Chicago City Wire

The Chicago Hounds have reached an agreement with scrumhalf Michael Baska on a contract extension, the club announced. Baska has played 70 matches in Major League Rugby (MLR), starting 32 times and accumulating over 3,100 minutes during his seven-year career.

Baska joined the Hounds before the 2023 season after spending a year with Rouen Normandie in France’s Pro D2 league. He made his debut for Chicago in their first official MLR match on February 18, 2023, against Old Glory DC, becoming the tenth player to represent the team.

During the 2023 season, Baska appeared in all 16 games, starting nine and playing more than 800 minutes. He completed 536 of his 617 pass attempts and gained over 200 meters from just 39 carries. As a ball carrier, he beat six defenders and made one clean line break.

In the following season, Baska added six more appearances for Chicago, playing both at scrumhalf and wing. In 2025, he focused mainly on scrumhalf duties, earning twelve caps with two starts. He attempted 281 passes in his 441 minutes on the field that year and completed 279 of them.

Baska began his MLR career in 2018 after playing college rugby at Lindenwood University. He initially signed with New Orleans Gold for MLR’s inaugural season and spent two years there before joining Utah Warriors ahead of the 2020 campaign. In his second year with Utah, he started all thirteen games he played as the team reached the Western Conference title game.

Throughout his career so far, Baska has attempted over two thousand passes and successfully completed nearly nineteen hundred of them. He has scored forty-nine points through eight tries—including one worth seven points—two conversion kicks, and one penalty kick.

Recently, Baska was named to the USA Eagles Travelling Squad for their fall test matches. He has been part of the national team pool since making his debut against England on July Fourth in 2021.