Michael Zachary Petri (born August 16, 1984) is a former American

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who played for Rugby United New York (RUNY) of

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

(MLR). His position was scrum-half. He is known as "Peaches" by his teammates. He currently is the head coach for RUNY's academy development program. Petri has previously played for the Newport Gwent Dragons,

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, and

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(2009).

Early life and education

Petri began playing rugby as a freshman at Xavier High School in New York City.http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/ubs-from-plumber-career-lands-brooklynite-slot-on-u-s-national-rugby-team?category=%2Fnews%2Fmostread%2F
/ref> Petri's father, also Mike, played rugby as a youth at St. Francis Prep and encouraged his participation in the sport. He then attended

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

where he was a four-time College All American. He graduated with a degree in

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and a minor in Business. He was on the Deans List, the

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National Pre-Health Honors Society, and the Phi Eta Sigma National Honors Society.

Rugby career

Petri captained the USA U19 and College All-American sides and won the 2006 Doug Edwards Award, which is awarded to the most outstanding collegiate rugby player. Petri earned 57 test caps for the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States in men's international rugby union competitions. USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States, a ...

representing the United States at the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup () was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by F ...

in France, the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

in New Zealand, and the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

in England. He served as captain of NYAC and led them to national championship titles in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2015. He also won a national championship title with Belmont Shore RFC in 2007 while living in Long Beach, CA. Petri signed to play with Rugby United New York in October 2018 and served as their captain for the 2019 MLR season.

Coaching career

Petri was named head coach of New York Athletic Club Rugby for the 2019 Elite Cup season. In 2021, Petri stepped away from the playing field to become a full-time head coach for Rugby United New York's creation of an academy program to identify and develop local collegiate and talent for the club.

Personal life

Outside of rugby, Petri worked at his family's plumbing business and in construction. He also worked with a

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wealth management team. He became more involved in portfolio analysis and trading but quit the job to pursue rugby full-time. Petri is an accomplished author, writing the children's alphabet book ''R is for Rugby'', which was published in June 2015. Petri is the Director of Athletics, Upper School Teacher: Math, Science, Coach: Middle School Soccer, Varsity Soccer, JV Basketball, Varsity Baseball at Bay Ridge Preparatory School, in Brooklyn, New York, since 2018

Honors

Team

* Rugby Super League (4): 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 *Division 1 Club Rugby Championship (1): 2015

Individual

* Collegiate All-American (4): 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 *Collegiate All-Star Tournament MVP (1): 2006 *Doug Edwards Award (1): 2006 * NYAC Male Athlete of the Year (1): 2011 * Rugby Super League Finals MVP (1) 2010 *Division 1 Club Rugby Championship Finals MVP (1): 2015

References

BroBible.com Feature

Wall Street Journal Feature (2010)

Wall Street Journal Feature (2015)

NY Daily News Feature (2015)

External links

Mike Petri Video Feature by AIG

USA Player Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petri, Mike 1984 births Living people Rugby union scrum-halves American rugby union players United States international rugby union players Rugby New York players Pennsylvania State University alumni Xavier High School (New York City) alumni Sportspeople from Brooklyn 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2015 Rugby World Cup players