New Coach Announced Ahead of 2020 Season

HOUSTON SABERCATS SIGN PAUL HEALY AS HEAD COACH/DIRECTOR OF RUGBY

Healy Brings Over Twenty Years of Experience to Houston

The Houston SaberCats are pleased to announce the signing of Head Coach and Director of Rugby Paul Healy. Healy comes to the SaberCats with over 20 years of coaching experience. He most recently served as an assistant coach for the Deutscher Rugby-Verband in Germany and as an attack coach for the Rugby World Cup 2019 Repechage.

“Taking on this important role represents an exciting challenge for me both professionally and personally. I am privileged to be given this opportunity to call on my coaching experiences, and management expertise in order to make significant contributions to the Houston SaberCats. I will be aiming to play a key role within the SaberCats organization, working with coaches, developing players/athletes, improving awareness of rugby within the community, and culminating levels of performances across all senior and junior rugby environments.”

Prior to his time in Germany, Healy was notably on the staff of the Uruguay Rugby Union National Team for the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and was a member of the staff of Stade Francais Rugby Club in Paris that went to the finals of the Heineken Cup in 2002. He also led the male and female National Senior Squads in Chile (XV’s &7’s) and High-Performance Academies in Brazil and Australia’s Northern Territory.

In addition, Healy has been the head coach of Premier club Rugby teams in Australia and Professional clubs within Spain, Romania and Germany. Previous to his coaching career, Healy played his highest level of rugby as a center in Brisbane, as a utility backline player for the Brothers Rugby and Norths Rugby clubs and spent three seasons in Rugby League.

“With the rapidly growing interest and participation worldwide, especially within the USA, I feel there is no better time to be joining the SaberCats organization. We plan to grow and expand within the MLR competition, now and into the future.”

SaberCats President, JT Onyett, says he is looking forward to Healy taking the helm and building off the success of 2019, in which the SaberCats ended the season on a four-game win streak.

“Paul brings years of Rugby expertise and international experience that will help the SaberCats as we move to the future. Many high-quality coaches applied for this job and Paul stood out amongst the rest. We look forward to Paul leading the team for years to come at AVEVA Stadium.”

Paul Emerick, who led the SaberCats to a 4-0 finish as interim head coach, will remain on the staff for the 2020 season.

“We thank Paul Emerick for the great job he did leading us at the end of the season,” says Onyett. “He will continue to play an important role as we prepare for the upcoming season.”

The SaberCats will begin their third MLR season early next year and the schedule will be released in the coming weeks. For more information visit www.houstonsabercats.com.

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About Houston SaberCats: The Houston SaberCats are a professional Rugby team based in Houston, Texas.  The SaberCats are one of seven original teams of Major League Rugby  (MLR)  which played its first season 2018.  The League has expanded to nine teams in 2019 and will expand again in 2020 to 12 teams – or more. The team features players from the U.S. and around the world – reflecting the international face of the City itself. The ownership group made-up of Houston and London-based business leaders and headed by majority owner, Miguel Loya, have joined forces with the City of Houston to build a multi-sport complex in the Houston Sports Park which includes three fields large enough for Rugby, soccer, football, lacrosse and field hockey.  One of the fields is within AVEVA Stadium and boasts seating for 3,200 fans with standing-room for another 800 patrons, parking for 1,200 vehicles, locker room facilities, and concessions. AVEVA is the Principal Partner of the SaberCats and holds the naming right to the stadium and the SaberCats’ player proudly display the AVEVA logo across the chest of their game jerseys. For more information about the SaberCats, please visit www.HoustonSaberCats.com.

About AVEVA: AVEVA is a global leader in engineering and industrial software driving digital transformation across the entire asset and operational life cycle of capital-intensive industries. The company’s engineering, planning and operations, asset performance, and monitoring and control solutions deliver proven results to over 16,000 customers across the globe. Its customers are supported by the largest industrial software ecosystem, including 4,200 partners and 5,700 certified developers. AVEVA is headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., with over 4,400 employees at 80 locations in over 40 countries.

Connect with AVEVA:

@avevagroup

www.linkedin.com/company/aveva

www.youtube.com/avevagroup

www.aveva.com

SaberCats Media Contact:          Molly Onyett :    [email protected]