Hyde School Rugby: A successful story

Hyde School in Washington DC is one (or probably the only) high school for inner-city kids in the US where Rugby is a day-to-day business. This year, Hyde "The Pride" won two Sevens Tournaments and it's becoming the strongest team in Sevens in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Union (MARFU). We interviewed Tal Bayer, the coach-athletic director of this successful program.

Rugby7.com : When did you start the Hyde Rugby Program?

Tal Bayer: The school opened Fall of 1999 and Hyde Rugby started Spring of 2000 as the first official team sport.

The seeds were planted in the fall of 1999. Being my first year of teaching, I was looking for a way to connect with the kids and blow a little steam off at the weeks end. With that in mind, I started asking the kids to play a game of box rugby in the front yard of the school. The yard is a fenced in 30 yrd by 20 yrd box with 3 trees in it. The game we played was more like the early days of rugby than the modern game. It was a mess, no passing, just a lot of wrestling, mauling and mayhem as we tried not to knock ourselves out on a tree trunk or get cut up on the fence.

 

 

Those first few weeks, we had maybe 6-8 kids playing.

One day, a bunch of the local thug crowd was watching and talking trash when one of the larger guys (6’2 215 pounds) decided he was going to play too. Most of these guys don’t do much other than skip school and cause trouble and I was hoping this was not going to be the latest incident. Throwing caution to the wind, I passed the ball to him and put him on the other team.

We resumed play and I immediately began to question my decision. He came running at me full bore. It was evident his intent was to run me over or as my kids like to say “truck” me. Tackling is not the strongest part of my game, but someone running straight at you is not a hard target to miss.

Thank God, his running was worse than my tackling can be. He ran straight up and at the last second he tried to jump through the tackle. I was aiming at his thighs but with his last second leap, I caught him mid air sending into a summersault that ended with him landing on his head. His friends went into hysterics as he tried to stand up with bits of sticks and dirt stuck in his hair. I tried not to laugh too as I didn't want anything to be taken the wrong way.

I asked if he was ok but all I got was a “Ya’ll muth*&$!!! Crazy to play this S*%! Without pads”. He quickly jumped the fence, gathered his friends and quickly made their departure.

I tried not to laugh but my students were going nuts. The next week we had 20+ kids that wanted to play. Members of that group eventually became the core of players that helped us get our team up and running the next spring. We played a 12 game schedule and went 0-12 that first season.

Rugby7.com : How does the School help you?

Tal Bayer: Sports are a requirement of all students at our school. Rugby is part of our athletic program along with wrestling, basketball, soccer, track, cross country, golf and football. While our resources are limited, the school will cover uniforms, equipment, CIPP, tournament fees and transportation to games. My players personal resources are limited so we must do quite a bit of fundraising to cover costs for cleats, camps, and per diem money.

Rugby7.com : What is your rugby background? How did you end up at Hyde?

Tal Bayer: I began playing Rugby as a center with West End Rugby Club, Springfield, VA in 1988-89. I played with Radford University 1990-93, Atlanta Renegades 1993-1997, Washington Rugby Club 1997-2001.

While playing in Atlanta and working as a Loan Officer at a bank, I did some work coordinating youth rugby for the Georgia Games. This led to helping with a touch rugby program with at risk kids from a local housing project.

I knew I liked working with kids and at this point I realized I was not cut out for the world of finance. Despite this realization, it took a few years till I made the transition. Hyde turned out to be the perfect fit.

Rugby7.com : How difficult was to introduce Rugby in the School?

 

Tal Bayer: Our administration was extremely supportive. Our school was trying to build a sports program and it was another way to get kids involved in a relatively inexpensive sport. We already had 2 players on staff to coach so it was an easy sell.

Our players have really taken to the game. The 1st year we had 18 players of which I could always count on 5-7 dedicated players. Every game we would do a head count in the morning to see how many made it to school. We would do a second head count after lunch to see who received detention or was sent home.

We would usualy end the day with 12 or 13 players and pick up a couple more by grabbing kids as they were walking out the door on their way home. This past season we had a dedicated core of 26 players that are committed to the team and staying out of trouble.

We have built that group up by doing as many team building activities as possible. We have had Friday Night Lock In's at the school, hosted fundraising matches (MARFU 7's and Ambassadors Shield), camping trips to West Virginia, rugby camps and our favorite the Hyde Teacher/ Student 7's team.

 

Hyde at Exiles 7s

We enter a few tournaments a year and enjoy the day as teammates rather than player/ coaches. We have been to the Social Bracket Finals of the James River 7's the past 2 years and won the Severn River 7's this season.

