American Raptors

American Raptors

Founded	2006; 18 years ago (2006)
Location	Glendale, Colorado, U.S.
Ground(s)	Infinity Park
Coach(es)	Mose Timoteo
Captain(s)	TBA
League(s)	Super Rugby Americas
Team kit
Official website
americanraptors.com

The American Raptors are a professional rugby union team based in the municipality of Glendale in Colorado. The team plays in the transcontinental Super Rugby Americas competition. Established as the amateur "Glendale Raptors" in 2006, the team became a professional club upon joining Major League Rugby as a founding member in 2017,^[1] but they played there only three years, competing as the "Colorado Raptors" in their final shortened season of 2020 before withdrawing from the league.^[2]

Following withdrawal from Major League Rugby, the team renamed themselves the "Colorado XOs" turning their attention to player development of players originally playing other sports, before becoming the "American Raptors" in 2021.^[3]

The Glendale Raptors were founded as an amateur rugby club in 2006.^[4][5] They won the national Division I Championship in 2011,^[6] and were back-to-back winners of the Pacific Rugby Premiership in 2015 and 2016.

Glendale Raptors kit and logo in 2018.

In 2017, the Raptors were accepted into the professional Major League Rugby competition. The amateur Glendale teams were renamed the Glendale Merlins before the inaugural MLR season in 2018. The Raptors finished the MLR regular season in first place in 2018, but lost the Championship final to Seattle.^[7] In 2019, the Raptors finished the regular season in sixth place and did not play in the finals.

The team was renamed the Colorado Raptors ahead of the 2020 season ^[8] but the season was shortened and eventually cancelled due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 9, 2020, the Raptors announced that they would withdraw from Major League Rugby, effective May 2, 2020,^[9] the first team to do so. Their announcement explained their withdrawal by saying that "our greater responsibility lies in the development of American players who can win the World Cup for the United States."^[9] Asked to explain how the Raptors withdrawing from the league would help to develop American rugby players, Glendale City Manager Linda Cassaday said that MLR had been founded with a core mission of developing American rugby players and originally had limited teams to three foreign players, although this expanded to five players before the first season began in 2018.^[9] MLR had expanded from seven teams in 2018 to 12 in 2020 without having enough American players to fill out rosters and had raised the ceiling on foreign players to 10 per team.^[9] The Raptors believed that both this overall number of foreign players and the higher proportion of foreign to American players no longer best served the goal of developing American players who could compete successfully in the Rugby World Cup, and therefore chose to withdraw from the league to better focus their efforts on the development of American players who could compete on an international stage.^[9]

In June 2022 Raptors played in the "Challenge Cup of the Americas" against Canadians UBC Old Boys Ravens and South Americans Peñarol Rugby and Jaguares XV.^[10]

Name	Period
Glendale Raptors [4]	2006–2019
Colorado Raptors [4]	2019–2020
Colorado XOs [4]	2020–2021
American Raptors [4]	2021–present

The American Raptors squad for the 2024 Super Rugby Americas season is:^[11]

Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player Position Union Diego Fortuny Hooker Argentina Gabriel Mahu'inga Hooker United States Jackson Zabierek Hooker United States Koby Baker Prop United States Zack Jessell Prop United States Isikeli Kava Prop United States Clay Markoff Prop United States Ma'ake Muti* Prop Tonga Facundo Pomponio Prop Argentina Javon Camp Lock United States Will Crawford Lock United States Mikey Grandy Lock United States Tavius Sykora-Matthess Lock United States Aidan Christians* Back row New Zealand Shawn Clark Back row United States Tommy Clark* Back row Samoa Diego Magno Back row Uruguay DJ Martin Back row United States Sione Talisa* Back row New Zealand Mo Vainikolo Back row United States

Player Position Union Cian Barry* Scrum-half England Devereaux Ferris Scrum-half United States John LeFevre Scrum-half United States Patrick Madden Fly-half United States Ignacio Mieres Fly-half Argentina Francisco Quinn* Fly-half Argentina Watson Filikitonga* Centre Tonga Zach Hall Centre United States Thomas Morani Centre United States Aki Pulu Centre United States Ethyn Baker Wing United States Jax Hidalgo Wing United States Luke Mallette Wing United States Daytwon Sheridan Wing United States Rufus McLean Fullback Scotland

• Senior 15s internationally capped players are listed in bold.
• * denotes players qualified to play for United States on dual nationality or residency grounds.

