| Date of birth | 19 January 1980 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Minneapolis, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 116 kg (18 st 3lb ; 256 ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Blake Burdette (born January 19, 1980, in Minneapolis) is a rugby coach and former American rugby union hooker or prop. He was a member of the United States national rugby union team and made his international debut in 2006 against Uruguay.[1] Burdette played for the USA Eagles in the 2007 Rugby World Cup.[2] Currently, he has returned to playing professionally with Utah Warriors having come out of retirement aged 39, 12 years after previous professional rugby playing experience.
In 2002, Burdette played as a University of Utah football walk-on.[3] In his senior year, Burdette was nicknamed the 'Utah Man' on the campus' football team.[4] Burdette played every game in the 2004 season for the Utah Utes football team, and played for the Utes as an 4x All-American rugby player (2003-2006), before dedicating his time to playing professional rugby in England.[4][5] His England rugby career lasted only one season due to injury.[3]
In 2007, Burdette joined the Utah Utes rugby team as assistant coach, taking over as head coach in 2009, but resigned after the team was suspended for misuse of branding.[6]
In 2015, Burdette was hired as head coach of The Pennsylvania State University's Men's Rugby Team.[7] Burdette is the first full-time, university employed head coach in the history of PSU Rugby.[citation needed]