Kyle Johan Winter (born 20 September 1974) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

former

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He played senior level Division I rugby with the

Mystic River Rugby Club The Mystic River Rugby Club, sometimes called Boston Mystic, is a New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) club, founded in 1974, located in Malden, Massachusetts, and Melrose, Massachusetts, who field teams in Division 1 American Rugby Premiershi ...

in the American Rugby Premiership and has represented

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

on the national level. He also played

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

with the

Boston Thirteens The Boston Bears (former known as Boston 13s RLFC) are a rugby league football team based in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. The team plays in the USA Rugby League, and were founding members of the former North American Rugby League. The Boston Thir ...

in the USARL.

Early life and education

Winter grew up in

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fra ...

and graduated from Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in 1992, where he was a member of the varsity soccer and rowing teams. While in high school, he also represented the Hudson Valley in rowing in the

Empire State Games The Empire State Games were a set of annual Olympic-style competitions for amateur athletes from the state of New York, encompassing several divisions and allowing athletes of all ages to compete. It was a member of the National Congress of St ...

. Upon graduation, he enrolled at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, where he was first introduced to rugby after failing to make the rowing team. At B.U., he was also a member of the

Lambda Chi Alpha Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly referred to as Lambda Chi, is a fraternities and sororities, collegiate fraternity in North America. With over 300,000 initiates as of 2024, it is the third-largest social fraternity in the world by number of initia ...

fraternity, but transferred to

SUNY New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an a ...

after one year. There, he played rugby for the newly promoted Hawks in their first ever season in Division 1 in 1993 up until their playoff run in 1996. He then attended

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

, playing rugby for the Northeastern University Rugby Club throughout the remainder of his college career until his graduation in 1999.

Rugby career

After college, Winter played briefly with Clontarf Rugby in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, making just a handful of appearances as a utility forward with their junior sides before the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak halted the majority of the 2001 rugby season. Following the lifting of the travel ban, Winter joined

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of C ...

RFC in the Leinster junior league for the remainder of their season.

Mystic River Rugby

Upon returning to the United States, Winter began his career with

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts. In the Massachusett language, means "large estuary", alluding to the tidal ...

in 2002, where he was a prop / utility forward. Secondary roles with the club included second row and the number 8 position. He played twelve years with the Mystics helping them to five Northeast Championships and five straight

USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby ...

Division I Sweet 16 tournaments between 2008 and 2012, including three trips to the National Quarter-Finals. Due to injuries during the 2015–2016 season, Winter saw his playing time split between the Mystic's D1 side and the D2 Mystic Barbarians, suiting up for only two league matches that year.

Indonesia

Winter, whose father emigrated from

Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...

, Indonesia, was named to the 42-man training squad for the

National Rugby Team (known as the Rhinos) after a trial session while in

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

in 2008. In 2009 he attended the national training camp held in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

. He first wore the Indonesian jersey in June 2009 when he was selected to play for the Indonesian XV squad in the inaugural Minister's Cup, scoring a try and earning a position on the 28-man roster that would travel to Manila, the Philippines to compete in the HSBC

Asian 5 Nations The Asia Rugby Championship, or ARC, is an annual rugby union competition held amongst national rugby sides within the Asia Rugby region. The competition was originally known as the Asian Rugby Football Tournament when founded in 1969, and was cal ...

Tournament, part of the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

qualifier tournaments for countries in the

Asian Rugby Football Union Asia Rugby, formerly the Asian Rugby Football Union, is the governing body of rugby union in Asia under the authority of World Rugby. Founded in 1968 by eight charter nations, the Union today has 36 member unions in countries across Asia, stretch ...

. On 1 July 2009, Winter made his international test match debut for Indonesia as the starting loose-head

prop A prop, formally known as a (theatrical) property, is an object actors use on stage or screen during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct ...

against

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. Later that week, he would again start in the front row against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in the tournament consolation final, where the Rhinos would lose 48-13 and place 4th in the tournament.

Boston Thirteens

In 2009, Winter signed with the

in the

American National Rugby League The American National Rugby League (AMNRL) was the national governing body for rugby league in the United States from 1997 to 2014. The organization was responsible for running the domestic club competitions and the United States national rug ...

where he played prop, though he was forced to miss much of the second half of the season due to national team duties with Indonesia. Winter re-signed with Boston for the 2010 season, suiting up for all six matches at

. He continued with the Boston Thirteens after the AMNRL/ USARL split in 2011 as a utility forward. The following year, he was traded to

Oneida FC Oneida FC (Oneida Football Club) is a soccer club based in East Boston. The organisation was established in 2011 and plays its home games at East Boston Memorial Stadium, owned by the city of Boston. The field also hosts American football and bas ...

, playing in just three matches before retiring from rugby league after the

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

season.

New England Immortals

Winter was named to the New England Immortals RLFC, a representative side consisting of the top players from the

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

area. He made his rugby league rep side debut in July 2010 in an exhibition match against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

at the 2010 AMNRL "War at the Shore" tournament.

Personal life

In 2015, Winter was hired as the graphic designer to lead the rebranding campaign of the

Lebanese Rugby League Federation The Lebanese Rugby League Federation (LRLF) is the governing body for rugby league football in Lebanon. They are full members of the Rugby League European Federation and full members of the Rugby League International Federation. The Lebanese Rug ...

, which included a new design for the

Lebanese national team The Lebanon national football team, controlled by the Lebanese Football Association (LFA), have represented Lebanon in association football since their inception in 1933. The squad is governed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) contin ...

crest in the lead up to their

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

run. His father and uncle both represented Indonesia in

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

respectively.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winter, Kyle 1974 births Living people American people of Dutch-Indonesian descent American rugby league players Boston Bears (rugby league) players Boston University Terriers athletes Footballers who switched code Indonesian international rugby union players Indonesian rugby union players Mystic River Rugby players Northeastern Huskies rugby players Northeastern University alumni People from Hyde Park, New York Rugby league players from New York (state) Rugby union players from New York (state) Rugby union props Sportspeople from Dutchess County, New York