Houston SaberCats Sign Conor Mills For 2019 MLR Season
The Houston SaberCats re-signed inside center and flyhalf Conor Mills for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. He is 26 years old, 6′ tall, and is 210 pounds.
Mills is from Magnolia, Texas and began playing rugby at age 7 with the Woodlands Youth Rugby Club. He went to St. Thomas High School where he played rugby the four years he was there from 2006-2009. Conor was an outstanding rugby player while there and had many honors.
High School Rugby
Conor “is the all-time leading scorer in school history with 759 points. He was All-District, All-State, Texas Select/ High-Performance player throughout his four years in high school. Conor was team MVP twice (08-09) and Offensive Player of the Year three times (07-08-09). He was twice named Texas High School Rugby Player of the Year (2008-2009) and his senior year received the Father Allnoch Scholar-Athlete Award (STH’s highest honor). Conor was also captain of the STH team (08-09) and the Texas all-star squads (07-10). While at STH Conor’s teams won two state titles 08-09), placed 2nd (07), and won three Western RFU regional championships (07-09), and made three national championship appearances.”
Representative Rugby
Conor also played representative rugby. He was selected for the “Texas Collegiate All-Stars (09-10), West Collegiate All-Stars (2011) and the U17, U18, U20 USA Age-grade National teams. He played on the US team at the Junior World Trophy in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2011.”
College Rugby
During his career at Texas A&M, Conor earned 35 Caps in 15s (every game since his freshman year) and 40 Sevens Caps. In 2011, “he was third in the D1A competition in scoring with 101 points and led the country in penalty kicks with 16. He finished the season with 169 total points and was named to the D1A All-Conference team and as an Honorable Mention All-American. Conor was named to the SEC 7s All-Conference and ARC 7s All-Conference (as a unanimous selection) teams this fall. He was the Aggie Recruiting Officer from 2010-12. Conor was the Aggie Rookie of the Year (09), MVP and Back MVP in 2012. Conor’s leadership and skill on the field have been critical to Aggie’s success during his career at A&M.”
Conor attended Texas A&M from 2009-2013, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree of Business Administration (BBA).
Club Rugby
After graduating from A&M, Mills worked for a materials handling company by day and played Division III club rugby by night. He played club rugby first for Woodlands Rugby Club, and then for Houston Athletic Club and the Lonestar Rugby Club. At the latter two clubs, he was the leading scorer and team MVP.
Professional Rugby
Conor joined the SaberCats in 2017 after the second Combine. During the 2018 MLR season, he played in all eight matches, starting seven of them. Usually, he played inside center, although he spent some time at flyhalf.
Coaching
After graduation from Texas A&M, Conor became an Assistant Rugby Coach at St. Thomas High School, which he had previously attended. He spent two years there from August 2013 through July 2015.
While with the Houston SaberCats, Conor has also spent time with the Academy coaching.
Comments
Grant A. Cole, Team Manager of West Houston Rugby Club and a Houston SaberCats Commentator said that “Houston Rugby has watched Conor Mills working to play his best rugby for almost 20 years now. Last year we watched him joyous about being signed to the SaberCats, then we watched him get right back to work to be a better rugby player than he already was. No doubt, we’ll enjoy more of that quality in the 2019 season.”
Brett Mills, Houston SaberCats Commentator and Conor’s father said that “I have have had the pleasure of coaching Conor for much of his career. I am extremely proud of him and the man he has become.”
