Yesterday, I had a conversation with a teammate about how to play rugby. The game seemed very interesting and I think I would enjoy playing it. Coincidentally, I looked online and saw an article from the New York Times named "The Unlikely Scrum." After just hearing the positions and how the game of rugby is played, I knew that article dealt with rugby. This sport has become more and more popular around New Trier, but in this article, I was shocked to hear that Hyde Leadership Public Charter School has the "nation's first all African-American high school rugby team." When I think of Rugby, I think of large English brutes hitting each other as hard as they possibly can. I never knew that African-Americans played the sport of rugby.
When the first students from Hyde asked their friends and family about playing the sport, a common response was, "You're crazy, that's a white person's sport." Regardless of what they said, the students began to pursue the sport of Rugby. Tal Bayer, the rugby coach at Hyde, encouraged the students to play "a pick-up game after school." These pick-up games led "to the birth of a team in 2000." The sport has become very popular at Hyde school and "now, 45 of the high school's 110 boys play." It is amazing to see how a game that was own known to these students is now something they all look forward to after school. Not only has Hyde created a school full of Rugby players but, "Hyde has become one of the city's top programs, finishing second out of seven teams in the Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference."
Who would have thought that a group of inner-city high school boys would be playing rugby? Since this team has been able to compete against white affluent schools, it is a "barrier that rugby has broken down." Seeing an African-American rugby team excel and play against teams who have only encountered white opponents is progress in braking down racial barriers. It is amazing to see how our Constitution has allowed for once slaves to now be accepted in our American society. I have always seen the videos of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the M.L.B., and how he broke down racial barriers by playing in a "white mans sport." America is making progress! This rugby team is one of the thousands of examples of how our country is progressing in the right direction.
When the first students from Hyde asked their friends and family about playing the sport, a common response was, "You're crazy, that's a white person's sport." Regardless of what they said, the students began to pursue the sport of Rugby. Tal Bayer, the rugby coach at Hyde, encouraged the students to play "a pick-up game after school." These pick-up games led "to the birth of a team in 2000." The sport has become very popular at Hyde school and "now, 45 of the high school's 110 boys play." It is amazing to see how a game that was own known to these students is now something they all look forward to after school. Not only has Hyde created a school full of Rugby players but, "Hyde has become one of the city's top programs, finishing second out of seven teams in the Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference."
Who would have thought that a group of inner-city high school boys would be playing rugby? Since this team has been able to compete against white affluent schools, it is a "barrier that rugby has broken down." Seeing an African-American rugby team excel and play against teams who have only encountered white opponents is progress in braking down racial barriers. It is amazing to see how our Constitution has allowed for once slaves to now be accepted in our American society. I have always seen the videos of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the M.L.B., and how he broke down racial barriers by playing in a "white mans sport." America is making progress! This rugby team is one of the thousands of examples of how our country is progressing in the right direction.
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