A wing/centre from Auckland, Orlando Casey arrived at Davenport University in Michigan in the spring of 2023, bringing a rugby foundation built at Sacred Heart College, one of New Zealand's most decorated high school rugby programmes. His story opens up a pathway that most New Zealand rugby players have never considered.
When people think about New Zealand athletes heading to the United States on college scholarships, they tend to think about football, golf, swimming, or tennis. Rugby is rarely the first sport that comes to mind, which is part of what makes Orlando Casey's pathway worth understanding.
Orlando grew up in Auckland and attended Sacred Heart College in Glen Innes, a school with one of the most storied rugby programmes in New Zealand. The Sacred Heart 1st XV has been a consistent presence in the Auckland 1A competition for more than a decade, contesting finals in 2016, 2017, and 2023, and finally winning the Auckland 1A Championship in 2023 after a 59-year wait. Sacred Heart has been ranked as New Zealand's best high school rugby team in international school rugby rankings. That is the environment where Orlando developed as a player: competitive, demanding, and deeply serious about the game.
What happened next is less expected. Rather than following the conventional New Zealand rugby pathway through provincial academies and domestic club competition, Orlando chose to take his game to the United States, signing with Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the spring of 2023.
College rugby in the United States has grown significantly over the past decade, with universities across the country building programmes that attract serious players from rugby nations around the world. For New Zealand athletes who want to combine competitive rugby with a university education and the experience of living and competing abroad, it represents an option that most families have never properly considered.
The pathway is less visible than college soccer or golf because rugby is not a traditional American sport. But the competition is real, the development environment is structured, and the combination of playing high-level rugby while pursuing a degree in the United States offers something that the domestic New Zealand rugby pathway does not: an international experience, a foreign qualification, and the personal growth that comes from building an independent life far from home.
For Orlando, whose background at Sacred Heart College gave him a technical and competitive foundation well above what most American players his age would have encountered, the adjustment was about environment and experience rather than ability. He had already been trained in one of New Zealand's most demanding school rugby programmes. What Davenport offered was a different kind of stage.
Orlando did not take long to make his presence felt. In March 2023, in a 15s match against Arkansas State University, he scored a crucial second try that helped Davenport seal a 17-14 victory over the Red Wolves. It was the kind of performance that tends to define how a new squad member is perceived early in their time at a programme: composed, purposeful, and effective under the pressure of a close match.
That composure is not accidental for a player who developed through Sacred Heart's programme, where the competition for places in the 1st XV is intense, the standards are high, and performing in tight matches is part of what the environment demands from every player.
Orlando's quote about the recruitment process is one of the most specific and practically useful in this series.
"Amrit has not only guided me through getting offers but also the application, sorting my visas, and everything that comes with it. He made the college process as easy as it could be, which meant I could focus on my schooling as well as training and performing to my best on the rugby field."
The visa detail is worth emphasising because it reflects something families often underestimate when they start thinking about the college pathway. Securing a scholarship is one part of the process. The international student visa application, the supporting documentation, the timelines involved, and the administrative coordination between a New Zealand family and an American university are another part entirely. For many families, that complexity is what makes the whole thing feel overwhelming before it has even begun.
Having support that covers the full process, from identifying the right programme to managing the paperwork that gets an athlete legally enrolled and on a field in Michigan, changes the experience fundamentally. It means the athlete arrives focused on performing rather than stressed about logistics.
Orlando's story matters beyond his individual journey because it points toward something most New Zealand rugby families have not fully considered: the U.S. college system as a viable and valuable pathway for rugby players who want more than the domestic route can offer at this stage of their career.
Not every promising young New Zealand rugby player will be picked up by a provincial academy. Not every player who is good enough wants to follow the same well-worn pathway through club rugby and provincial competition. For players who are serious about their rugby and their education, who want to experience something different, and who are willing to put in the work that a college scholarship demands both on and off the field, the American college rugby route deserves serious consideration.
Sacred Heart College to Grand Rapids is an unusual journey. It is also, for the right athlete with the right support, exactly the kind of journey that builds something lasting.
If you are a student-athlete or parent trying to understand the U.S. college pathway, start with a conversation. Platform Sports can help you understand your options, your timeline, and what the right fit could look like.
