Hilton Head rugby was around for decades but disappeared. Can this former-pro bring it back?
Burly men, 17 to mid-thirties, stood out like sore thumbs on Wednesday afternoon at Hilton Head Island’s Chaplin Community Park.
From an outsider’s perspective, the men bound together in a scrum may look like a lot of bravado and machismo, especially when they quip about being able to bench over 300 pounds.
Even though local islander and former professional rugby player Alex MacDonald collected the required number of players to field a full team, it’s not enough. This budding rugby team isn’t complete. It needs more players. More sponsorships. More funding. These men are the right ones to do it. Some are best friends from the start, others that may be your neighborhood policeman or charter boat captain - are meeting for the first time in cleated shoes on the green grass.
What they have in common is that they’re determined to bring this sport back to the island.
50 years in the making: Hilton Head Rugby eyes a return to glory
In 1974, civic and business pillars of the Hilton Head community founded the Hilton Head Rugby Club. In the years that followed, many more men joined. Former player, Tim Burke, even moved to the island for the team. Much like the men on the team today, they are the backbones of the Hilton Head community. Burke owns Burke’s Main Street Pharmacy and other former players established some of the first restaurants, landscaping companies and law firms on the island
Burke said they traveled overseas for a tournament and made it to the Eastern Rugby Union playoffs in 1996.
“We were up against a team from Atlanta, a team from Washington D.C. and a team from New York City and (we were) little old Hilton Head,” he said. “It was it was a highlight of our career. It was amazing.”
After 35 years it all ended in 2009. There hasn’t been a club since and the last organized game was in 2017.
“Everything started kind of fading away,” MacDonald said. “It just kind of went downhill from there.”
The next generation takes the ball
While the club faded, MacDonald made his rise in the world of professional rugby, playing overseas and then professionally in New York. Until a pectoral tendon tear sent him into retirement in 2020, and he lost his spark for a while.
“I just didn’t love it anymore,” he said. “But I’ve been away from it. I realized I loved it.”
Now, both MacDonald and Hilton Head rugby are on the comeback.
Earlier this month, MacDonald applied for a Division III membership for the Hilton Head Rugby Club and was accepted into the Georgia Rugby Union. They have about 15 players showing up to the once-a-week practices, but MacDonald wants about 30 or 40 to have good practices and an efficient season.
The league the club will play in this year, the GRU, and will compete against teams including those based in Savannah, Charleston, Athens and Atlanta. They have less than a month to get their team together and ready to complete in their first game Nov. 4 in the Hilton Head area. Players have to be 17 years old, but other than that, there aren’t any requirements, including experience MacDonald said.
MacDonald estimates that it will cost about $10,000 per year for the club to function between renting a field and other costs. Right now, it doesn’t cost anything for a player to join the league and MacDonald is trying to keep it that way by searching for restaurants, bars, stores, businesses, or anyone else willing to sponsor the team. In return, they’d get a patch on their black-and-green uniforms and the patronage of as many as dozens of rugby players, who can eat and drink a lot, according to player James Rogers.
If “you’re willing to step on the field, you’re our brother”
At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, muscular and a former professional blindside flanker, MacDonald may seem intimidating to go up against. So might Rogers, the former United Kingdom Royal Navy player from Wales, who has a similar stature. But they say there is a place for everyone and patiently lead the team through drills, where they’re working their way up to full contact play.
“It’s a very body positive sport,” Rogers said. “We’ve got guys that can be north of 300 pounds and then we’ll have guys that are south of 100 pounds, all on the same team with a very valuable role to play.”
On being intimidated, Rogers said there’s nothing to fear. “Me and Alex stepped on a rugby field for the first time too at some point.”
As for MacDonald? “Everyone calls me a big teddy bear, there’s nothing to be scared of,” he said. MacDonald first picked up a rugby ball when he was 19 years old at The Citadel. He played other sports at St. Francis by the Sea and Hilton Head High School but didn’t have access to rugby until college. He wants to change that for the island community.
“If I grew up with it, it would have been be unreal,” he said, explaining that his big dream is to get a nonprofit status and start a youth club and league. Currently, there isn’t any youth club or league where children can learn and play the sport. MacDonald and Rogers believe kids are missing out on a rugby community that has personally uplifted them and made them the people they are today.
“As long as you’re willing to step on the field, you’re our brother, you’re our mate, you know,” Rogers said. “That’s all we care about. You’re our teammate and we love you for it.”
MacDonald said players can join the club by texting 843-377-3544 or by emailing hiltonheadrugbyclub@gmail.com
