Evergreen alum joins pro rugby league

Tim Stanfill figures the chance to get in on the ground floor is too good to pass up.

The Evergreen High School graduate will play for San Diego, one of five teams in the new PRO Rugby league that will begin play in April.

“It was a big decision. I sat on it for a while. Ultimately, I wanted to play part of the inaugural season,” Stanfill said.

He quit his job in the Seattle area as a personal trainer, packed his car and headed to San Diego where training camp began on March 14.

The move came immediately after Stanfill made two appearances for the United States national team in the Americas Cup tournament. He played for the USA Eagles in losses on Feb. 27 at Brazil and on March 5 at Uruguay.

Stanfill said that the struggles in those two matches — which dropped the USA from first to second place in the five-country tournament — could be attributed to a significant number of young players adjusting to the style of new head coach John Mitchell. A former player and coach for New Zealand’s All Blacks, Mitchell was hired in January after a winless 2015 Rugby World Cup for the United States.

“It is a whole new system that is a fun system to be apart of,” Stanfill said. “It’s just a matter of getting everybody on the same page.”

Getting a professional rugby league off the ground in a United States has been a long time coming, Stanfill said. He noted that with the size of the United States, there are plenty athletes who could be successful at rugby if the sport can establish a strong foundation. Having a professional league here also gives players a chance to develop their skill in a high-level environment Stanfill noted.

Even with only five clubs to begin with, Stanfill is optimistic the league will succeed.

“There are only five teams, but we play a lot of games in a short amount of times. We’re all very excited to be a part of it,” he said.