Expect some changes from Long Beach, Calif. as a coaching shift has Long Beach State looking to move up in the D1A California Conference.

Jason Reynolds is taking more of an oversight role as former Eagle 7s player and longtime Belmont Shore star Peter Sio is running things on the field. Sio was brought in to assist with the Long Beach State 7s team last season after he had been working with UCLA.

"My work office was near UCLA so that made sense, but not my job is fully remote and it's a lot easier for me to drive to Cal State Long Beach because it's local," Sio told GRR. "Jason asked me if I would help with 15s and I am always open to helping out."

This will be Sio's first season where he handles both 15s and 7s. But the big thing from the Belmont Shore guy is getting more local interest from the area's high school talent.

"At Belmont Shore we have the some of the best youth in the country," said Sio—Belmont Shore is the defending national HS club champions, after all. "But Long Beach State would get maybe one or two kids. So what I wanted to do was get the message our that this is an option for the kids."

Over the summer Sio's appointment was soft-launched in the Long Beach area and the result about about eight Belmont Shore graduates entering the school.

"We definitely want kids from out-of-state," said Sio. "But with the guys we have incoming if I can open a door for them at the next level it's a huge win for me, and for them, and for the program. Every coach wants to win championships but I want these kids to be better men when they leave the program and hopefully stay in rugby. I wanted to address the dropoff [of rugby participation] in our own back yard, and then we can build off that."