Patrick Oglesbee grew up in the rural community of Glennville, Georgia, where hunting and fishing were a way of life and a fulfilling pastime.
Emosi Bainivalu grew up on the rural, volcanic Fijian island of Taveuni, where he fished and hunted wild chickens and wild boar.
Both boys grew up on opposite sides of the world. Both later joined the army and played on the same rugby team.
This week they played on the Army team and competed against four other military teams in the Armed Forces Rugby Championship. Their team won gold in the championship game in Glendale, Colorado on Saturday.
Oglesbee had dreamed of attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He studied hard, was accepted, and received his lieutenant commission in May.
Oglesbee fit in well with the Army team and scored a hat trick against the Marine Corps team on Friday, the first day of play. A hat trick is when a rugby player scores at least three tries in a game. A try is the rugby equivalent of a touchdown in football.
When asked how he prepares for rugby games, Oglesbee said that in addition to training and strategic thinking, he always prays and “puts everything in God’s hands.”
Oglesbee is stationed at West Point, where he works in the academy’s athletic department and will later pursue a career in communications.
Bainivalu won the 2012 Green Card lottery, a U.S. government program that awards a limited number of visas to applicants from low-immigration countries with the goal of making U.S. society more diverse.
After arriving in the United States in 2014, he decided to join the Army in 2016 and began playing rugby in the All-Army Sports Program in 2017.
Bainivalu said he is not only in great shape physically, but he also plays every game like it’s a championship game and never slacks off or lets his guard down.
He returns to Taveuni about every three years to visit his parents and other relatives and to ride his three horses.
Army Sgt. Bainivalu is an automotive mechanic based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. He deployed to Thailand and the Philippines as part of Exercise Cobra Gold and also spent nine months in South Korea.
