Torrey Pines takes on Long Beach Poly Saturday in the Southern California D1 school final, and it's certainly a study in contrasts.

Don't get us wrong; both have played very well. Torrey Pines beat San Clemente, Cen10, and San Marcos during the regular season. They also beat Long Beach Poly, the only team to score more than 10 against TP and the only team to hold them under 50. LB Poly, for their part, shut out San Marcos, beat Cen10 convincingly, and took care of San Clemente to finish 3-1.

Torrey comes into the weekend on a high. Led by top-flight hooker Cade Crist, athletic fullback Riley Elliott, and GRR 3-Stars mention Jonty Lee at flyhalf (son of former All Black and current San Diego Legion Head Coach Danny Lee), they are talented and work together well. They also have advantages. Torrey Pines has had a rugby team for quite some time, and the school itself is in a pretty affluent area, with several well-heeled parents.

LB Poly? Well, they are new this year. they just started. Well-heeled supporters? Not so much.

Just a few months ago a small group of boys and girls gathered at Marina Vista Park to see what all the fuss was about a rugby team. Eleven girls registered, most of them new to the sport. They ended up winning their division in 7s and finiehd 11-1. About 22 boys registered, with 20 of them new to the game. Athletic, motivated, and talented, they were also green, and weren't exactly in a position to write a big check for dues, kit, and everything else it takes to get a rugby team going.

But they had backing from the Belmont Shore Rugby Club, which has been instrumental in boosting rugby in the youth and high school level while also fielding one of the most successful amateur men's clubs in the country.

Too proud to ask for help, they just figured it out. One parent went down to the outlet store and bought a bunch of T-shirts. She got numbers ironed onto the backs and that was their set of jerseys. Eventually they got a donation of jerseys—not the school's colors, but, hey, who's complaining?

President of the US Youth & HS Council, David Pool, has reportedly committed to getting them jerseys for future seasons.)

The parents cooked up food for the kids, and made extra to sell at games to raise some money. People found donations and they got the kids on the field.

"This is the success of the team," said Tony Balasuriya, who does pretty much everything for Belmont Shore's youth programs. "Rugby is a family thing and the families came together. Like in rugby, when someone needs help, someone else steps in to carry them. Everybody pitched in, and in such an environment the kids thrived."

So they did. And, by the way, as they did this the grades of these players started to go. Rugby success, and the bonding, has built something bigger.

With the powerful running of center Jagger Tavai and No. 8 Ikenasio Mikaele(also co-captain)  they unleashed an attack that was as potent as any. Scrumhalf and co-captain Jeremy Zwick has been instrumental and up front prop Phoenix Tusa and lock Tyson Ruffins have shown excellent work rate and aggression.

Under coaches Gavin Lutali and Pasefika Iosia, with administrator, heart and soul of the program and, basically, team mom Tina Tauanu’u they have built something out of nothing.

So this weekend they play for the SoCal school title. Win or lose, both Torrey Pines and Long Beach Poly will travel to Northern California to play either De La Salle or Jesuit Sacramento. For Torrey Pines the trip will be no trouble. For LB Poly, the cost and effort is daunting.

What they have done so far is astounding. We at GRR will certainly track the result on Saturday, but if you are interested in helping the LB Poly kids make the trip to NorCal next week, let us know here>> and we will connect you to the club.

Correction: A previous version of this article states that David Pool was a co-owner of the San Diego Legion. He is not. We regret the error—AG.