Glendale Raptors signed Mateo Gadsden for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. Mateo will be 19-years-old later this month. He is 6’4″, 205 lbs, and adds height and speed at wing.
Mateo is from Oceanside, California and lives in Costa Mesa, California. He attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School his freshman and sophomore years playing basketball and rugby. He then transferred to Newport Harbor High School for his Junior and Senior years.
He played for Back Bay Rugby Under-18s and with the Eagle Impact Rugby Academy. He toured France with the USA Rugby High School All-Americans, participated in EIRA Summer rugby tours in 2017 to a SoCal regional tournament in Denver, for the USA High School All-American Ontario, Canada tour, and the EIRA Ireland tour.
In addition to being a High School All-American from 2016-2018, Mateo attended the USA Rugby Men’s 7s 2017 High-Performance Camp with teammate Mika Kruse. In 2018 he helped the Men’s Under-18s qualify for the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also played with USA Rugby Red Under-18s against Canada in 2018.
Mateo joined the Glendale Rugby Academy in 2018 following his graduation from high school and played with the Raptors during their Fall exhibition season. In 2019 he signed an Associate player contract with the Raptors and will likely see playing time with the Glendale Merlins, as well as the Raptors.
Mateo has other interests besides rugby. He is a surfer, skateboarder, bodyboarder, and enjoys basketball and football.
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