The Houston SaberCats added Jake Hidalgo to their Major League Rugby squad for 2022. The 28-year-old center/wing is 6’0″ and 205 lbs.
Jake played 491 minutes in 9 matches, starting 5, in 2021. He then played for the Chicago Lions this Fall. after helping the team win the 2021 USA National Club Sevens Championship.
Jake is from East Chicago, Indiana, and attended Wheeler High School in Valparaiso. He played football as a running back, and track and field as a sprinter. In the latter, he came in first place at the 2010 Hoosier State Relay Trials in the 55m dash, as well as the 200 and 400 relay split.
Following his high school graduation in 2012, he attended Indiana University in Bloomington from 2012-2017, earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Kinesiology and Exercise Science. He began playing rugby for the first time in October 2013 while at Indiana. In 2015 he was named D1A and Boathouse Sports ACRC Player of the Week. He played in the Collegiate Rugby Championship and was a Collegiate All-American Honorable Mention during the 2016-2017 season.
While at Indiana, he played with the Chicago Lions Sevens in numerous USA Rugby Club Nationals Sevens Tournaments and played with the team in rugby XVs after his graduation from Indiana. He played on the Chicago Lions President’s XV against the Houston SaberCats in 2018.
In 2020 he relocated to Houston and began playing for the Houston SaberCats Academy team, Rugby HTX. His performance gained him a spot on the matchday final 2021 preseason match against Austin Gilgronis in March. He looks forward to making his debut for the SaberCats at right-wing against the Utah Warriors on April 24.
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