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School of Hard Knocks
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Mike Spencer
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May, 03 2007
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| Charter Schools Embrace Rugby |
When you think of sports in Oakland, you likely think of the big three: basketball, baseball, and football. And soccer is right up there with hoops -- if you go by sheer numbers.
But on a balmy Thursday evening, about 15 teenagers practiced rugby at Frutivale Elementary under the tutelage of coaches Ed Lopez and Ryan Burke. The two coaches, both Chico State grads, praised the lads when they deserved it, and verbally kicked them when they needed tough love. Rugby is well below the sports radar in Oakland, but that could change -- thanks to the Oakland Warthogs, a new high school club. |
Ed Lopez, coach of the Oakland Warthogs
When you think of sports in Oakland, you likely think of the big three: basketball, baseball, and football. And soccer is right up there with hoops -- if you go by sheer numbers.
But on a balmy Thursday evening, about 15 teenagers practiced rugby at Frutivale Elementary under the tutelage of coaches Ed Lopez and Ryan Burke. The two coaches, both Chico State grads, praised the lads when they deserved it, and verbally kicked them when they needed tough love. Rugby is well below the sports radar in Oakland, but that could change -- thanks to the Oakland Warthogs, a new high school club.
Stellar rugby programs have existed in Oakland for decades, but no club has ever really taken hold. There are collegiate sides like national powers Cal and St. Mary’s, men’s clubs galore in San Francisco, the Hayward Rugby Football Club, and the Diablo Gaels of Walnut Creek; the winning Berkeley All-Blues Women’s Rugby Club, and established high school teams in Piedmont, Berkeley, and Lafayette.
Most of the Warthogs are Latino, ages 13 to 17. They come from Oakland Charter Academy, American Indian Public Charter School, and Fremont High School in Oakland. The club started about four months ago when Oakland Charter Academy’s director Jorge Lopez, Ed’s younger brother, thought the school needed to beef up its extracurricular offerings in conjunction with launching its high school curriculum this summer.
Jorge, a taskmaster who played rugby with Ed at Berkeley High, wanted something different for his students. “They are in eighth grade, and if they can deal with my shit for three years, they can put up with anything,” Jorge says between glances at the practice. “Some people wanted a basketball or soccer team, but I wanted something different.”
He let Ed put up fliers around the school looking for rugby players. Jorge knew he had some pretty good athletes. A few of his boys placed in a 3-3-basketball tournament in Sacramento against some teams from juvenile halls.
On a Thursday in March, coaches Lopez and Burke marched the team through running drills and some skill training. To the untrained eye, rugby equals chaos with its spheroid ball, backward passes while running forward, and high up-and-under kicks. But those in the know say it is more like “high speed, full contact chess” or “organized chaos.”
Jose Pena (in red) and friends gearing up for practice
It is not for the squeamish. Ed Lopez called a huddle to address the finer points of “mauling,” moving the ball among standing players, and “rucking,” securing possession of the ball when it goes to ground.
Player Darren Reed with the ball
He preached that his team should embrace each others’ smells, and told them that when he was playing in college, players used to not wash their jerseys to try to make opponents gag.
Thirteen-year-old Felipe Lopez practiced at scrumhalf, an important position that commands the “forwards,” the typically bigger players. He is well suited for the job as he is nimble, tenacious, and must bark orders and dig for the ball to lateral it to the “backs,” the swifter sorts who do most of the scoring.
“It’s good,” Felipe says. “I like hitting people. My parents told me to be careful and not to break any bones.”
Alex Garcia, 14, grew up playing soccer, but had seen some rugby videos on the Internet. “It’s cool,” he says. “I like the hitting, but it can be painful.”
The Oakland Warthogs, whose players voted on the name, are actually the second youth rugby club started in Oakland in recent years. The first was the Oakland Military Institute’s team, coached by school history teacher Mike Sagehorn since its inception in 2004. (Sagehorn uses a rugby ball as a “potty pass.” When students go to the restroom during class, they have to hold the ball with two hands.)
Sagehorn says two of the tougher aspects in fielding a rugby club in Oakland are lack of
decent practice fields and small student body populations at charter schools. The kids on his team had no idea about the game or how it is played, and took their lumps when they started playing more experienced teams.
He says that while his team and school do not have many large, prototypical jocks, they do attract some “wiry, tough street kids” who have played basketball on some of Oakland’s tougher playgrounds.
Sagehorn agreed that rugby is a good fit for the smaller charter schools in Oakland. The code of the game is to compete fiercely on the pitch, but to embrace your opponent and socialize with him after the match. He has worked hard to build trust with his players and their families.
“We have our rugby sportsmanship code that, if successfully indoctrinated in a new generation of Oakland youth players, could go a long way in fixing some of the evil that befalls high school sports,” he says.
The Warthogs and the Military Institute haven’t played each other as yet – they barely know of each other. The Warthogs are a new club and still need more practice before they are game-ready. But in Oakland’s small rugby universe, they’ve got to run into each other sometime.
For more information about joining the Oakland Warthogs youth rugby club, contact Ed Lopez at EddieLopez1@hotmail.com |
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