The Hartford Wanderers recently had the opportunity to show our support for two of our members (Brandon Gauvin and Cody Nugget) as well as the growth of rugby by sponsoring the attendance of the two high school age players at the Penn State University Rugby Camp held on January 30. Brandon started playing for the Wanderers a few years back at the age of 16 and has tremendous raw skill and potential and has continued to work hard in developing his ability (namely, in the fly-half position), some have even likened him to our very own Kevin O’Connell. Cody came to us last summer and in the Fall 2009 season found himself, not only starting as a B-side hooker, but also making the player panel as an A-side replacement. Cody passed up his senior year of high school football so that he could pursue his goal of becoming an All-American. This Winter Cody took another step closer to achieving this goal as he was invited to, and attended, the USA Rugby All-American U-18 Rugby Camp held at the University of California-Santa Barbara (http://www.cheshireherald.com/node/1961).  

The camp was attended by over 200 high school players registered with teams from Ohio, New York, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. The Cheshire High School team (whom Brandon and Cody went with) combined with a team from PA and played Gonzaga Prep, DC. Gonzaga had a U-20 US Eagle flanker and an All American fly-half (both will be attending Penn State in the fall). According to Pete Velcofsky (who accompanied the team) “the Cheshire team held their own and played hard and the match was tied at the half. Unfortunately the fitness wasn’t there in the 2^nd half and Cheshire lost by two tries. The next game was against Rockport, MD and Cheshire played excellent and won the game 6 tries to 3. Cody and Brandon both played outstanding, and both had a couple of great tries, and stood out in a very competitive camp. All the kids represented CT U-19 rugby in a great light. I had coaches coming up to me asking about scheduling matches in PA, DC and commented how good our kids looked. Brandon and Cody were truly grateful to HWRFC for sponsoring them to attend.” 

Nice job to both Cody and Brandon and thanks to all of you who made a donation to our newly developed “Player Development Fund” to make this opportunity for these two young Wanderers possible.