Cal Poly On the Move
Cal Poly On the Move
Perhaps somewhat lost in the shuffle of the fall 7s tournaments on the West Coast was the solid play of Cal Poly. They pushed several more highly-regarded teams throughout the fall.
The team’s 7s coach, Andy Doukas, said the Mustangs wanted to provide they could play 7s rugby and wanted to use the fall as a jumping off point for their 15s season.
“The guys worked really hard to prepare for the 7s tournaments, and we have good camaraderie among the players, also,” said Doukas.
With Mike Mitchell, Sean Gorman, and Mark Grzanich playing especially well, Cal Poly showed some skill, but it was also about getting ready for a challenging California Conference season.
That’s where new coach James Tesoriero comes in. Like he predecessor, David Burnett, Tesoriero is an Australian. In fact, the two met several times to ease the transition (Burnett left Cal Poly because of a work opportunity).
“We made sure we kept mostly the same terminology and concepts to make the change easier,” said Tesoriero. “I know that the players will, for the most part, have less experience in the game than players I’ve worked with in Australia, but Cal Poly does have good core skills. I’ve gone into the job with no expectations, and with some early games we’ll get a baseline of where we are and build from there.”
Along with the three players mentioned above, Cal Poly will expect a lot from center Max Tacket, wing Matt Long, and veteran forwards such as Chris Dempster - who moved from center into the pack. Flyhalf Chris Codding will be an important communicator at the pivot position.
But more than that it seems Cal Poly might have hit the right tone at the right time. Burnett and Tesoriero handled the change from one coach to the other about as smoothly as you can handle it. Meanwhile, the players have thrown themselves into getting ready for a challenging season. Tesoriero said he will work to get players a good amount of playing time - enough to keep them sharp but not so much he runs them into the ground.
They start with Cal Maritime, UC Santa Cruz, and San Luis Obispo men in January before hitting conference play in February. And in addition to that, they face UCLA, Arizona State, Cal, Dartmouth, and BYU. The challenging nature of their schedule mirrors that of rivals St. Mary’s.
“We will have to develop our depth, because we will need to rely on our depth a lot,” said Tesoriero.
That may be, but their 7s fall has at least shown that the front-line Cal Poly talent is pretty strong.
