Glendale Raptors signed John Ryberg at wing for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. He is 26-years-old, 5’11”, and 235 lbs.
John is from Houston, Texas, but later moved to Iowa. He attended Xavier High School, which served the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area.
Following his graduation in 2010, he attended the University of Iowa, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He began playing rugby at 21 with the University of Iowa Rugby Club.
After graduating from Iowa in 2015, he moved to Denver and began playing with the Glendale Raptors in the Fall 2015 and has played with the team ever since. In 2016 he helped the team win their second consecutive Pacific Rugby Premiership Championship.
The team branded the Glendale Raptors name in 2017 ahead of the 2018 Major League Rugby season with the amateur club named the Glendale Merlins. John has played for both.
John inaugural MLR season was disappointing, as he missed most of the season with a hamstring injury. The physical wing was back again by the Raptors Fall 2018 exhibition season and will be a force in 2019.
Those who don’t know John may find it interesting that “he has lived in Paris and London, and once had a pet goose named Dominique that he raised from a gosling and taught to fly.” If you meet him and get to talk, he may share some of these experiences.
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