Football and rugby have shared roots, but Jack Acciavatti, captain on both Rye High School’s state champion football team last fall and its nationally ranked rugby team this spring, knows there’s a big difference on the field in terms of the tactical decision-making.

“Because football has a huddle after every stoppage,” he said, “the coach has the ability to send in plays on a regular basis. But in rugby, play is constant, and only the captain — not even the coach — can speak to the ref during the match. So the captain’s responsibility is a lot greater in rugby.”

Appropriate, then, that the two-sport star was recently honored by the Rye Lions Club and the Rye High School Athletic Department as March Athlete of the Month – just as the school’s varsity rugby team began its spring 2024 campaign.

Acciavatti’s rugby coach, Jim O’Hara, is effusive in his praise of the senior captain. “Jack is not only physically strong and fast, he’s mentally tough,” said O’Hara, whose Garnets earned an invitation to last year’s national rugby tournament. Already this spring, the head coach noted, Acciavatti led the team to an important, season-opening win against Georgetown Prep – ranked 21st in the nation – in Washington, D.C.
“Jack also scored two tries a week later against Ridgefield, leading us to a victory by the score of 42-7,” O’Hara said. He added: “Despite the loss, he led us admirably against the coun- try’s then-No. 3 Xavier High School last week. Jack leads by example on and off the field.”

The team continued its winning ways this month, beating 17th-ranked Greenwich High School at their place, 12-7, before hosting Shawnigan Lake School from Vancouver, British Columbia. The Garnets put the visiting players up in local homes and played the Canadian national anthem before their match – then fought all the way before losing 47-37 to one of Canada’s strongest squads.

Through it all, Acciavitti has worked with his team’s younger players in a variety of ways. In the early season, O’Hara and his assistants plugged the captain into three positions on the field, starting at center and then scrum half before eventually putting him at fly half, a position where quick decision-making is crucial. “Jack is extremely fit and mentally strong,” his coach explained. “He’s able to adjust to a new position if asked to do it. I know ‘role model’ is a cliché, but that’s what Jack is.”

An honor roll student with a 95+ GPA, Acciavitti is also a member of The Academy, a cadre of Rye High students who pursue multidisciplinary studies in “a school within a school.” Those studies led him to write and pub- lish an article on “Ocean Acidification and its New York Impact.” The senior will be attending Wake Forest University in the fall.

Asked whom he has to thank for winning the Lions Club award, he said, “My parents, of course. They’ve made all this possible. And my coaches: Mr. O’Hara and his assistants Sean Moughty, Phil Verona, and Tim Walsh.”

As is the case with the award’s other monthly winners, Acciavitti is now eligible to be named Rye’s Athlete of the Year at the Lions Club’s annual awards luncheon later this spring.