Season	Conference	Regular season										Postseason
		Pos	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/−	BP	Pts	Pld	W	L	F	A	+/−	Result
Glendale Raptors
2018	—	1st	8	7	0	1	249	165	+84	6	34	2	1	1	53	44	+9	Won Semifinal (Utah Warriors) 31–21 Lost final 23–19 (Seattle Seawolves)
2019	—	6th	16	7	2	7	456	463	−7	11	43	—	—	—	—	—	—	Did not qualify
Colorado Raptors
2020[a]	Western	8th	5	2	0	3	98	130	-32	1	9	-	-	-	-	-	-	Cancelled
Totals			29	16	2	11	803	758	+45	18	86	2	1	1	53	44	+9	1 postseason appearance

Season	Regular season										Postseason
	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/−	BP	Pts	Pld	W	L	F	A	+/−	Result
American Raptors
2023	6th	12	2	0	10	282	458	–176	8	16	—	—	—	—	—	—	Did not qualify
2024	6th	12	3	0	9	222	443	–221	5	17	—	—	—	—	—	—	Did not qualify
Totals		24	5	0	19	504	901	–397	13	33	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

The team plays at Infinity Park,^[14] the first rugby-specific, municipally-owned stadium in the United States.^[15]

Season	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
2018–2019	XBlades	None
2020	Paladin Sports

• Major League Rugby
  • Runner-up: 2018
  • Playoff appearances: 2018

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Result
March 10	New Orleans Gold°	Home	Won, 38–14
March 30	Utah Warriors°	Away	Won, 42–15
April 7	New York Athletic Club RFC°	Away	Won, 35–22
April 21	Austin Elite	Home	Won, 41–26
April 28	Seattle Seawolves	Away	Won, 19–15
May 5	Utah Warriors	Away	Won, 36–29
May 13	San Diego Legion	Home	Won, 31–27
June 3	New Orleans Gold	Away	Won, 41–10
June 8	Houston SaberCats	Home	Won, 37–24
June 16	Seattle Seawolves	Home	Won, 33–11
June 23	San Diego Legion	Away	Lost, 5–23
June 30	Utah Warriors°°	Home	Won, 34–21
July 7	Seattle Seawolves°°°	Neutral	Lost, 19–23

° = Preseason game
°° = Playoff Semifinal
°°° = Final at Torero Stadium in San Diego, California

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
August 17, 2018	USA Collegiate All-Americans	Home	Infinity Park	Lost, 10–55
September 16, 2018	Ontario Arrows	Away	York Lions Stadium	Lost, 18–40
October 6, 2018	Denver Barbarians	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 81–7
October 13, 2018	Utah Warriors	Home	Infinity Park	Postponed
October 20, 2018	Utah Warriors	Away		Postponed
October 27, 2018	Rugby Americas team	Home	Infinity Park	Lost, 31–50
January 13, 2019	San Diego Legion	Away	Torero Stadium	Won, 38–31
January 19, 2019	Houston SaberCats	Away	Constellation Field	Won, 36–21

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
January 27	Seattle Seawolves	Away	Starfire Stadium	Lost, 18–20
February 2	New Orleans Gold	Away	Archbishop Shaw Stadium	Lost, 31–40
February 17	Austin Elite	Away	Dell Diamond	Won, 24–13
February 23	Utah Warriors	Away	Zions Bank Stadium	Draw, 26–26
March 2	Toronto Arrows	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 22–0
March 9	Austin Elite	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 38–19
March 16	San Diego Legion	Home	Infinity Park	Draw, 28–28
March 24	Rugby United New York	Away	MCU Park	Lost, 19–31
March 30	New Orleans Gold	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 34–33
April 6	Houston SaberCats	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 52–44
April 20	San Diego Legion	Away	Torero Stadium	Lost, 15–46
April 26	Rugby United New York	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 20–16
May 4	Utah Warriors	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 64–22
May 18	Seattle Seawolves	Home	Infinity Park	Lost, 36–53
May 26	Toronto Arrows	Away	Lamport Stadium	Lost, 12–40
May 29	Houston SaberCats	Away	Aveva Stadium	Lost, 17–32

On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic.^[16] It was cancelled the following week^[17]

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
February 8	Houston SaberCats	Away	Aveva Stadium	Lost, 12–21
February 16	San Diego Legion	Neutral	Las Vegas Ballpark	Lost, 22-49
February 22	New Orleans Gold	Home	Infinity Park	Lost, 20-27
February 29	Utah Warriors	Home	Infinity Park	Won, 22-14
March 6	Toronto Arrows			Won, 22-19
March 15	Old Glory DC	Away	Cardinal Stadium	Cancelled
March 21	Austin Gilgronis	Home	Infinity Park
March 29	Seattle Seawolves	Away	Starfire Sports Complex
April 4	New England Free Jacks	Away	Union Point Sports Complex
April 18	Houston SaberCats	Home	Infinity Park
April 25	Rugby United New York	Away	MCU Park
May 2	Rugby ATL	Home	Infinity Park
May 8	Utah Warriors	Away	Zions Bank Stadium
May 17	Austin Gilgronis		Round Rock Multipurpose Complex
May 24	Seattle Seawolves	Home	Infinity Park
May 30	San Diego Legion

• Glendale Merlins – Formed in 2017, when the club's top side moved to Major League Rugby.
• Denver Stampede – the now defunct PRO Rugby team that played at Infinity Park in Glendale during 2016.

• Official website