CORONADO — Kyle Quinn knows that it will be a daunting task to restore Long Beach State’s rugby team to national prominence. Knowledge of the program’s history and experience is necessary, but so is ingenuity.
In his second season as the head coach, Quinn is trying unconventional methods in hopes to prepare players for the upcoming league season, which starts in January. The most unique concept implemented was a team trip to Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, located in the San Diego Bay. A charter bus left at 6 a.m. on a Friday in October to take the team for a training session conducted by Navy SEAL officers.
When players arrived, they had to jog to a meeting room for a pep talk and introduction that lasted about 30 minutes. That was followed by four hours of rigorous training, including an obstacle course, tire flips, and groups of six players carrying, racing and doing sit-ups with a 200-pound log.
“I think it pushed a lot of the guys beyond what they normally do,” said assistant coach Jason Reynolds, who played for the program from 1992 to 1995.
Navy drill instructors barked at players and lectured about “flipping the switch” to get them to finish their drills. In between drills, players were ordered to sprint up a 20-foot sand hill, jump into the ocean, sprint back up the sand hill, and crawl down through the sand.
The trip was an idea that Quinn decided to pursue as a trial, and hopes to repeat with the team next season. The training left players exhausted and physically sore in the short-term, but the coaching staff hopes the experience will help the team’s stamina to finish strong in games.
“It was mostly that switch that you have to turn on when you’re tired; flip that switch and keep going,” junior Sean Mazer said. “I was really sore. It was such a great experience to share with my teammates.”
During a recent tournament where LBSU hosted 11 other teams, coaches reminded players to dig deep and hit that extra gear. Rugby requires constant motion, making conditioning and mental toughness extremely valuable.
Rugby is one of the most popular sports played internationally with a great amount of history in the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. In the United States, the sport draws many athletes from different sports, including soccer, football, and wrestling.
“It takes you about six weeks for everything to slow down and click,” said Quinn, relating to his own experience as an athlete who crossed over from swimming to rugby in his junior year at LBSU. “It’s tough because you go from being really good and then you go to a complete novice.”
Rugby draws many comparisons to soccer and football with its inclusion of tackling and field goals. The sport involves 15 players, enforces offside penalties, does not allow players to block, and play only stops when there is a touchdown or the ball goes out of bounds. The absence of pads and helmets increases the importance of tackling form and technique.
“It takes a certain mentality to come out here and run full speed into someone else,” Reynolds said.
LBSU’s rugby team was consistently one of the better teams in the nation throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The squad made four appearances in the Final Four, including a second-place finish in the 1989 U.S. National Collegiate Club Rugby Championships. The program has also produced several All-Americans, including Quinn.
Dale Toohey, who became the first and only coach of a club sport team to be nominated in the Athletics Hall of Fame at The Beach, founded the program in 1974. He retired from the position of head coach in 2001, but is still involved with the program.
Quinn’s first season as a coach produced mixed results, as the team struggled out of the gates but finished third in its conference. This season, winning the conference would earn the team an automatic berth in the USA Rugby Division II National Championships tournament of 16. A first-round victory would merit a promotion to Division I.
Arizona State won the conference last year and earned a trip to the USA Rugby Division II National Championships. Arizona State won one game in the tournament to gain a promotion to Division I.
Claremont Colleges earned second place in the conference and earned a berth in the tournament, which they went on to win. With the two teams promoted to Division I, Quinn will demand nothing less than a winning season.
“(The goal is to) win our conference, get to the Sweet 16, and get promoted to Division I,” Quinn said.
The team has had to start several underclassmen the past few seasons, and could end up with two or three in the starting lineup when conference play starts, Quinn said. However, the team is returning almost its entire roster and is hoping to benefit from increased depth.
“We’ve got a great amount of freshmen and sophomores here with good talent,” said Mazer about the underclassmen, which includes his brother, Derek Mazer, a sophomore.
Andy Ross is the lone senior on the team, and Quinn has tried to attract as many players as possible, especially ones with previous experience.
“There’s been a lot more demand for commitment from the players,” said Matt Kinsel, who played for six years before coming to play at LBSU. “I think there’s a core of guys on this team that are pushing themselves harder than our opponents.”
The team practices every Tuesday and Thursday and has begun a new cross-fit training program, which has the players doing different workouts and exercises in the gym to help improve rugby skills.
“Thanks to some of our new coaches, we’ve become more efficient,” said sophomore Jaime Bigornia, who had previous experience playing for the Belmont Shore Rugby Club’s 19-and-under team. “It’s a drastic improvement from last year.”
Quinn has assembled a staff of 10 coaches who volunteer their time to the program, and five of them played at LBSU. Quinn made attempts to get fellow alumni involved in the program, and it has paid off with a more extensive coaching staff.
“We’ve gotten to the point where the coaches have committed,” Reynolds said. “If the players commit, we should go through the season undefeated. There’s no other university that has the kind of coaching staff that we have.”
While Quinn and his team set a clear goal to earn a promotion with this season, long-term success is a major priority. The coaching staff knows that there is a disparity between where the program was and where the program is. That disparity is what they are trying to eliminate, even if it requires some unorthodox thinking.
Disclaimer: The Daily 49er is not responsible for Postings made on www.daily49er.wpengine.com. Persons commenting are solely responsible for Postings made on this website. Persons commenting agree to the Terms of Use of the website. If Postings do not abide by the Rules of Conduct or Posting Regulations as listed in the Postings Policy, the Daily 49er has all rights to delete Postings as it deems necessary. The Daily 49er strongly advises individuals to not abuse their First Amendment rights, and to avoid language suggestive of hate speech. This site also encourages users to make Postings relevant to the article or other Postings.