'Coach for Three' Q&A with Jack Clark
BERKELEY - Kicking off the 2014-15 year is the first in a series of Q&As titled “Coach for Three,” tapping into the viewpoint of head coach Jack Clark, a 2014 inductee into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame, as American collegiate rugby continues to evolve with exciting developments and international implications.
Coach Clark, who enters his 32nd year as head coach for the California Golden Bears in 2014-15, is recognized as the founder of the U.S. Collegiate All-American Team, which he coached from 1985-1992. He was also head coach of the U.S. National Team from 1993-1999, during which time the United States won 16 international test matches, the most victories ever by a U.S. national team coach. As the General Manager of the national team while head coach and continuing in that role until 2003, Clark oversaw all aspects of USA Rugby’s flagship program.
Clark has led the Cal rugby program to 22 national collegiate titles in 15s and, in 2013 and '14, two collegiate 7s title in the Olympic version of rugby. His teams have produced 126 All-Americans, 36 players who have played for the U.S National Team, five players who have earned their Varsity Blue competing for Oxford against Cambridge as graduate students and three who have recently received residency contracts from the U.S. Olympic Committee. He begins the fall 2014 7s season with an all-time collegiate coaching record, all with Cal, of 577-74-5 (.879) in 15s and 65-13 (.833) in 7s.
CalBears.com: Let’s start with an off-the-field question. Penn Mutual has been named the title sponsor of the Varsity Cup National Collegiate Championship and the Collegiate Rugby Championship 7s. This has to be good news. What are your thoughts?
Jack Clark: Yes, very good news. It is significant for the value of the sponsorship and three-year term, as well as the quality of Penn Mutual as a venerable company. Any time a well-established and respected company partners with rugby, our sport wins. I think it is remarkable to associate a sport first played in 1845 with a company founded in 1847. And now, pair this naming-rights agreement with NBC’s broadcast coverage of the national championships and it’s clear the profile of collegiate rugby is ascending.
CalBears.com: Staying with this theme, the New Zealand All Blacks are making a rare visit to Chicago in November for a match with the United States. Does the USA have a chance?
Jack Clark: The chance for victory will be very slight; however, a chance to compete against the world champions is an opportunity like no other. We will have some Cal boys in the match, which will add to the occasion for the Cal faithful. And again, to the point of rugby ascending in America, Soldier Field in Chicago may well be sold out with 61,500 fans in attendance and a national broadcast audience on NBC.
CalBears.com: Let’s move to Cal’s fall 7s season. The team will play in three tournaments: the West Coast Collegiate 7s on Oct. 11 at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, the Battle of the Bay Oct. 27-28 on Treasure Island and the PAC Sevens Championship Nov. 8-9 on Witter Rugby Field. What are your insights into the team’s preparations and approach?
Jack Clark: Generally speaking, we will use the first two tournaments as team development and put everything we have into winning the PAC Rugby Conference 7s championship, which will be difficult. The conference is stuffed with accomplished 7s teams. We will test-run the team in San Luis Obispo. Unfortunately, we are restricted to a roster of 15 at the West Coast event, as it would be good to give more players a whack. The competition on Treasure Island has 20-player rosters, so we can potentially use that event for development. It is difficult to try to win and develop the least-experienced players at the same time, so we’ll see how things fall into place, but I’m leaning toward spreading the playing time around at the second competition.
Then we have the responsibility of hosting our first 7s conference championship. We want to do a good job in doing so for all the PAC teams. We want the tournament to be a good experience for all the student-athletes. UCLA did a fine job as host previously and we want to add to what they achieved for the conference. So we will have one eye on our event management and other on trying to win the competition. It should be an exciting weekend.