Gillam Working His Way up the Rugby Ladder

In August, Jupiter Gillam is heading to college in North Carolina. However, the air miles he’ll earn moving across the country, and coming home for holidays and visits, are a drop in the bucket compared to those he’s racked up since graduating from Mountain View High School in 2024.

“I just wanted to get out of Oregon and travel the world,” said Gillam, 19, who grew up on his family’s farm in Bend. He used the time to meet new people, see new lands, including Australia, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, and to hone his already considerable skills in the sport of rugby.

Jupiter Gillam says he always had a rugby ball in his hands as a youngster. Credit: Julie Reber

“It’s like a mixture of every sport I’ve ever played in my life,” said Gillam, who’s 6’5″ and weighs in at 230 pounds. “I like the physicality of it, and I like the running. I’m a big guy, and it’s fun to be a big, physical guy in there. And you know how you get really good at something and then don’t ever do it differently? Rugby’s never going to be like that. There are so many different aspects of the game to learn.”

He’ll continue his education, on the rugby pitch and in the classroom, as he heads to Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. He was initially recruited to play rugby for Central Washington University. However, in April, CWU announced the discontinuation of its varsity rugby program due to funding issues. Gillam opted to switch his commitment to Queen’s University, which is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division-one (D1) program that’s consistently ranked in the top 15 nationally.

“Jupiter is a driven individual with aspirations of playing rugby at the highest level while also earning a quality education. At Queen’s, we value student-athletes like him who are committed both on and off the field,” said Tyree Reed, head coach of the men’s rugby program. “Our program is focused on personal growth and helping our athletes chase their dreams while receiving a world-class education. I see Jupiter stepping into our program and making an immediate impact. He brings a strong foundation of skills, a powerful physical presence, and adds a real threat in the lineouts. We’re excited about what he’ll bring to the team and the community.”

For Gillam, the move to North Carolina caps an exciting year of travel and rugby. In addition to the other countries he visited, he spent six months in New Zealand, where he played for the Sumner Rugby Football Club in Christchurch. He was a member of Sumner’s Tsunami team and got to train with Scott “Razor” Robertson, whose son, Cass, is the Tsunami captain. Razor Robertson is a legendary rugby player and the current head coach of the All Blacks, the New Zealand men’s national team.

“I just tried to learn as much rugby as I could, and I learned a lot,” Gillam said. “Rugby there is like American football here. Everyone plays it. There’s a lot of energy and a lot more people at games. There’s a much bigger rugby community there.”

Jupiter Gillam with his mom, Julie, and dad Jason, at the recent Rugby Americas North (RAN) Men’s U19 XVs Tournament in Querétaro, Mexico, where the U.S. won gold. Credit: Julie Reber

More recently, Gillam was a member of the U.S. team that won gold at the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Men’s U19 XVs Tournament in Querétaro, Mexico. It was Gillam’s first time being selected to represent the U.S. “out of thousands and thousands of” players. While he didn’t get any game time, given the depth of the U.S. squad (28 players) and strict substitution rules, his selection identifies him as a up-and-coming prospect. Todd Thornley, head coach of the U.S. squad, said Gillam impressed the coaching staff and team in Mexico, where the team had a short training camp leading into the tournament.

“In his first experience in a high-performance environment, Jupiter arrived at camp with a great attitude and has shown strong development,” said Thornley, who also is the current head coach at Central Washington. “He’s a young athlete with significant potential and has already earned the respect of his teammates.”

Gillam said he began focusing on rugby in high school, while also playing football (guard and defensive end), water polo (a defender), and being a thrower (shot-put and discus) for the track team. While he did occasional rugby camps as a youngster, he said it was inevitable he’d end up playing the sport. Rugby is in his blood.

His dad, Jason Gillam, 52, is a 1991 MVHS graduate who played football and was named to the then-4A All-State team in 1990. He then played professional rugby, including for the Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Football Club (RFC), helping them to win five national championships, and for the U.S.A. Eagles, the men’s national team, in several matches around the globe.

“My dear old dad has been playing rugby for the past 290 years,” Gillam said with a chuckle. “I’ve had a rugby ball in my hands my whole life, but I didn’t really start playing it until around 16 or 17.”

When Jupiter entered high school, his dad revived the Bend Blues rugby squad, which consists of players from Mountain View, Bend, and Caldera high schools. Jupiter’s younger brother, Jettson, 16, a rising MVHS junior, plays football and is a member of the Blues, which narrowly missed winning this year’s state championship in a close 24-22 loss to Eastside Tsunami in May. Their mom Julie, 51, a mountain biker and longtime yogini, manages the team.

Since picking up the sport fully a few years ago, Jupiter has played for the Blues and then the Oregon Red Hawks, an all-star squad of Oregon players that competes against other top state teams in summer tournament play. He also played for the Pacific Northwest Loggers, a regional all-star team. He was a member of the 2024 U18 squad that beat British Columbia for the first time in 40 years. It’s all part of “climbing up the ladder” to international play, he said.

“Next for me would be the U20s and U23s,” said Gillam, who hopes to play in front of “home” crowds when the U.S. hosts the Rugby World Cup for the first time. “I want to continue down the U.S. pathway and my goal would be to play for the U.S.A. in the 2031 World Cup.”

For now, though, he’s focusing on getting ready for the Queen’s fall rugby camp that leads into the collegiate rugby season and spreading the word about the game of rugby, a game he loves and which he hopes other people will try.

“I like to encourage other people to better themselves and rugby is a really good sport to help you do that,” he said. “It’s accessible, and the community just brings you in and helps teach you everything.

“I think the biggest misconception for me is that a lot of people think they’re not the right kind of athlete for rugby,” he added. “They’re too skinny or they’re too slow, too fat, too short. Rugby is a sport anybody can play. You can be any size and shape and there’s a position for you as long as you play hard and with passion.”

This article appears in Source Weekly July 17, 2025.