Utah Warriors & Joshua Whippy

The Utah Warriors announced the signing of former Brigham Young University player and All-American Joshua Whippy. He is 6’0″ and 220 pounds and is a versatile player as a center or in the back three.

Whippy grew up in Suva, Fiji and moved to New Zealand where he played both basketball and rugby at Rangitoto College, and Church College of New Zealand. In his senior year in high school, Josh spent a season in Utah with United, helping them win their first National Championship beating Highland in 2010.

In 2011 Whippy joined the Brigham Young University squad, but his freshman season was cut short with injury. Joshua then went on a two-year mission to the Republic of Kiribati. His first assignment was on the outer island of Aranuka. After six months he was reunited with his brother Jared to serve on South Tarawa.

After serving on the mission, Josh returned to BYU to play both football and rugby. In the latter, he was instrumental in gaining National Championships. He also received USA Rugby All-American honors in 2014 and 2015.

Most recently, Josh has been a part of the Utah Select 7s team that won back to back National Club 7s titles and was named team MVP for the 2017 season.

In October, Josh went to Montevideo, Uruguay with the USA Rugby Men’s Selects. for the Americas Pacific Challenge. He started at wing against Uruguay A and scored a try in helping the Selects gain a victory. He also started the concluding match win against Canada A. The 2017 season culminated with his selection for the Eagles European tour to Germany and Georgia. The tour would prove to be a learning experience and he would look for other opportunities to gain his first Eagles XV cap.

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Whippy said “I’m just really grateful for this opportunity. It’s not every day that you get to be a part of building a brand new professional team. It’s very exciting! Major League Rugby is doing some big things and I’m excited to develop my talents by competing against the best players in America. I’ve been fortunate to have success at United, BYU and with the Utah Select 7s, but this opportunity to represent Utah as a professional is something I’ve been looking forward to.”

Warriors Head Coach Alf Daniels said “Josh is a huge asset to our team. He has great leadership and work ethic, which was on full display at our combine. Josh also has that X-factor in the midfield and back 3 which could be a game changer for us.”