Lincoln’s Jack Bigelow (right) fights for the ball during a recent rugby match.
By Brett Wittenberg
In spring 2004, when it came time to pick a sport, Lincoln-Sudbury sophomore Brendan Wimberly didn’t want to play baseball, he didn’t want to run track, and he wasn’t about to take up Ultimate Frisbee. Wimberly wanted to play rugby, and when he saw that rugby wasn’t among the high school’s eight choices for spring sports, he and 20 of his sophomore classmates approached then drama teacher and housemaster Iain Ryrie about the possibility of starting a team.
Having his own unique history with organized rugby, Ryrie was a logical choice. Before his time at L-S, Ryrie taught at Brookline High School, where he started the first high school rugby club in New England. He was well known in Boston’s rugby community as a player and referee, as well as coach of the Brookline team. Wimberly and his fellow rugby enthusiasts were able to convince Ryrie, who had been away from the game for years, to come back to the sport he loved as head coach, and the rugby program at L-S started to take shape.
Nine years later, Wimberly said of starting the rugby club at Lincoln-Sudbury with head coach Ryrie: “It was that whole organic feel—we’re building this up, this is our entity.”
Since 2004, the L-Srugby team has experienced uncommon success for a fledgling program. In 2006, just two seasons after bringing rugby to Lincoln-Sudbury, the team concluded the season as the second-best squad in New England, finishing runner up to league champion BC High. In 2008, the L-S Warriors lost the New England championship in the final round again, second only to St. John’s Prep.
Sadly, a couple of years later, the team learned their head coach was seriously ill. Iain Ryrie lost his battle with cancer in May 2011, just one year after retiring from Lincoln Sudbury. This year, his former student and player Wimberly carries on his legacy as head coach for the Warriors.
Rugby, which looks a bit like American football without the pads, is relatively unknown in America—it enjoys much more popularity internationally. It isn’t the spring sport for everyone. It’s a physically demanding game of strength, agility, and speed with the speed of soccer, and the back-and-forth play of basketball. Teamwork and player unity are uncommonly important, and this spring’s squad of 30 student athletes looks promising.
“They’re really committed this year. We’re building it back up,” Wimberly said of the 2013 squad, which is captained by Sudbury’s Brian Becker and Josh Beck. “I think the kids this year have taken the team as their own.”
Wimberly described Jack Bigelow of Lincoln as one of the team’s better players. While in middle school in Lincoln, Bigelow played on the lacrosse team every spring. When he arrived at the much larger high school, he realized he had more spring sport options, and it didn’t take long for several members of the rugby team to notice the six-foot tall, 236-pound Bigelow walking the halls and urge him to tryout for the rugby team.
What attracted him to the rugby team? “It’s a hard-hitting sport, fast-paced and fairly simple to play,” Bigelow said. Athletics at L-S are exemplary across the board most years and are treated as an important part of the school experience.
“It was a little scary just because I had never played for such competitive teams before L-S,” Bigelow said. Being one of just two players on this year’s team from Lincoln, he knows that he not only represents his school when he plays, but also his home town. “There is definitely Lincoln pride, which I believe is necessary to adapt to the school,” he said, adding that he’s enjoyed his time playing rugby at L-S and he hopes to continue to play at the college level.
Bigelow counts himself lucky to have had a coach like Wimberly. “I really believe that his passion for the game is reflected onto the team. He has a great knowledge of the game and a love for it as well,” he said.
Whether this spring’s iteration of the rugby club will reclaim L-S’s past success remains to be seen, but Wimberly is sure that the athletes will learn about the sport—and maybe a little about making their own path in life from a coach who is determined to carry on his mentor’s legacy.
Brett Wittenberg is a Lexington resident.