The Raptors Rugby Academy is an elite rugby academy designed to be the entrance point for Colorado high-school boys to enter the US elite player pathway. Focus is on six things: strength and conditioning, nutrition, technical game knowledge, tactics and skills, team play, and mental toughness.

James Del Bozque is one such product of the Raptors Academy and he is poised to travel the elite player pathway if all goes according to plan. Del Bozque has been called up to attend the USA U20 tryouts from Jan. 6-9, 2012, in San Francisco.

Currently in his freshman year, Del Bozque is playing hooker for American International College in Springfield, Mass.

"It's definitely a brutal position," says Del Bozque, "but I like being in the middle of all the action and the challenge of the responsibility that is placed on a hooker."

Del Bozque says that he has definitely noticed a change in pace of play between the collegiate rugby program and men's club rugby, where he played last season for the Glendale Raptors Men's Division I and II teams.

Kieran Browner, forwards coach for the Raptors DI team, says of Del Bozque, "For someone so young, we were impressed at how easily he made the transition from DII to DI.

"In fact," says Browner, "Del Bozque was very instrumental in our game plan along the way to winning the DI championship title last year. He deputized well for our first choice hooker, Shae Tamati, and allowed us to rest Tamati at crucial stages during the playoffs."

If his current form and past achievements are anything to go by, there is no doubt that James Del Bozque will "tackle" the USA U20 tryouts head on and begin the elite player pathway that he spent three years at the Raptors Academy preparing for.