Nolan Buckey a Second-Round Pick in Professional Draft
Image by courtesy
Plastics engineering grad Nolan Buckley, seen here competing with the UML men's club rugby team against Bentley University, is embarking on a professional rugby career with the Dallas Jackals.
01/30/2023
Media Contacts: Emily Gowdey-Backus, director of media relations, and Nancy Cicco, assistant director of media relations
Like many plastics engineering majors at UML, Nolan Buckley had a job waiting for him when he graduated.
It just so happens, Buckley’s first job out of college is playing professional rugby.
Buckley, who completed a bachelor’s degree from UMass Lowell’s Francis College of Engineering in December, is in Texas preparing for his rookie season with the Dallas Jackals of Major League Rugby, which kicks off Feb. 19.
The North Attleboro, Mass., native was selected by the Jackals in the second round of the MLR collegiate draft in August — an accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that Buckley didn’t start playing the sport until joining the university’s men’s club rugby team as a sophomore.
“I’m excited for the whole experience of playing rugby at the highest level and seeing how far I can take it,” said Buckley, who has a two-year contract with the Jackals.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Buckley played football and baseball at North Attleboro High School, winning a state championship in baseball at UMass Lowell’s LeLacheur Park during his senior year.
“I’ve always loved the environment and culture of team sports,” said Buckley, who joined the rowing club team for “something to do” during his first year.
Getting up before dawn six days a week for practice was a big commitment, but “it definitely whipped me into shape,” said Buckley, who was persuaded by friends to try rugby as a sophomore.
Competing at the Division 2 collegiate level against schools from across New England, the UMass Lowell rugby club plays 15-on-15 games in the fall and 7-on-7 games in the spring at the Campus Recreation Complex. Buckley quickly took a liking to the sport and helped UML advance to national championship tournaments each season, including last spring in New Orleans.
“Rugby is the epitome of team sports — you’re communicating for 80 minutes straight on both offense and defense,” said Buckley, who found that rowing had conditioned him to play forward on the rugby field. “My fitness helped me a lot. The muscles I gained transferred well to rugby.”
At the same time, Buckley was developing his plastics engineering muscle. He chose UMass Lowell because of its strong engineering programs but admittedly “didn’t know anything about plastics” when he arrived on campus.
“I like how there are so many different areas to it; plastics are everywhere,” said Buckley, who leaned on his advisor, Assistant Teaching Professor Anne Soucy, whenever he needed help.
Following his sophomore year, Buckley landed a six-month research and development engineering co-op position at NxStage Medical in Lawrence, Mass., where he got hands-on experience testing the optical properties of PVC film used in home hemodialysis machines.
He followed that up with a manufacturing co-op last summer at Corning Life Sciences in Durham, N.C., where “I had an injection molding machine all to myself, which was pretty cool,” he said.
Buckley had to take an unexpected weeklong break from his Corning co-op, however, when he learned that he was among 50 college rugby players from across the country who were invited to participate in a showcase tournament in Herriman, Utah. Buckley’s former UMass Lowell coach, Josh Skinner, had encouraged him to apply for the showcase, where MLR scouts would be on the lookout for talent.
Buckley was soon receiving emails from MLR coaches expressing interest in him, but he didn’t have high expectations heading into the league’s collegiate draft held August 18.
“I was preparing what to say to everyone when I wasn’t drafted, and then Dallas called my name” with the 27th overall pick, said Buckley, whose first thought was, “Oh my gosh, I guess we’re doing this.”
Founded in 2017, MLR currently has teams in a dozen cities across North America, including New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, Atlanta and Toronto.
While Buckley may continue his studies at UMass Lowell for graduate school down the road, he’s OK with putting the focus on engineering on hold momentarily.
“I know that I won’t be able to play rugby when I’m 50, but hopefully I can still do engineering when I’m 50,” he said. “For now, I’m excited to be in the professional sports environment and travel to cities I’ve never been to.”