EJ Freeman is having his best season yet for the Wildcats. (Photo credits: Linda Brothers)

April 3- One of Arizona's brightest stars has been named among the nation's best as EJ Freeman has been nominated for the Rudy Scholz award.

The honor, given to the college rugby's best player, is the latest for the third-year standout, who moved into the centers this season and has exploded on to the scene. Freeman, a Psychology major from Frankfurt, Germany, has also earned selection to the USA Falcons, the development side for the US National Sevens team, traveling with them to both Fiji and Los Angeles. 

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For Freeman, the award is a testament to the team, and the environment that has helped push him to be the best he can. "I am very grateful for the nomination and hope to keep improving. In training we push each other to become better, which I feel like has led me to this. I'm very excited for this last stretch, and we have something pretty special here at Arizona that is going to turn some heads" said Freeman.

"It's a great honor, knowing the history of this award, and the footsteps EJ follows in of our guys that have been in that short list. EJ is such a hard-working, thoughtful, and special piece of our program. The position change shows that he's truly a team player, and he's bought into that new role and performed well in some big contests. We look forward to EJ continuing this not only this season but next year and beyond" said Diretor of Rugby Sean Duffy.

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Freeman is one of 15 recipients, and one of the very few underclassmen to receive the nod. You can see the nominee list here.

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The award is named after Rudolph John Scholz, an American Rugby legend who competed in both the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics, helping the US to a gold medal at both. Freeman is the latest to be nominated, following in the footsteps of Kyle Rogers (2018), Matt Rogers (2019), and Bronson Teles (2020).

From here the nominees list will be trimmed down via fan vote, and you can cast your vote to support Freeman here.
 

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