Former Blue Devils football star comes back to Randolph High to sign pro rugby contract

RANDOLPH – Athletic Director Tony Price called it a "banner year" for Randolph High sports.

Literally.

After winning the school's first-ever football state crown in the fall and the school's first-ever boys basketball state title over the winter, the Blue Devils were looking for something big to celebrate this spring.

Enter Fabian Thames.

The former Randolph football star returned to his alma mater last Thursday to sign his first pro contract ... with a Colorado-based rugby team.

More: Randolph loves its Blue Devils: Town celebrates state champion boys basketball team

Thames didn't play rugby in high school. Or at American International College in Springfield. In fact, as of his return home last Friday he hadn't technically played the sport at all.

But that's OK. The team he's joining, American Raptors, specializes in crossover athletes – those who have made their mark in other sports but possess, to quote Liam Neeson's famous movie line, "a very particular set of skills" that might translate to rugby.

As Raptors general manager Peter Pasque told rugbyworld.com in January: "We reach out to high-level football players, high-level basketball players, wrestlers, even track people. The amount of football players in the U.S. is just crazy, right? It’s three to four thousand graduates every year that have basically been in five-year programs at all different levels – Division 1, Division 2. And 300 of those guys go to the NFL, so the rest are really looking for things to do.

More: First football, now basketball - Randolph High athletics are having a year to remember

"There’s a good group of a thousand or more guys that we reach out to online or through coaches or combines. We let them know there’s another opportunity to continue to play a sport and make a difference in a sport in the U.S., to be a part of something that may be really special and help us become relevant and then, hopefully, win a World Cup at some point.”

Thames, 23, played inside linebacker and receiver at Randolph and inside linebacker and special teams at Division II AIC, so he knows all about pursuit angles and open-field tackles.

"The (Raptors) coach who was talking to me was a football coach beforehand," said Thames, who checks in at 6-foot, 220 pounds. "He said he watched my high school film and my college film. He said the way I'm able to read and react and also tackle and finish plays is exactly what they're looking for. He feels like once I understand what I'm doing, I'm going to be able to excel from there."

Thames was initially hesitant when approached about switching sports. After all, he still harbors long-shot dreams of playing in NFL one day.

"I was like, 'Rugby? Ahhh, I don't know,'" he recalls.

More: Brothers Marquis and Malik White help Randolph boys basketball secure first state title

Remembering that AIC was the lone school to offer him a scholarship, he quickly pivoted, embracing this out-of-left-field opportunity the same way he had grabbed the college chance.

"That hesitation has definitely subsided," he said. "This opportunity, I'm going to make the best of it. It's my only opportunity (right now). Like AIC was the only school that gave me a chance. I'm going to give rugby the same attention and the same 100 percent effort."

Being open to new opportunities was one of the many lessons he imparted to current Randolph High junior and senior athletes, who joined him in the cafeteria to witness what Price called "another historic moment in our athletic history."

"That's big for Randolph," Price told the assembled student-athletes. "It hasn't happened in recent decades that anybody from Randolph has signed a contract to play a professional sport. That's reaching the ultimate goal, playing professionally."

Thames was joined by his mom, Lori; his dad, Andre Sr., his sister, Jete; and his girlfriend Catiana Pires. He began his address to the crowd by congratulating the Blue Devils on their recent success, saying, "I love seeing you guys breaking records and winning and just being great. That's what we came here to do – be student-athletes and be great at what we do."

He then went on an entertaining run through his athletic career that included plenty of highs – his game-clinching interception in the end zone as a Randolph freshman on Senior Night – and the low of discovering that his grades were hampering his ability to attract Division 1 college offers. New Hampshire and Villanova backed off after showing early interest.

Thames recalled struggling with the SAT to the point that he only scored 10 points higher the second time he took the test.

"Clearly," he said with a grin, "I'm very consistent but I'm not a test-taker."

An honor-roll student eventually at Randolph, he again struggled academically in college at first but resisted urge to transfer, buckled down, became a resident assistant in his dorm and eventually made the dean's list and became a second team all-conference pick.

He credited former Blue Devils football coach Keith Ford, now the principal at North Quincy High, with getting him to take school more seriously, demanding he stop wearing pajama pants and slides to class.

And he expressed his undying love for his town, recalling how his skills in Pop Warner had drawn interest from several area private schools, including Catholic Memorial. On the way to middle school one day, his mom asked him where he wanted to go to high school because if he chose the private route the family would need to start putting aside money.

His reply: "Once a Blue Devil, always a Blue Devil."

That made coming back to Randolph High to sign his contract an easy call. The current students seemed to enjoy hearing about his journey and many of the Blue Devils hung around after the ceremony to chat him up and get some tips.

"It definitely feels refreshing because that's something that I really didn't have," Thames said after the crowd had thinned out. "I didn't have somebody who was in the exact same position that I was come back and talk to me about their journey and how they were able to navigate through that. That I was able to give them this opportunity and then it's up to them what they do with that, it feels good on my end.

"I was just talking to one of the football players right here. When he was in eighth grade one of the coaches had him come over and talk to me on the field when I was working out (back at the school) and from that conversation, he made the decision to come to Randolph. He's now playing football and doing his thing there. Just seeing that ripple effect over time is really the best feeling for me."

Said Price: "For him to tell his story, I hope that the athletes who are here learned from that and say, 'If he can do it, I can do it.' He's a Randolph kid. He's one of our own and we should be proud of him."

Thames was out in Colorado with the Raptors in April and went through some drills for his first real introduction to the sport. The team's season has already begun and when he gets out there permanently he'll try to get up to speed as quickly as he can.

"The first couple of months that I'm out there I'm just going to be training and getting that pro-level experience," he said. "There are some 10-year veterans (on the team) but they do understand that at first they were probably a football player as well. For them to have that connection (to my story) and for somebody with that much experience to relate (to me) I think that will definitely benefit me."

Of course, Fabian Thames won't be the only one in his family trying to acclimate to this new sport.

"I didn't" know anything about rugby before this, his mom, Lori, said with a laugh, "but if you knew me as a football mom, you knew I could tell the refs the mistakes they were making, so believe me, I will learn (rugby rules). I'm going to open the playbook."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Former Randolph High football star returns home to sign pro rugby deal