The New England Free Jacks re-signed former Dartmouth College Rugby scrumhalf Oliver Engelhart for the 2021 Major League Rugby season. Oliver played for the Free Jacks during the 2019 exhibition season. He was a key contributor in the Cara Cup and against Lansdowne. The 24-year-old (25 in February) is 5’11”, and 180 lbs.
Ollie played as a reserve in the final three matches in the truncated 2020 MLR season. He also works in the front office and authors the team’s player releases.
Oliver is from Hong Kong and attended Island School and was a multi-sport athlete being involved in ultramarathon running, triathlon, track, swimming, rugby, squash, Cross-country, cycling, and sailing.
Oliver attended Dartmouth College from 2014-2018 and was a member of the Sailing team from 2014-2015 and on the Rugby team. He was the rugby team’s Director of Communication from 2015-2018, was on the Collegiate Rugby Championship Dream Team in 2017-2018, the team’s co-captain in 2018, and a Collegiate All-American.
At Dartmouth, Oliver also was a Marketing Intern at Center for Digital Strategies Tuck School of Business 2016-2018 and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science & Government & Mandarin Chinese. Oliver also was a Legal Intern at Verus Financial in New York City in 2017 and a Legislative Intern at the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in Washington DC in 2017.
Following his graduation from Dartmouth, he returned home and played for the Hong Kong Rugby Club and trained with the Hong Kong Sevens team. He worked as a consultant at Sard Verbinnen & Co from 2018-2019.
Oliver then joined the New England Free Jacks as a player and also works as a Business Operations Associate for the team.
Maintaining conditioning is critical for a rugby player and Oliver turned to rugby sevens with Mystic River during the 2019 Summer off-season. The team advanced to the USA Club 7s Nationals.
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