Coach Bryant, a true sports person

I humbly nominate Michael Bryant MD for Sports Person of the Year:

If you have money and are a generous person, it is easy to help others. Maybe they need $10 for gas or $1000 to pay off a debt. If YOU have the money, and WANT to give it to them, cool. Brownie points for the nice guy. It is harder to get others to cough up money, even for the most noble of causes. Here are two instances where Doc Bryant elevated our team and the sport of rugby making him an excellent candidate for Sports Person of the Year.

Doc is a Pediatrician at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles. Each year, CHLA asks employees or Departments to “sponsor” sick children and their families during Christmas. It is called the ELF Program. Doc masterfully organized the effort and our team graciously gave. This is not what makes him so special. Unfortunately, our sponsored child passed away shortly after Christmas. Doc challenged the team to help raise a little more money for the family. Keep in mind, we had just had Christmas for ourselves, we had just paid our dues and we were hoping to go to South Carolina in case the season went as well as we planned. Unplanned “giving” was not in the cards for many players. At practice, Doc gave us a moving speech, near teams he talked of a small child never given the chance to play rugby, never given the chance to play a sport he loved, etc. By the end of the practice, he had raised (and donated himself) enough money to pay for the funeral. Another player, directly because of Doc’s moving speech, pledged tickets and a hotel stay to Disneyland for the parents and the sibling. By doing this, he elevated not only our view of ourselves (we were not dumb rugby players any more) but elevated the sport of rugby in the eyes of this family and every person they tell. Doc even changed the name of a play so every game we would be reminded that Andrew Donis did not have the opportunity to participate in sports that we do.

The second example is equally as moving. As you know, Bunk Wurth suffered a catastrophic injury while playing rugby. I think a common reaction for athletes is to “look the other way” so his injury is not on your mind. Out of sight out of mind. Well, when we played the Bucks this year (Bunks team), Doc challenged us (as he has done each year since the injury) to give as much money as we could and he would match the donation. $2200 was given to the Bucks for Bunk after our Hard fought game. Again, not only did he elevate the sport of rugby at that moment with the team and supporters, but also every person that ever hears this story will look at rugby in a better light than they did before.

Thank you for your consideration
A Pasadena Player