Five championships, two alumni, and a tradition of family. For the past five years, the boys rugby team at Pritzker College Prep has been unbeatable within the Noble League. These continuous wins clearly reflect a team’s culture rooted in community and excellence, led by two Pritzker alumni who once wore the same rugby jerseys as their students. 

Former teammates and now coaches of both the girls and boys rugby team, Coach Jovon Hernandez (Class of 2014)  and Anthony Johnson (Class of 2012) grew as student-athletes at Pritzker and are now educating the next generation of athletes. Both coaches reflect on the rugby program that built them and offer us a shared perspective on their ongoing legacy:

As a Pritzker alum, how does it feel to now be back on campus coaching the rugby team where you once played?

Coach Hernandez: It’s a full circle moment for sure and a little surreal. As a Pritzker student, I had no intentions of this being my career path. But now I couldn’t imagine going a season without coaching. Joining Pritzker Rugby kind of changed the trajectory of my life, and I couldn’t be more grateful to my high school coach. I love that I can give current students the same skills, lessons, and experiences I had as a student. 

Coach Johnson: Honestly, I can’t describe how it really feels to be back on campus coaching the rugby team that I once played for. Pritzker Rugby forever has a place in my heart. I am glad that I was able to come back and build on the Pritzker legacy. Not many people can say they have won a championship as both a player and a coach at the same school.

The boys rugby team has won five Noble League championships in a row. From your perspective, what has been the key to building and sustaining this success?

Coach Hernandez: The key to all of this is the students. At Pritzker, we focus on the journey. We focus on teaching skills and fundamentals the right way. We focus on treating our teams like a family. Once every athlete buys into those aspects of Pritzker Rugby, we all work together for that common goal of winning a championship. Coach Johnson and I give our players all the tools to win games, but it’s ultimately up to them to decide how far they want to go. All credit goes to our student-athletes. 

Coach Johnson: The key to building and sustaining this success for me is just building relationships with my players and a sense of community among each other. From the start, we preach the message that Pritzker Rugby is

a family, and we must look out for and play for each other. From our past and current players, they all know that they always have family here within the rugby team. They know that, as their coaches, we will always have their backs. Our players hold each other accountable and share a common goal, so they work well together to achieve it.

Pritzker boys rugby team celebrating their championship victory last year.

How do you see rugby shaping your players, not only as athletes, but as students and future leaders?

Coach Hernandez: Coach Johnson and I care more about our players as people before we see them as our players. You could be the best athlete in the school, but if you are not showing that you are aligned with our core values (excellence, tenacity, community, and reflection), you will not play. We tell students when they join our team that they have officially become the best-behaved and highest-scoring students at Pritzker. Our best rugby players on the team are also captains of other sports, snowball (our annual student leadership retreat) leaders, and students with good grades. These life skills also go past high school. Many of our rugby alumni are currently captains of their respective college teams. Our players are graduating as leaders in high school and carrying that over to their college campuses.

Coach Johnson: For me, it’s bigger than rugby. It’s about making them into better individuals. Every year, once you make the rugby team, we have this saying: You are now working on being one of the best students in the building, both academically and behaviorally. We hold our athletes to high expectations, and for the most part, it pays off. We want our athletes to be the best version of themselves. We use rugby as a motivation for them. We tell them that rugby can open many doors for them in the future. As of now, we have about 21 former players currently playing college rugby, and a few of them are captains or part of their team’s leadership.

Coach Hernandez (on the right) with a senior student at the SY2024-2025 Boys Rugby Senior Night

Looking ahead, what’s your shared vision for the future of Pritzker rugby and the legacy you want to leave together as coaches?

Coach Hernandez: Obviously, from a championship standpoint, I would like to win more championships and be known as the most dominant high school rugby program in the network. But I do hope my legacy goes way beyond that. Even if we never win another championship, I hope to be remembered as a coach who cared deeply about his players and pushed them to become better versions of themselves. I want to be remembered as a coach who instilled confidence in my students. I also hope some of my alumni become coaches and continue my legacy in that way. 

Coach Johnson: Our shared vision for the future of Pritzker rugby is, of course, to win as many championships as we can. But more importantly, we want Pritzker rugby to be viewed as a family, just like it was when both Hernandez and I were teammates at Pritzker. We want to be the coaches our players remember in the future, with a lasting impact on them, not only on the field but off the field.

Coach Johnson (on the left) with a senior student at the SY 2024-2025 Boys Rugby Senior Night.

Thinking back, what’s one moment from when you played rugby at Pritzker that still influences how you coach?

Coach Hernandez: One thing from playing high school rugby that influences how I coach today is my coach’s acceptance of everyone. He taught us that no one is a lost cause and everyone has a role in our family. My coach always felt he could coach any child to be the best version of themselves. I remember I had a teammate who struggled with grades and finding his way in school. The PE teacher at the time advised my coach to not let this student play rugby because of these reasons. My coach refused to listen to him and let him join the team. Within one season, this student was a rugby all-star. He grew to love the sport, he made high honor roll, turned things around in school, and went on to play rugby at college. None of this would’ve happened if my coach hadn’t taken a chance on this kid.

Coach Johnson: One moment from when I played Pritzker rugby that still influences how I coach is from the last regular-season game of my senior year. We were playing Chicago Hope, and we lost. That was our first loss of the season. Coming off that game, I was very upset because I played a great game along with a few of my other teammates, but we felt the rest of the team didn’t show up. That divided us because we all started blaming each other. Our coach brought us all together and had a conversation with us about how we are not a team, because a team doesn’t act this way. As a team, we have to be with each other through the bad times, not just the good. He asked us what we want to accomplish as a team, not as individuals. We told him we wanted to win a championship. A couple weeks later, we won our conference championship. Then we played Chicago Hope again in the state semis, and we beat them. One week later, we won the state championship. Because of this, one of my biggest philosophies is that you can’t be bigger than the team. When we are all working on a collective goal, that is when we are at our best.