American Raptors Signs Seimou Smith

The American Raptors signed Seimou Smith for the 2023 Super Rugby Americas season. The 26-year-old center is 6’1″, and 205 lbs.

Seimou played 160 minutes in two starts for Rugby United New York in 2019. Since then, he served in the military before joining the American Raptors in 2021.

Seimou was born in Conakry, Guinea, and lived in Concord, New Hampshire. He attended Concord High School from 2011-2014 and was a 3-sport varsity athlete in football, basketball, and track. He also was a member of the concert and Jazz band, as well as the boy scouts.

Seimou attended Southern Connecticut State University from 2014-2018 majoring in Sports Management. He played football his freshman year and was a Northeast 10 Conference All-Rookie Selection. He also was introduced to rugby his freshman year and was selected to the All-Conference team his first year.

Following his freshman year, he left college football and turned his attention to rugby, which provided the camaraderie that he was seeking. In 2017, he was a USA Rugby Division II Collegiate All-American 7s team selection and also was an Honorable Mention All-American in XVs for all divisions. He also helped the team advance to the USA Rugby Collegiate Division II Nationals Sweet 16 in 2016.

Seimou has also played rugby sevens for Bulldog Rugby and Old Toe and 15s in 2018 for New Haven Old Blacks. He also has played rugby league for the Brooklyn Kings, where he was a North All-Star in both 2017 and 2018. The team went was undefeated in 2018 before losing in the Grand Final to Jacksonville. Because of the Brooklyn King’s success in 2018, he turned down selection for the USA Rugby South’s tour to Central Europe.

Seimou played for Rugby United New York in their 2018 preseason exhibition against New England Freejacks on December 1, scoring two tries. He is a physical, yet evasive runner, who is a scoring threat with ball-in-hand.