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East rugby team opens second season Sunday
East looks to defend rugby state championship
By Dan Hiner
Youngstown
The 2018 was special for East rugby. The Golden Bears finished the year at 7-1-1 and won the Division III state title in their inaugural season.
It was Youngstown City Schools’ first team state championship since the Rayen boys basketball team brought home a title in 1985.
Youngstown fascination with rugby hasn’t worn off.
The Golden Bears had to split their roster with Chaney, which is entering its first year of rugby. Their roster has similar numbers despite the split.
East has between 25-30 players this season. The Golden Bears had 27 players last season.
“We definitely have some football guys coming back, we have some basketball players, so it’s a little bit of a mix of everyone,” co-head coach JT Thompson said. “We have some guys that even never played sports at East.”
Bill Burton left East to build the Chaney program. The search for a replacement hit a road bump.
Tim Bowser was supposed to take over the program. But the Ohio Rugby Union, the governing body for the sport in Ohio, suspended Bowser for the year after he received a red card during a game for the Allegheny Rugby Union.
Thompson, an East assistant football coach, and former Youngstown State women’s rugby player Timaira Gandy now lead the program.
Thompson admits that he still learning about rugby, so he relies on Gandy’s experience to help coach.
“She’ll slow down practice or talk to me about what’s going on or something that she sees that we need to improve,” Thompson said. “It’s definitely good to have her here as an asset.”
Gandy was originally hired by East in 2018 to start a girls rugby team. But a lack of interest from students and the vacant position allowed her to lead the boys team.
“I accept the challenge,” Gandy said. “Honestly, I was ready for it anyway.
“As a woman coaching a men’s sport, I knew coming in that I needed to demand respect, get respect and show them that as a woman I can be just as good, just as intelligent as they were when it came to game IQ.”
The Golden Bears are still a work in progress. New players are still learning the sport and members of last years team are trying to build on last season.
“We still got new people coming,” senior Jarail Jenkins said. “We think we got the swagger back. We got more people, more studying to do. I think we got it in us [to make another state title run].
Since there are only two programs in the area, the East roster still features students from other schools.
Boardman’s Timmy Bowser was one of the only players with rugby experience last season. He was named one of the team’s MVPs last year.
“Compared to last year’s roster, we really learned the game a lot faster than what we did last year,” said Bowser, who attends Boardman High School but plays for East because his home school doesn’t offer rugby.
“I think this group of guys, with the athleticism we have, we’re going to be a lot better than we were last year.”
The Golden Bears open their season on Sunday at Shaker Heights. East beat the Red Raiders 20-7 in the state championship last season.
“It will be a good test of what we got an where we’re at for the season,” Gandy said.