Owen Sheehy Makes Surprise Return to OGDC for 2025

By Alistair Kirsch-Poole
Jan 8, 2025 - 2:30pm

Old Glory has announced that fullback/flyhalf Owen Sheehy will be returning to the team for 2025 after spending last season in South America. The 25-year-old Bethesda, Maryland, native attended Gonzaga College High School DC and won two national titles with the rugby team there. He then went to the University of Wisconsin, where he was an All-American honorable mention in rugby sevens.

He joined OGDC for the 2021 season, playing in just 3 matches for a total of 43 minutes, but showing promise as a 21-year-old. He took on a much bigger role the following season, appearing in 13 matches, 6 of them starts, for a total of 498 minutes played. In 2023, he played in 7 matches, 4 of them starts, for a total of 258 minutes on the pitch.

In 2021 he also played for the USA Selects in the Americas Pacific Challenge, having previously played for the USA U19 squad in college.

For the 2024 season, Sheehy opted out of returning to Old Glory and instead decided to spend time in South America. In a conversation before the move, he shared that his motivation was both to gain professional working experience with a company there, but also to participate in Argentina's URBA Top 14. Though an amateur rugby league, the Top 14 is one of the better domestic leagues in the world and has produced multiple OGDC and MLR players in the past. Sheehy's hope was that by playing at a lower level he could build a significant amount of experience and confidence that would have been difficult to acquire in MLR.

Now we get to see how well that's worked out for him. With experienced players returning to the back three in Damien Hoyland, Perry Humphreys, and Axel Muller, as well as the addition of Jason Emery, Sheehy will have his work cut out for him getting playing time. On his side, however, will be that he counts as a domestic player, a status shared by only a few other confirmed players in the backs.

I'm personally very optimistic about this addition. As a younger player, Sheehy showed a lot promise with his understanding of game, with numerous moments that showed he was seeing more and thinking further ahead than most players. He was also fast on the ground and fearless jumping for high balls. What he was always missing was the the desire or confidence to really take control of a game and the ruthlessness to exploit the holes he can clearly see in defenses. Hopefully he has picked up a bit of Argentinian flair and can pull out some fireworks in 2025.