AJ Montes is a member of the Mexico National U-19 rugby team.
His selection was based on his performance during a tryout with the Mexican team while on a U.S. tour, playing games against San Diego and Los Angeles All Star teams that fielded many current and future college bound rugby players from rugby power houses San Diego State University, University of California Los Angeles, St Mary’s and UC Santa Barbara.
Montes received an invitation to try out from the Mexico Rugby Federation.
He is scheduled to join the team in Mexico City and train at the Olympic Training Center. From there, the Mexican National Team will travel to the Bahamas for the North American and Caribbean International Rugby Tournament. The top teams will qualify for the U-19 Rugby World Cup.
Rugby, a popular international sport, is gaining popularity in the United States as many youth club teams are getting started. The movie “Invictus,” a biography about a South African rugby team, is also giving rugby more U.S. exposure.
Rugby is played on a continuous clock with two 40-minute halves and on a field similar in dimensions to soccer. That’s where the similarity ends, because rugby is more similar to football with no pads.
Any player can carry the ball and, when tackled, can maintain possession if within a few seconds he can hand the ball to a teammate. Advancing the ball can be done by running, similar to a running back, but can not have any blockers. Ball advancement is also by a lateral or a series of laterals to a teammate. Forward passes are not allowed, but the ball can be punted forward and out of bounds to advance, where the kicking team maintains possession with a throw in, similar to soccer.
Once the ball is close to the goal line, about the 20 yard line, it is similar to a football goal line stance, and that’s when it gets fun. The goal is to get a touchdown, but, unlike football, players really have to touch the ball down in the end zone to complete the score. And it is preferred to touch the ball down in the middle of the end zone as the extra point in rugby is kicked 20 yards from the location of the touchdown. Touchdowns are worth 5 points and extra points are worth 2, so the extra point is critical.
Montes has lived in Ramona his entire life and attended Barnett Elementary School and Olive Pierce Middle School. He played Pop Warner football under his mentor coach Chuck de la Cruz, who taught him the fourth quarter conditioning and work ethic in the Ramona summer heat which he still follows and lives by to this day. Montes attended Cathedral Catholic High School, where he had a distinguished athletic career, receiving 9 varsity letters in 4 sports: Football, wrestling, track and rugby.
In football, AJ was on a talented Don’s team and played in and won three CIF games at Qualcomm Stadium and also won a state championship game at the Home Depot Center in Carson against Northern California Champion, St Mary’s.
He was a starter at defensive end his junior and senior years. Winning the state championship was the highlight of his high School athletic career and he proudly wears his three championship rings.
At Cathedral, he won the Kevin Madden Scholarship as the outstanding multisport athlete. He was also active in performing arts, with roles in two school productions. He combined his acting and athletic skills in a bit role for a Velocity Sports commercial that aired weekly on KUSI high school football sports program, Prep Pigskin Report, with the catch phrase “Why do you train?”
Rugby came later in his sports career as he played club rugby and then in high school, as the CIF sanctioned rugby in 2009 as an official CIF sport. Most rugby players in the U.S. are current and former football players transitioning their skills as there are similar skill sets.
If you like to hit and are not afraid of getting hurt, rugby may be for you. There are many adult leagues always looking for players. There are even female rugby leagues. As tough of a physical sport as rugby is, it is a gentleman’s sport. It is a tradition for players to get together after the game and share gifts, meals or, as is done in the adult leagues, meet up at a local pub. During the recent tour with the Mexican National Team, players are given extra team shirts to exchange with other U.S. players, similar to what is seen after international soccer games.
Montes will be continuing his career in football, track and maybe rugby, playing for California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Cal Lutheran last season won the Southern California Intercollegiate Conference and is nationally ranked to start the season.
Recruited by several schools in the academically strong SCIC and also by two Ivy League schools and MIT, Montes chose Cal Lutheran because it felt right and met the requirements he set when he started the college process, which was to be close to home, (only 2-1/2 hours from Ramona) and the beach (Malibu Beach), along with having his major of interest in bio-engineering. He is still involved with the Ramona community, last year coaching Pop Warner flag football. He is also a member of the Ramona Ward, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
