UCLA hosts the Dennis Storer Classic this coming weekend, and despite dire warnings of rain and bad weather in Southern California, the event should go off as planned.

The Storer Classic is named after Dennis Storer, who coached UCLA rugby and soccer for years, and was the USA Men’s National Team’s first Head Coach of the modern era. The event started in 2005 and was initially designed for rugby teams from Pac-12 schools. 

The tournament served as a preseason event for Pac-12 teams, and the only real Pac-12-related rugby event for years. But with the development of the PAC Rugby Conference, and its 15s and 7s championships, the Storer Classic moved to a tournament of teams from the University of California system.

That’s what it is now.

“Everyone gets a lot out of it, from Cal to us and Davis, and all the other schools,” said Scott Stewart, Head Coach of UCLA and the guy who has run the tournament since its inception.”We may all play in different divisions, but the shortened games format gives guys some experience, and with the freedom of substitution you see some balance in the games on the field. It’s really valuable.”

It’s reasonable to say that the strength and longevity of the tournament - mostly thanks to the fact that Stewart has wanted to organize and host it every year - helped lead to the PAC Rugby Conference being created.

“Certainly it helped create the relationships required among the teams involved,” said Stewart, who is also commissioner of the PAC Rugby Conference.

Cal has won the Storer Classic every year since its inception. Head Coach Jack Clark spoke with Goff Rugby Report late in the fall about using tournaments - whether it’s the 7s events in the fall or the Storer Classic - as opportunities to get young players some time on the field.

“I think it makes sense to build some 7s curriculum into what we’re doing in terms of an annual plan,” said Clark, who ran the Bears out in three 7s tournaments in the fall. “Everyone got some strength and conditioning and the subset of guys that we pull from our squad to go play 7s get some 7s training and play in the competitions, and the 15s guys just got ready for the season.”

Clark said it’s important to “monitor the volume” of rugby played by players. He used some underclassmen in 7s, and he’s expected to use as many players as possible this weekend. 

“We had a few freshmen and several sophomores who played pretty well,” said Clark. “We’ve been doing the same thing in the spring for a long time. We spread [the playing time] around a bit. The philosophy is to develop every player in the program. Everybody gets coached in training every day.”

So expect Cal to test a few combinations and bring what is a pretty impressive freshman class onto the field at times.

Then there’s defending DIAA champs UC Davis. The Aggies were stung by Saint Mary’s in a preseason game 52-0, but Head Coach Kal Incendy said that game was hugely valuable.

“I wish we could play teams at that level a lot more,” said Incendy, who has brought in a few additions to his coaching staff as they try to change the Davis style to a slightly more modern, open style. “It’s good for the players to face a team like that. We learned a lot.”

Having graduated about two-thirds of last year’s championship team, Davis has needed a good recruiting effort and will look to No. 8 Harrison Morrow, the forwards captain, and Josh Farnsworth, the backs captain and flyhalf, for leadership. 

“We’ll see how it goes,” said Incendy, philosophically.

Also in the tournament UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz. The teams will play each other in a series of shortened games. 

Most of the teams involved play three games on Saturday and one on Sunday, with the final game being the likely tournament decider, Cal v UCLA. However, with UCSD only looking for three games on the weekend, UC Davis actually plays four games on Saturday and will play UC Santa Cruz twice, once on Saturday, and once on Sunday.