Group takes baby steps to spread rugby in Haiti, a sport fitting to Haitians

CAP-HAITIEN — One of Haiti-born and trained soccer players’ weaknesses is that they are too physical, a trait that is perhaps due to their tough upbringings, some have said. Ouanaminthe Football Club 2011‘s head coach is even prioritizing teaching players how to play cleaner and less rough physically before participating in a regional tournament, the Concacaf Caribbean Cup, in August. 

Some believe that another method could help Haitian athletes, one that would rather give them a channel to unleash their combative nature to the fullest: playing rugby. 

“No sport is better than the other,” said Oklahoma-based college rugby player Rouve Jacques. “I just want us to have options. Some people may end up being better at rugby than soccer. We get red cards all the time in football [soccer]. We’ll be fine in rugby because we’re wild. In rugby, we’re here for war. I feel like there’s a different side of me that comes out.”

Jacques, 24, is part of Rugby Ayiti, a group that aims to inspire Haitians to play rugby. Through its various clinics and training camps in Haiti, the group is teaching about 40 boys and girls how to play rugby and two men and two women how to coach it. The project initiators also plan to start national teams for both men and women, focusing on Haitian athletes from the diaspora. 

To the nonprofit organization founders, spreading the sport in Haiti makes sense. They believe that rugby is not only a good fit for Haitians because of their fighting spirit, but it could also become a significant source of revenue, especially since soccer has failed to do so in recent years. Given rugby’s global presence, it offers Haitians another avenue, besides soccer, to seek overseas contracts and potentially escape poverty.

“We’re talking about Fiji, New Zealand, you can go to Europe, you can go to South America,” said Atlanta-based rugby player Giovani Douyon. “Soccer is cut-throat. You have to be realistic. If you want to play soccer, absolutely. But understand what it’s going to take to make it to that level. Not to say that it’s not about the same in rugby but it’s another opportunity to express yourself athletically and get you to a level you might have not reached.”

What sparked the dream

Eric Wilson, an American and former rugby player from Meredith, New Hampshire, is one of the initiators of Rugby Aiyiti. He was inspired to kick off the organization after he traveled to Haiti’s Pétion-Ville, an eastern suburb of Port-au-Prince, to help scout basketball players for college scholarships. Wilson was impressed by how strong and fast the players were—two traits that are extremely important in rugby.

“We get red cards all the time in football [soccer]. We’ll be fine in rugby because we’re wild. In rugby, we’re here for war. I feel like there’s a different side of me that comes out.”

Rouve Jacques, Southern Nazarene University rugby player

“When I went to these camps I was getting crossed and dunked on and I’m 6’3”, 210 pounds,” Wilson, 42, said laughing. “I’m not used to being manhandled by 16 and 17-year-olds. I was like, ‘Gosh, this is incredible.’”

Wilson, a sports performance specialist, was also inspired to start Rugby Ayiti because he was impressed by the story of the Haitian Revolution, which he believes is not exposed enough to the world.

“There are certain things in my life that are defining moments for me when I see and hear certain things and truths that I didn’t realize or understand,” Wilson said. “That’s the experience I had when I heard about the Haitian Revolution and the culture of Haiti. 

“The only thing that we learn in Meredith, New Hampshire is that Haiti is quote on quote the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,” Wilson added. “Our mission is to tell the Haitian Revolution story through rugby, through sports.”

Before Wilson started Rugby Ayiti in August 2019, there was a Haitian Rugby Federation (FHR, per its French acronym). However, the FHR had held very few events. This has changed since Wilson joined forces with the Haitians.  

As part of the foundation for popularizing rugby in Haiti, Wilson has been teaching two men and two women the rules of the game through video conferences so that they can become coaches and train youths. 

Now, Rugby is slowly but surely making moves

During its five years of existence, Rugby Ayiti has held periodical beginner-level non-tackle training sessions for about 30 to 40 young male and female athletes in Jérémie, the capital city of the Grand’Anse Department in southwestern Haiti. The organization is scheduled to hold the next session there this month. 

Photos from a rugby training camp at the Port-au-Prince Olympic Training Center in 2020. Photo courtesy of Rugby Ayiti

Rugby Ayiti has also been recruiting male and female players in the diaspora. It currently has 40 to 50 male players and about 10 female players. The men’s team played its first game last year in the Cape Fear seven-player tournament in Wilmington, North Carolina. Haiti won its first-ever game in that tournament, defeating Old White of Atlanta, Georgia, 24-14.

Wilson’s end goal is for Haiti to make it to the Olympics. He said it would take about eight to 12 years for this dream to come true. Wilson added that the women’s team might make it first since there are fewer female rugby international teams competing. 

Wilson also said that Haiti’s participation in the Olympics might not happen under his leadership since he plans to pass the baton to another leader in the long run. 

The sports performance specialist added that the estimated cost of the Rugby Ayiti project is USD 110,000, a sum that he hopes to raise through donations. 

Haitian-American football players could be influential

Rugby Ayiti heavily focuses on recruiting former or current Haitian-American football players since American football is very similar to rugby. Many Haitian-Americans play college, high school and even professional football, particularly due to their size and athletic abilities. This gives the men’s team a major advantage if some of them are willing to switch sports. 

Douyon, for example, is a former football player who last played for Maryville College. Douyon started playing rugby to stay in shape for football and kept playing because he did not make Georgia State University’s team after transferring there in his junior year.

After his football career, Douyon was a development player with Rugby Canada in the winter of 2022. He later joined the Rugby Ayiti project in March 2023 after Wilson recruited him on Facebook.

“I’m part of something that would be built from the ground up and also have the opportunity afterwards to still participate in it at a pretty high-level capacity,” Douyon said. “That’s something at this point in time that’s in my alley, something I want to be a part of to build a legacy.”

Giovani Douyon in action with Faith Rugby during a Freetail seven-player tournament on December 30, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Photo courtesy of Giovani Douyon

For her part, Jacques was born in Saint-Marc, about 62 miles north of Port-au-Prince, and later moved to Pétion-Ville during her high school years. She often played soccer with her brothers in Haiti and didn’t start playing rugby until she was 22 after some of her college friends asked her to join their team. Although Jacques began playing rugby relatively late, she made it to the Division II college team playing for Southern Nazarene University.

Jacques plans to travel to Saint-Marc this December to teach young athletes the basics of rugby, an opportunity she did not have as a child.

“I wished that I started younger, played for a club or something, I think I could’ve been better,” Jacques said. “It’s not just that there’s no rugby in Haiti. Women’s sports in general is in decline in Haiti. It’s sad to look at when in Europe even in South America women’s sports is big. I hope that we can get to that level.”