Thys Wallace founded the North Shore Rugby Academy to introduce rugby to children on the North Shore and build interest around an upcoming professional rugby match between the US and New Zealand teams. He has been visiting local elementary schools to teach basic rugby skills to children in a non-contact way through games. The academy also offers a program for ages 4-14 through the Northbrook Park District. Wallace aims to establish youth rugby leagues affiliated with local park districts and eventually make rugby more widely known and played on the North Shore.

1. 36 | October 2, 2014 | THE NORTHBROOK TOWER northbrooktower.com
Pro rugby player aims to build lost sport in NB
DAYNA FIELDS, Editor
Football may be the fa-
vored American pastime,
but on Nov. 1, Chicagoans
will have rugby fever.
That’s the day when the
top-ranked rugby team in
the world, the New Zea-
land All Blacks, will take
on the USA Eagles at Sol-
dier Field.
The match will be the
seventh time Chicago has
hosted the Eagles since
1976, and it will be the first
match that the Kiwis have
played in the States since
1980. NBC will provide na-
tional broadcast coverage
for the 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
The timing is perfect for
Thys Wallace, founder and
coach of the newly created
North Shore Rugby Acad-
emy, which is looking to
build off the hype of the big
match and spread awareness
about the sport of rugby
across the North Shore.
“AIG is the big sponsor
for the All Blacks coming
to Soldier Field Nov. 1,”
Wallace said. “They re-
leased this [Rookie Rugby]
initiative to introduce [Chi-
cagoland] kids to the sport.
So I’ve reached out to four
schools so far. It’s pretty
much one school a week at
the moment, because I have
a day job as well.”
While Wallace has an eye
on eventually introducing
rugby to the high school ath-
letes at Glenbrook North, he
set his sights on smaller tar-
gets Sept. 19, when he vis-
ited P.E. classes at Meadow-
brook Elementary School,
teaching local youngsters
basic rugby skills with an
altered version of Duck,
Duck, Goose.
“So it’s kind of the same
concept except for there’s
two balls — one travels
around in a circle, and then
the kid running is going to
try to get back to his spot
before the ball gets there,”
he said. “All the kids are
amazing [at Meadowbrook].
The teachers and the kids
have a very good relation-
ship. They listened well and
played well.”
Launched in June, North
Shore Rugby Academy is
a non-contact program for
girls and boys ages 4 to 14,
offered through the North-
brook Park District. Practic-
es will be held at Greenbriar
Elementary School.
The new Rookie Rugby
Program, recently created
by USA Rugby, is a non-
contact version of the sport
for kids that introduces
ball games and even free
lesson plans for teachers,
which can feed into a Ki-
netic Wellness Curriculum.
(Learn more at www.rooki-
erugby.com)
In honor of the big All
Blacks versus Eagles
match, Grant Park will host
a Rookie Rugby Festival
Oct. 25, and the Chicago
Park District has commit-
ted to creating after-school
Rookie Rugby programs for
Chicago schools as well.
Here on the North Shore,
Wallace envisions eventu-
ally having Rookie Rugby
leagues, affiliated with the
different park districts, and
local matches.
“I have a 3-year-old, and
I’m trying to get this pro-
gram going by the time he’s
6 so he can play as well,”
said Wallace, noting that
he’d like this program to
become his full-time job.
When visiting schools,
Wallace begins each class
by explaining that the sport
of football actually derives
from rugby, which is about
70 years older than Ameri-
can football. In fact, the
term touchdown refers to
the requirement in rugby
that a player must actually
touch the ball down to the
ground in order to score.
“All the kids with foreign
dads pretty much knew what
[rugby] was [at Meadow-
brook],” Wallace said. “In a
lot of [European] countries,
it’s the No. 1 sport. And in
America, they don’t know
what it is. They’ve never
seen that funny-shaped ball
before. They all ask me,
is this some sort of soc-
cer ball?”
Wallace himself is a third-
generation rugby player
who played professionally
for the South African Fal-
cons in 1998. In 2001, he
was invited to play for the
Santa Monica Rugby Club
in California, where he met
his wife. From 2001-2011,
he also played for the Bel-
mont Shore Rugby Club’s
Super League, the rugby
version of the NFL, and
won national titles.
In 2011, Wallace moved
with his wife and three kids
to Winnetka to be closer
to family. But he still trav-
els with the Malibu Rugby
Club on international tours
to play in Europe, Argentina
and South Africa, alternat-
ing every two years.
“Now I referee and coach
rugby at New Trier High
School, and we’ve sent
two kids [to college] on
scholarships already,” said
Wallace, who noted that
New Trier has 124 kids in
its rugby program. “That’s
the ultimate goal, that’s
the aim.”
But the issue, according
to Wallace, is that kids are
already invested in other
sports by the time they enter
high school. In fact, most of
them have never even heard
of rugby.
So the trick, he said, is
to “get ‘em while they’re
young.” Wallace himself
began playing when he was
just 6 years old in a PeeWee
program in South Africa.
In high school, he was se-
lected to play for the U17
South African Rhinos Rug-
by League before being dis-
covered by the Falcons.
“We get the kids in high
school, and they have no
idea what rugby is,” he said.
“So we try to get to them
early. … We play simple
games and try to modify
them in a safe version to in-
troduce kids to rugby, so like
Freeze Tag and Red Rover
and Capture The Flag.”
Those are a sample of the
methods that Wallace wants
to roll out in Northbrook's
Rookie Rugby program.
Luckily, there are two big
upcoming events that may
help propel the program’s
growth. One is the debut
of rugby in the 2016 Sum-
mer Olympics since be-
ing dropped as an Olympic
sport in 1924. (The United
States still holds the record
for most gold medals, win-
ning in 1920 and in 1924.)
The second event is the
2015 Rugby World Cup, to
be hosted by England Sept.
18-Oct. 31, 2015.
“It’s just a great sport,
and I feel like we’re miss-
ing out on a great sport be-
cause nobody knows about
it [around here],” Wallace
said. “Football is very in-
dividualistic — one person
scores a touchdown, and
his name is in the paper. In
rugby, you won’t see that;
it’s always the team that’s
above the individual.
“We had seniors [at New
Trier] playing in their first
year and automatically got
scholarships for it. If they’re
spotted earlier, who knows
where they’ll end up?”
SPORTS
LEARNING NON-CONTACT RUGBY
The North Shore Rugby Academy is hosting two
upcoming classes for kids through the Northbrook
Park District from Oct. 28-Dec. 9. Both take place at
Greenbriar Elementary School every Tuesday. Class
for kids 10, 11 and 12 (girls and boys) will be from
6:30-7:30 p.m., and kids 13 and 14 (girls and boys)
will be 7:30-8:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.
nsrugby.com or call (310) 529 3696.
Thys Wallace, founder and coach of the newly created
North Shore Rugby Academy, plays a game with a P.E.
class at Meadowbrook School on Sept. 19. PHOTOS BY
CARLOS ALVAREZ/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
Two Meadowbrook kids race each other with a rugby ball.

2. NORTHBROOK'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER
North Shore Rugby Academy launches
non-contact kids program in NB, Page 36
Meadowbrook student Vivienne Larsen runs with the ball during a non-contact
introduction to rugby class, hosted by North Shore Rugby Academy. CARLOS
ALVAREZ/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
STARTING OFF RIGHT
GBN football opens conference
schedule with dominant win,
Page 39
HITTING THE POOL
GBN girls swimming takes on
New Trier, Page 35
Coach Thys Wallace founded North
Shore Rugby Academy in June.