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
