being an eagle

Question
i am 5'10 215 pounds with 4.6 forty speed.  i play flanker for my mens club team in shreveport and i was wondering how i could go about seeking to become an eagle.  im 23 now and made the deep south rugby union allstar team as a prop (once) and #8 (twice).  i have good endurance and those i cant outrun, i run over.  i just need help being seen.

Answer
G'day Anthony,

I would be keeping in contact with the selectors and coaches who put you in those all star teams. Ask them the same question you asked me, their feed back will be great.

I suggest making a rugby resume for yourself. On paper get your details down: teams, positions played, awards, points scored, any articles from local papers, letters from coaches, your times for sprint, mile etc, mesurements, weight, a photo. Also get as much game footage of you as possable, edit the high points and put it on a DVD. Do a cover letter  to state your overall goal and why you think you can make it, do a DVD of that two if you are confident on a video.

Get help from someone who knows how to put together a resume, there are some good resume examles on line if you Google "resume". You must treat this like a job interview. This is professional sports you are talking about and you can never be too professional. If you get asked to meet with someone then dress up a little even a coat and tie wouldn't hurt.

You will want to put all this together and with your coach submit it to the most relivent person at USA rugby. Keep following up with emails or calls or letters. You might consider a website to post all your rugby life on, training, game tape, player diary etc.

The key thing is to chase down the coach that you need and get your resume in front of them. If you are able you may want to move to an area that has a club which has an above normal amount of eagles: for example Belmont Shore in California.

At the moment USA rugby has not yet selected a coach but as soon as they do get that guys name and seek him out.

Good luck and feel free to ask me more specific questions. This is not the first "How do I get noticed" question so I will do some more homework and update you if I find anything.