Source: Naya Tapper
Naya never set out to play rugby. But perhaps younger Naya knew something that was destined to hold a special place in her heart. When she was a child, and dreams are unfettered by the reality that comes later, she wanted to be the first woman to play in the NFL.
Becoming a co-captain of USA Rugby, an American record holder and working towards her second Olympic team is not the running back future she envisioned, but it might be even better.
Naya grew up in North Carolina, where she threw herself into track and field. There was rugby at her high school, but Naya was laser focused on track, so she didn’t think twice when she decided to pass up on the opportunity to try it out. When she started college at UNC, Naya made the conscious decision to reprioritize, putting sports behind her and bringing a social life and her academics to the forefront. She is a smart, thoughtful and creative woman and she wanted to let other parts of her personality breathe. Between sports medicine and Spanish classes, new friends and a new life, Naya’s heart was almost full. But there was a part of her that missed the excitement and challenge of competition, so she went in search of that high.
That search led her, not back to the track, but on to the rugby field.
Club rugby was the perfect piece Naya had been missing: she got to return to sport in a supportive environment, and participate in a way that still left room for other things. Better yet? This sport came with friends included! For the first time, Naya experienced the magic of true teamwork. She could have the best game of her life, but if she and her teammates didn’t lift one another up, they might lose the game. For the first time, Naya got to be a piece in a puzzle, and didn’t have to build the whole thing alone. As a former track star, she was a very special piece. Her coaches realized that with her speed, the only thing Naya needed to learn how to do was catch the ball and let her legs do the talking.
And boy did her legs have something to say.
Naya might not have been an elite level rugby strategist yet, but she was fast, and people noticed.
Just a few months into playing club, Naya went out to the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center and was offered a contract.
While she felt herself falling in love with rugby, there were other things she wanted to do first. She wanted to prioritize getting her degree, but what was delayed was not to be denied, and she packed up her car to make the long trip out west in 2016, where she would join the national team and finish her last semester of school remotely.
Naya had been scouted for years before she joined the team, and some might think that that would mean the transition from club to national team would be seamless. The reality couldn’t have been further from the truth. Naya was moving away from her family for the first time, across the country, and working at Buffalo Wild Wings to support her fledgling dream. On top of trying to make new friends and afford gas twice as expensive as back home, Naya had to learn how to play a whole new game, transitioning from playing 15s in college to 7s at the national team level. Her inexperience was evident in the early months, and she was cut by a new coach. He offered her a spot on a development team to get her skills up to scratch, but that didn’t feel like the promise that had inspired Naya to move 2,500 miles away from home.
She called her parents and was surprised by the advice coming down the line. Her mom had always encouraged her athletic pursuits, but it was her dad’s words that struck home. He told her he believed in her, and to stick it out. While studying medicine in school, Naya had dreamed of becoming a physical therapist. Now, with the support of her family and friends, she was imagining a new future for herself.
Setting down this new path was scary, but she knew that putting OLY after her name would open doors to the rest of her life. So Naya stayed, put her head down, and got to work.
Source: Naya Tapper
All her hard work showed in a big way.
Naya went on to become the first American woman with 100 tries, and the all time record holder for most tries. She reached her goal of becoming an Olympian in Tokyo, stamping her name in the record book and helping lead the US to a strong 6th place finish.
In a way Naya already had what she came for. She could sign her name Naya Tapper, OLY, and go home with her head held proud. But USA rugby had woven its way under her skin, and she somehow knew that she had more work to do. Team USA Rugby was competitive on the world stage, and produced some of the world’s strongest players. But the team’s culture needed changing.
Naya never imagined she would be a leader helping affect that change.
Naya laughed as she remembered she was “always in trouble for something.” She described how she was never afraid to question authority, loudly and often. She wanted to create transparency, honesty and integrity where there were closed doors and avoidance. Naya said that she “never thought she would be a leader,” which surprised me. Isn’t frankness and honesty what we want in our leaders? Isn’t someone who isn’t afraid to speak out the most qualified woman in the room to step up?
But while we envision leaders as being bold and unafraid, the reality in sports is that often these athletes are branded as troublemakers, or even disruptive and undedicated. You don’t like the way things are? There’s someone else willing to work quietly who can fill your shoes. To speak out the way Naya has takes an incredible amount of courage, and an unshakeable self confidence. Naya had to have known that speaking out could have cost her her place on the team.
Source: Naya Tapper
That’s perhaps why she was so shocked when captain Lauren Doyle asked Naya to help her turn the captaincy into a shared position. Naya said she would agree to the co-captain role on one condition: that Lauren would have difficult conversations with her. She would never be a “yes man” to Lauren, or anyone else. Lauren agreed, and together they challenged the team, the staff, themselves and the culture, to build something better. Being a leader is one thing, but being a leader who wants to make change is a completely different thing altogether.
The world of sports is drenched in tradition and an opaque hierarchy, and Lauren and Naya wanted to infuse the culture of US Rugby with accountability, transparency, trust and love.
There is always a cost to responsibility, and Naya has paid up. She needs to make sure she is ready, physically and emotionally, to play at her best. At the same time, she is checking in on her teammates, ensuring there is staff and player buy-in to new accountability agreements and managing external commitments and speaking engagements. Naya wants to give back to the sport that has given her so much, establishing a scholarship to help mitigate the costs of rugby, and always being open to those who need advice or support. All of this, she admits, sometimes drains the joy out of the game she’s fallen in love with. In those moments, she has learned that she doesn’t have to do this alone.
Despite some very strong early resistance, she now counts her relationships to her sports psychologist and therapist as some of the most crucial. Naya says she can’t overestimate the impact that this work has had on her, and when you’re someone like Naya who has an impact on hundreds and thousands of others, the inner work that Naya does has a ripple effect that spans continents.
These days Naya is busy trying to make her second Olympic team, but not too busy to find joy. She loves creating and selling her signature “Naya on Fiya” merch, planning vacations and spending time with loved ones, especially her best friend and teammate, Jazzy. They search out the best local food spots together, create adorable matching outfits and help share each one another’s burdens. Naya might not be living the dream that she once imagined for herself, but she has had the courage, flexibility and integrity to create new ones at every step of her journey. Naya is a powerful force who has completely revolutionized US Rugby, all with a little help from her friends. We can’t wait to see what she does next.
Source: Naya Tapper
Since the writing of this blog, Naya and Team USA have qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and brought home the bronze. Additionally, Naya has announced her retirement, making this Olympics her final professional showing on the pitch.
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