zamudio said. "In the scrum, I am in the front row pushing to gain dominance over the ball, try to be in every ruck, and run hard, tackle hard and work hard.
"We are the workhorse players."
Zamudio had high expectations for himself in Denver with Glendale Merlins Rugby. He said he learned a lot as a young player in a professional setup with a high volume of practices at a high intensity.
"You can't be prepared for that," Zamudio said. "You just have to be in it and evolve through it."
Zamudio said he found himself behind a number of other forwards and props with Glendale, one of seven teams to participate in the first year of Major League Rugby this spring. The Merlins faced men's club teams in the area and college opposition, such as the Air Force Academy team.
Major League Rugby also included the Austin Elite and Houston SaberCats in Texas, New Orleans Gold, Seattle Seawolves, the Utah Warriors in Salt Lake City and the San Diego Legion. The league plans to add LA Coast Rugby, Ontario Arrows and Rugby United New York in 2019.
"The goal was to play for the Raptors, but they had a lot of really good props ahead of me," Zamudio said. "They were experienced with age and skill. They decided to go with them, and I just took whatever opportunity came to me. My goal was to keep playing in Denver. Then, San Diego reached out."
Zamudio said he was the first member of the Legion to show up in San Diego for preseason after a brief holiday visit to Jessieville in December. He said he planned to work as hard as possible to earn a place on the field for San Diego.
"I thought I was on that level when I first showed up," Zamudio said. "I said, 'I'm going to impress these guys. I'm going to impress the veterans and show the guys rookie's got it.' No. Heck no. I wasn't ready for that."
Zamudio was the third player from Arkansas and the Junior Stormers to be called up by USA Rugby. Steven Benson impressed with the BHSAA team a year earlier, and Ruben de Haas has worked his way up through the youth national teams to the senior Men's Eagles.
De Haas debuted in February in Fullerton, Calif., in a 45-13 win against Chile in the 2018 Americas Rugby Championship. He had to wait for his senior team opportunity at scrum half as Nate Augspurger started and Shaun Davies was the team's top backup in wins of 17-10 against Argentina XV in Carson, Calif., and 29-10 against Canada in Sacramento.
Augspurger captained the Eagles for the final three matches of the ARC, and de Haas subbed in at scrum half when the team finished the competition in South America. Augspurger is also the team captain for the Legion.
"Nate Augspurger is a great captain and a great leader," Zamudio said. "He is teaching me things and, being young, I am learning a lot of things. I am taking in a lot from these guys -- skill-wise, the knowledge, how you play, how to react to fans like that. I'm not used to that, and they are. It's awesome. It really is."
Zamudio started alongside Augspurger when the Legion won their first ever match, 32-24, in the preseason against Austin on March 25. The Legion plays its home matches at Torero Stadium, home to the University of San Diego football team.
San Diego opened the season with a 39-23 loss on the road at Seattle. Zamudio said he traveled throughout the region with the Junior Stormers, but he said it was nothing compared to where he has been able to travel over the past year.
"I'm used to small-town Arkansas," Zamudio said. "Now, I go out in the world to Denver, LA, San Diego. It is crazy. It is eye-opening."
The Jessieville grad and former Junior Stormer was in line to feature for San Diego throughout the Legion's inaugural season until he broke his back.
Sports on 08/07/2018