{"id":2955,"date":"2012-03-28T05:58:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T05:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=2955"},"modified":"2025-09-28T21:56:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:56:28","slug":"mike-tolkin-new-coach-of-usa-eagles-national-rugy-team-i-coached-him-20-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=2955","title":{"rendered":"Mike Tolkin, new coach of USA Eagles national rugby team &#8211; I coached him over 20 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When he played for the Met Union Select Side. I still remember him making a left footed drop goal (playing flyhalf), which started a big rally for us. NY won, after we trailed by something like 20 points, against Eastern Penn. It was a very memorable game for a few reasons, not the least of which was our rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mike is a great guy, and always has been. I had a nice chat with him back in June, 2010 when he was on the Eagles coaching staff at a tournament at Red Bull Stadium outside of Newark, NJ. I hadn&#8217;t seen him in quite a few years and took a couple of pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/6a00d834525a2f69e20168e950e20a970c-320wi.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12030\" title=\"IMG_5893\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/6a00d834525a2f69e20168e950e20a970c-320wi.jpg 320w, https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/6a00d834525a2f69e20168e950e20a970c-320wi-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mike has taught English at Xavier HS in Manhattan, I think since he graduated from college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is bigger then Tebow &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s the NY Times story about Mike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/03\/23\/sports\/new-us-rugby-coach-is-a-teacher-first.html?scp=1&amp;sq=mike%20tolkin%20rugby&amp;st=cse\" target=\"_self\">When USA Rugby began looking for a coach after the World Cup last fall, it had hundreds of applicants but opted last month for Tolkin, 44, who along with lecturing on sonnets has built a remarkably successful rugby program at Xavier High School in Chelsea. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tolkin says his philosophy of teaching can be applied to the classroom  and the field: \u201cStudents remember 10 percent of what you say, 50 percent  of what they see and 90 percent of what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with his duties at Xavier, Tolkin was the defensive coach for the  American national team at the last World Cup. The United States placed  fourth in its group of five there, but many were impressed with the  team\u2019s defense, which gave up only 22 points to Ireland and 27 to Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nigel Melville, the chief executive of USA Rugby, said he was \u201cvery  pleased\u201d with the defensive effort at the World Cup. Several of Tolkin\u2019s  colleagues on the United States staff applied for the job, he said, but  \u201cMike stood out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previous coaches were European, most recently Eddie O\u2019Sullivan, an  Irishman. But Melville said he \u201calways wanted to hire an American coach  when one became available.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Great. I love it. A case of a nice guy finishing first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When he played for the Met Union Select Side. I still remember him making a left footed drop goal (playing flyhalf), which started a big rally for us. NY won, after we trailed by something like 20 points, against Eastern Penn. It was a very memorable game for a few reasons, not the least of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12031,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions\/12031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}