{"id":394673,"date":"2026-01-06T05:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394673\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T05:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T05:34:11","slug":"chicago-hounds-extend-2024-draft-pick-jake-kinneeveauk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394673\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Hounds extend 2024 draft pick Jake Kinneeveauk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/chicago-hounds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Hounds<\/a> and 2024 second-round draft pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/jake-kinneeveauk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Kinneeveauk<\/a> have agreed to terms on a one-year contract extension to keep the loose forward in Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>Kinneeveauk made his MLR debut in the Hounds\u2019 week 10 matchup with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/seattle-seawolves\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle Seawolves<\/a> last season, and while he hasn\u2019t found his way into the matchday 23 on a consistent basis thus far in his young career, the University of Utah product did impress in the 2025 autumn Performance Squad season, earning him a contract extension.<\/p>\n<p>During his collegiate career, the Alaska native earned All-Conference honours in each of his final two seasons, and more recently helped the Chicago <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/lions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lions<\/a> win the Midwest Premiership title.<\/p>\n<p>The No.22 overall pick from 2024 joins 25-year-old utility back <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/reece-botha\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reece Botha<\/a>, 25-year-old hooker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/jackson-zabierek\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jackson Zabierek<\/a>, 26-year-old flanker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/emmanuel-albert\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emmanuel Albert<\/a>, and 23-year-old rising second-row talent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/brandon-harvey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brandon Harvey<\/a>, as recent signings for the Hounds.<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago outfit is looking to go one better in 2026 after finishing second in the Eastern Conference a season ago and falling short to the eventual champion Free Jacks in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>The Hounds will kick off their 2026 season away at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/anthem-rugby-carolina\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthem Rugby Carolina<\/a> on April 4, with their first home game coming on April 12 against California Legion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Hounds and 2024 second-round draft pick Jake Kinneeveauk have agreed to terms on a one-year contract&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-394673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}