Ryan Bays has coached club rugby at Elon since 2003. While all teams are expected to have a coach, Bays’ position is unique compared to other club sports, which are coached by students serving as club presidents. Bays said the rugby program has meant a lot to him and he wants to give back to it as much as possible.
“I have a lot of pride in the program,” Bays said. “I felt like I got a lot out of it when I was here. Being able to anchor a university club is a big deal.”
After graduating from Elon University in 2000, Ryan Bays spent his time both playing and coaching rugby. He competed for a local men’s club rugby team in Greensboro, and when he wasn’t doing that, he was helping out men’s club rugby at Elon.
But Bays said that over time, the amount of responsibility was beginning to conflict with family time. Citing a busy schedule and a desire to spend more time with family, Bays decided to stick with coaching over playing.
“I was away from Monday through Thursday and I would get home at 9 p.m.,” Bays said. “My wife was like, ‘you can either coach or play. You can’t do both anymore.’ The coaching seemed like a better fit on the longevity side.”
Bays said that, like all club sports at Elon, rugby does have student executives. However, he gives plenty of advice on what’s best for the team, from how practices should be run to recruiting new players.
Bays found rugby as an alternative in his sophomore year after quitting football. Bays said he views rugby as an easy sport to play. He noted that it’s a very social sport where anyone can be accepted. All anybody needs to play are shorts, cleats and a jersey.
“One of the beauties of rugby is that socially, and also as a competitive sport, you can play it after you graduate from high school or college,” Bays said. “If you have the desire to play, you can find a spot.”
Bays admitted that he doesn’t expect anyone in the club to compete for the national rugby team once they graduate from Elon.
However, he believes he’s doing a good coaching job if he can get at least something out of his players. Much of Bays’ approach revolves around incorporating team building skills with his players.
He knows that on a large team, there’s going to be scenarios where not everyone is on the same page. Yet Bays said that’s expected among college students who are still developing skills to use in the future. He believes it’s his job to teach these skills so that the players will become better at working together.
“When you have 30 guys that are on a team, nobody’s ever going to agree on everything,” Bays said. “My goal as a coach is to make them better in those things, because a lot of them may not have a lot of leadership skills.”
Bays acknowledged that there might be some mistakes made from his players along the way. However, he prefers they commit some of these errors now rather than in an actual job.
“They got to make mistakes someplace,” Bays said. “It’s better to do it here, now, with somebody that’s helping them out with it, than trying at your next job.”
In Bays’ years coaching the rugby team, one of the things he enjoys most is the connections established throughout his tenure. He said he knows almost everyone who has ever come from the program since it began in 1995. Bays said it means a lot for him to see players who he coached spend time with one another.
“I just love the brotherhood and seeing guys taking in what they did on the team,” Bays said. “I feel the most joy from people I’ve impacted at Elon because they had a lot of time with me and felt like they took something away from it.”
Even though Bays counts on the students to take ownership of the program, he said he is always there for guidance. He described everyone’s contributions to the club as meaningful for not only the program’s success, but their lives after Elon.
“I want them to be able to say the team was successful because of what we put together,” Bays said. “I’m here to facilitate it, but outside of it is where I feel like that’s the bigger thing. That’s the stuff that they’re going to take into their profession.”