Old Glory Picks First in 2026 MLR Draft

By Alistair Kirsch-Poole
Sep 2, 2026 - 11:55am

Old Glory has picked up three new players out of the 2026 MLR Collegiate Draft, including the first overall pick. They came to have the top pick in a roundabout manner, as they ought to have had the third overall pick given last season's standings. New England was caught tampering last off-season and forfeited their first round pick to Anthem, which would have been the second overall pick. That gave Anthem the top two picks in the draft before the team failed to find funding and pulled out of future MLR seasons. That ensured both picks before OGDC's went unclaimed, leaving OGDC to pick first.

With that first pick, Old Glory picked up Logan Ballinger out of Life University. The 6ft tall flanker hails from Florida, where he was introduced to rugby through the Boca Buccaneers club in Palm Beach. At Life University he was named a CRAA D1A 1st Team All American and a 1st Tean All-Rugby East player, as well as being a finalist for the Rudy Scholz Award, which goes to the best player in College Rugby.

He has also represented his country already, putting on a USA jersey for the U20 Trophy in 2024 and touring South Africa with the USA U23 team in 2025. He has been described as the most MLR-ready player in this year's draft and seems like a drop-in replacement for the departing Aidan King.

With their second round pick, 6th overall, Old Glory drafted Mario Storti. The fullback out of Saint Mary's College is the younger brother of Erich Storti, a center/fullback who was drafted in the 2024 MLr Draft and has already earned 8 Eagles caps. However, the word is that Mario is an even better player than his older brother, and he certainly has the reciepts to back that up. He earned All-American honors three times in his collegiate career and was also part of the 2024 team that won the National Championship.

With their third round, 11th overall pick, Old Glory drafted a local talent in hooker Nate Deegan. A teammate of Storti's at SMC, Deegan is originally from Bethesda, Maryland. He attended Gonzaga College High School in DC, a famed rugby school with illustrious alumni including Jack Iscaro and OGDC owner Paul Sheehy. While reports have noted him as a little on the small side for a professional level hooker, he has made up for it with high rugby IQ and sound play.

It should be noted that only first round picks are guaranteed a roster spot, and we have seen picks in prior drafts end up being left off the roster when the season comes around. With roster budgets tighter than ever, this is likely to continue to be true in the league overall, although the small number of teams has meant that the almost entire 2026 draft class would have fit in the first round of the 2023 draft. It follows that the quality of even the third round picks ought to be high enough that they have a real shot in MLR.

Another aspect of the short draft is that there is a significant amount of undrafted talent to be picked up. While some of them may be longer shots than the drafted talent, expect teams to sign some of the undrafted players to bolster their squads in 2027.