Eventually we hope to include alumni on our teams. We graduated our first player this year, David Gaddie who will attend Morehouse in Atlanta this Fall. David spent a tumultuous four years at Hyde and has really developed into quite a player and more importantly a person of character. I believe much of the positive changes he made in his life were the result of his experiences on the rugby team.

Rugby7.com : But you are not alone in this endeavor, are you?

 

Tal Bayer: No, there are other coaches helping me and I would like to give special mention John Robinette in particular. He has been instrumental in getting the team established.

John Robinette came to Hyde the Winter of 1999. I was hanging out with him after one of our many matches against each other when I asked if he were interested in working at our school. He and I had played against each other from college all the way up through Men’s club. When I was at Radford, he was at VA Tech, When I played for the Atlanta Renegades, he was at Life. I played for Washington and he played for NOVA.

We had always been on opposite sides of the pitch and luckily we would now be working together. John is an amazing student of sport. It doesn’t matter if it’s Football, Rugby or Basketball. He has the ability to see things with amazing clarity and understanding. His rugby and sport experiences have helped our team and myself to be better at what we do. He also has brought a lot of the organization and planning from his football coaching into our rugby team.

Rugby7.com : When we met two weeks ago you mentioned the idea to establish a MARFU 7s circuit for High Schools next year. Can you elaborate more on that?

 

Tal Bayer: This was the first year we really got the Potomac Rugby Union High School 7's established. We held the Pride Rugby 7's, Exiles 7's and NOVA Battlefield Classic.

After reading about high school 7's in the EPRU, I though it might be worth trying to hold a tournament next year pitting our best teams against the best from the EPRUand declare an unofficial MARFU 7's champion. Right now, it is nothing more than a thought but I will work on it over the next year.

Rugby7.com : What do you think has been the biggest accomplishment of the Hyde RFC?

 

Tal Bayer: The number of our players that have managed to stay in school, change their attitudes and make a positive change in their life.

A prime example of that is our 7's captain "PJ". I was introduced to PJ after he was throwing broken glass on our field during practice. When confronting him about it, I asked how he would like being tackled in a pile of glass. His response at the time was "They won't tackle me" At first I thought he was kidding, PJ was only 5' 5 135 pound 8th grader but after handing him the ball and watching him run over, around and through my fledgling team, I realized he was right.

 

Exiles Tournament's MVP Patrick "PJ" Komognon

After he picked up the glass off the field, I told him his new sport was going to be rugby. The next 4 years were not easy, he was suspended, quit the team and school, was almost retained, led out of our school in handcuffs, but through it all he didn't quit.

He had an awesome Junior year this year, played brilliant rugby and has had several honors. He got a job with Godek Rugby Soccer Supply, played with the 2003 Cape Fear Runner Up’s last weekend (starting in the final against Charlotte), was awarded one of our USA Rugby camp scholarships to East Stroudsburg, PA, following the camp he will be traveling to Guatemala with an organization called Hoops Sagrado.

He will spend a month learning Spanish and teaching basketball to impoverished Mayan children. This is pretty amazing stuff when looking back on his time at Hyde and how far he has come. His story is one of the many successes for players on our team. I wish I had time to put them all in a book.

Rugby7.com : Are there other High School Rugby programs for African-American kids in the US ?

 

Tal Bayer: As far as I know, we are the only high school. In the DC area there have been others such as Carroll in the early 90's and Oxon Hill last year but sadly enough, they have not lasted.

 

Rugby7.com : What about the Hyde Logo?

Tal Bayer: Hyde School 15’s Motto is “Step Aside for the Pride”- Our team name is the “Pride” Pride was chosen as our school mascot name etc. because A “Pride” is a family of lions. A major part of what the School does is family renewal. We also consider our school, teams and classes families unto themselves. In addition, we are trying to instill a sense of pride into all of our students.

Our 7’s Motto “Two away from trouble”- is a shorter version of the simple rule we play the game by. Our rule for 7’s is 2 passes from any trouble. 2 passes from a kickoff catch, 2 passes from a tackle, lineout, scrum etc. Our goal is to pass, move the ball wide, spread the field and most importantly stay out of contact.

Rugby7.com : "The Pride" certainly play according to their motto. Watch for these cubs to become rugby stars in the US firmament in the near future.

 

You may contact Tal Bayer at tbayer@Hydedc.org

Tal Bayer at the 2002 MARFU Sevens