Metro Roundup: Vestavia Hills alumnus pursues rugby career

When Collin Hughes moved to Atlanta in 2016, he wanted to become a professional athlete and was determined not to let anything stand in his way.

Fast-forward to 2020, and Hughes, a 2009 graduate of Vestavia Hills High School, was playing in the World Tens Series of rugby, having achieved his goal of being a professional athlete as a member of the London Royals rugby team.

At the World Tens Series, the first professional 10-a-side rugby series, Hughes was one of 10 Americans given a contract and played alongside established professionals from leagues across the world.

Hughes said some of the players with whom he played last fall at the World Tens Series participated in the Rio Olympics in 2016. Playing in Bermuda and benefiting from coverage provided by ESPN+ while honing his skills was a great experience, he said.

“I had a great time; it was beautiful,” Hughes said.

On his team, Hughes said most of the players had taken up rugby when they are about 6 years old, compared to Hughes, who began playing in 2019.

“It was a huge learning experience just sitting around the table with them,” Hughes said.

Hughes, who now lives in Newnan, Georgia, went to Louisiana Tech University, where he powerlifted and cheered before transferring to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he briefly worked as a walk-on for the football team. After moving to Atlanta, Hughes, who has trained as a sprinter and power lifter, worked out with four-time world champion long jumper Dwight Phillips. After deciding to pursue rugby, Hughes stepped up his workouts, too.

“Every day, I would run hills,” Hughes said. “I started doing crazy stuff.”

He’d run 23 times up a hill, then push it to 30 or 40 times in a day, in addition to running in reverse up the hill.

“I just started pushing myself harder than I ever had,” Hughes said.

Hughes said he has always prioritized physical fitness, going back to his time in Vestavia schools.

“Nothing feels better than being strong and healthy,” Hughes said. “Your limits are beyond what you think they are.”

Hughes said rugby is like football with endurance training, and said the tackling isn’t as reckless, which is why rugby players don’t wear the pads seen in American football.

“Rugby guys laugh at pads,” Hughes said.

Earlier last year, Hughes went to an event focused on finding professional athletes. At the rugby tryouts he attended, Hughes said more than 100 guys came out for just 10 contracts. In NFL combine-style tests, Hughes had to do more long-distance and sprinting than he was accustomed to doing because rugby requires players to be fast “over many different distances,” he said.

Hughes won the broad jump competitions and placed top three in every test, including “The Bronco,” where participants run from the goal line to the 20-yard line and back, from the goal line to the 40-yard line and back, and from the goal line to the 60-yard line and back, five times, a total of 1,250 meters.

That work led to him receiving an opportunity with the London Royals.

With the World Tens Series hoping to expand, Hughes said he hopes to play again this year and hopes he can earn a spot on a Major League Rugby team. He’s also been applying for management positions with different gyms while training daily for rugby.

For those wanting to improve their fitness, Hughes said “proven and solid methods” are the best way to go.

“Quit looking for secret answers to obvious answers,” Hughes said. “You want to clean up your diet. Get your priorities right; be honest with yourself. No excuses.”