Farewell

Rick Maese: The secret was already weighing on him as the team bus pulled out of Washington and headed north.

Tal Bayer, coach of one of the District’s most unlikely athletic success stories, sat at the front, his pale bald head a beacon to his roster of two dozen teenagers. He called them his boys, and the physical expression of their relationship — cleats, gym bags, rugby balls — were strewn all over the bus.

Bayer liked taking his rugby players out of the city, where so many of their lives are defined by struggle. “Every mile you get away from D.C., away from school, from the pressures of home, you can see the kids open up,” he said.

It was early March, and the Pride rugby team was headed to Philadelphia for its first real test of the season. Bayer had been making these trips since founding the program 14 years ago at what was then Hyde Leadership Public Charter and is now Perry Street Prep Public Charter. Pride is one of the only high school squads in the country composed entirely of black players, an inspirational story that in recent years had intrigued documentary filmmakers and Hollywood screenwriters.

Bayer’s teams have visited more than 15 states, and his best players have been part of scrums in nearly a dozen countries. In a city where barely one in three black boys graduates from high school, Pride’s most impressive record has been off the field. More than 150 inner city kids have played for the team. Nearly all have graduated from high school, and more than one third have gone on to play in college.

To his players, Bayer has been far more than a coach. He has been a guiding force in their lives, the father figure so many didn’t have.