Getting Players MLR Ready – Behind The Scenes Of The Chicago Hounds Senior Academy

This Autumn, the Chicago Hounds Senior Academy ended their season with a perfect 4-0 record.

Wins against the Midwest Thunderbirds, Rugby Ontario, the New England Free Jacks and Ohio Aviators all contributed to a successful second year of the 12-week program.

Director of Rugby Operations, Will Magie, and Academy head coach, Matt Wagner, have been at the heart of running the operation since late-summer.

It is a program inspired by the English soccer club Brentford FC, who in 2016 closed their Academy and launched ‘Brentford B’ with the aim of developing players to be promoted to their first team.

Recruiting players released from other Premier League teams or unearthing a hidden gem, the team started off playing age-grade friendlies before entering competitive cup competitions to provide players with meaningful match minutes.

In less than a decade, the program has yielded results and has informed the establishment of the Hounds’ offseason venture.

Aiming to prepare players to play MLR, for the Hounds or other teams, the club operates the program in the offseason to commit their full attention to player development and also utilize key stakeholders in their region to yield the best results.

This year, 53 players have been involved in the program, with an average age of just over 23, and six of those players have already been offered contracts for the 2025 MLR season.

The process starts with identifying 20 players for their performance squad. For the most part, these players are comprised of the team’s Collegiate Draft picks or recently released players from other MLR teams who are on the lookout for meaningful match minutes in the hope of a new opportunity.

Upon arriving in Chicago, the players have a roof put over their heads, are helped to find part-time work, are given S&C programs, nutritional advice, and all the tools to be a professional rugby player.

“Those guys train three mornings a week,” Magie said. “They get a full rugby session and a full gym session in the Hounds gym at SeatGeek Stadium.

“We’re lucky that we don’t have to focus on matches for the whole time. It’s about individual skill development.

“There’s this idea that we’ve put in this year called our craft sessions, so it is teaching players their craft, like hookers spending 45 minutes to just focus on throwing.

“But it is also about your craft as a professional, how you review training, how you review game footage, how you do your wellness in the morning so that performance staff know how long you’ve slept, how you’ve eaten.

“It’s just more of a holistic program than just how good a rugby player someone is. It’s trying to upskill them.

“If they are lucky enough to graduate and get a contract, they are a lot closer to being ready for MLR, and it’s not a big shock or huge step up.”

Dual-registered with Midwest Premiership teams to play regular high-level club rugby at the weekends for multiple title-winners, the Chicago Lions and Chicago Griffins, players are able to put what they have learned with the Hounds into action.

“Jake Kinneeveauk (University of Utah), our second-round Draft pick, he’s come from playing university rugby, and we’ve never seen him play men’s rugby,” Magie said.

“He’s now gone and played 10 games with the Chicago Lions in the Midwest Premiership, the highest level he’s ever played, and we get to evaluate that.

“He hasn’t had to travel with the Academy to play games in San Diego or Houston. We can see that right outside our front door.

“That’s a huge part of the infrastructure already being in place.”

Clubs and college teams across the region are asked to recommend several players for a combine and be part of the Academy setup before being whittled down to the few to commute to Chicago twice a week as part of the Extended Training Squad.

This has seen players travel from Iowa, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Wisconsin to become better rugby players or even professionals in the new year.

Collaboration between the Hounds and the teams on their Midwest doorstep has been a feature since the team’s establishment in 2022.

Whether it is working with the Thunderbirds Youth Rugby program to aid the development of players at youth and high school level, a competitive club scene or numerous college teams, this approach has already been fruitful.

Working with these key stakeholders has already helped the Hounds benefit from the thriving rugby framework, plant roots and cultivate a fanbase in their area.

“If there’s an existing infrastructure that we think is working, we just want to add value to that,” Magie said.

“It’s not right to come in, rip it up and start again.

“We are extremely lucky that the Midwest Rugby Union is unbelievably well managed.

“In November, it was the Midwest Championships at the Chicago Blaze facility, and there were six men’s and women’s, D1 through to D3, and there was between 750 and 1,500 people turning up to watch those games. And it’s proper competition.

“In other geographical unions around the US you can qualify for Nationals after playing two games.

“Whereas the winner of the Midwest competition, the Chicago Griffins, had to play eight league games, a quarter-final, semi-final, and final to earn the right to go to nationals.

“That massively plays into what we can do, because the structure is already in place. 

“We don’t want to come in and say we’re running our Academy and we’re going to cherry pick all the best players from teams and say we’re going to compete at the same time. 

“That’s pointless. We want to give young Americans more rugby, not less.

“It’s a massive buy-in, a massive infrastructure, and we are trying to build those relationships to make those pathways as strong as possible.”

While the Academy is just over a year old the Hounds have seen their efforts rewarded.

From the current class of players, ex-RFC Los Angeles fly-half Sam Walsh has been confirmed as a Hound for the 2025 season after impressing for the Academy in matches against the New England Free Jacks and Midwest Thunderbirds.

Walsh will follow in the footsteps of fellow Academy graduate Noah Brown, who was already a capped sevens international while at Indiana University but went on to make 13 MLR appearances for Chicago in 2024 before making his Eagles debut against Spain in November.

Even though Brown is already achieving international honors, Magie believes that the find of 2023 was prop forward, Dan Hanson.

After going undrafted in the Collegiate Draft, the University of Louisville graduate came to Chicago to play Division 2 rugby with South Side Irish, caught the eye of the Hounds coaching staff and was second choice tighthead prop.

Chicago signed Hanson but loaned him to Anthem RC, where he played 15 matches for Alama Ieremia’s team, with the majority of those outings at loosehead prop behind USA international Jake Turnbull.

“There’ll be other diamonds in the rough,” Magie said. “It’s our ethos that we will always have contracts available for our boys in the Academy.

“Because otherwise, the model doesn’t work. We can’t invite guys to come in or be in Chicago if there is no carrot.

“We also have to say that we only have a finite number of those, so success can’t just be determined by how many players come through our Academy and sign with the Hounds.

“Someone like Dan going on to play 15 games for Anthem was a huge success story. It’s something we are very proud of as well.

“I want us to produce MLR players. I want us to find someone that comes through our Academy, plays in MLR and plays for the Eagles.”

While only in its early iteration are Magie and the Hounds on to something good with their Senior Academy Program.

The reward for these three months of hard work as winter sunk its claws into the Midwest was their four flawless outings. 

Players were announced with their club or university crest sat proudly beside their name in recognition of the team that helped nurture their talent.

So far, six players will have MLR homes for the 2025 season, and more could follow before mid-February.

Like at the conclusion of the program’s first year, Magie has learned plenty and is already planning what next Fall may look like.

It is something that the former USA international has dedicated his heart and soul to establishing, and he is relishing the chance to mold the next generation of pros with Chicago.

“I have to say how grateful I am to James, our board and owners that they invest in this program,” Magie said.

“It is fully funded. We get the budget to run this Academy which allows us the freedom to go out and invest in these guys.

“We’re very fortunate, and I’m very grateful that we can invest in young American talent because it’s something that holds a heavy burden. I take a lot of pride in it as well.

“As someone who was a late bloomer, I was always undersized and didn’t get the opportunities. I know the value of starting at 23, 24, 24, and going on to play at the highest level.

“But you’ve either got to be very lucky or given the opportunity to do that.”