May 17, 2011

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BERKELEY - Jack Clark, approaching the national collegiate championship in his 28th season as head rugby coach at the University of California, became the sixth coach to helm the program in its now-129-year history after the 1983 season, following two years as an assistant under Ned Anderson.

Clark became head coach after a successful football and rugby career at Cal that was followed by post-collegiate rugby campaigns on the U.S. National Team. Clark's play as a United States Eagle earned him a spot on the World XV team that played the Welsh National Team during its 1980 centennial celebration in Cardiff.

The Golden Bears beat Maryland at the end of Clark's second season as head coach to win the 1985 national title and have won 21 titles during his tenure, including five of the past six national collegiate championships and 18 of the last 20.

Clark has also served as head coach for the Collegiate All-America team, from 1985-92; head coach of the U.S. National Team, from 1993-99; and general manager for the national team, from 1993-2003.

Clark's Golden Bear rugby program has produced 121 All-Americans and 35 of Cal's 46 all-time U.S. international players. Altogether, they have made an astonishing total of 496 international test appearances for the U.S. National Team since 1976. Three of Clark's former players have also gone on to earn their "Blue" at Oxford University as graduate student-athletes. Additionally, Cal rugby has produced more overseas professional players than any other U.S. club.

One of 29 varsity sports under the authority of the Intercollegiate Athletics department, rugby is the oldest intercollegiate sport at the University, a financially self-sufficient and non-scholarship program. Its student-athletes earn their merits on and off the pitch, going on to make significant contributions as citizens of the world and loyal alumni to their University.

The success of rugby at California has flourished during Clark's coaching career thanks in large part to the tremendous support from alumni, administration, students, parents and sponsors who have ensured a permanent campus home for the team on Witter Rugby Field and in the adjacent Doc Hudson Fieldhouse, perched above campus and San Francisco Bay in beautiful Strawberry Canyon.

Having remained largely quiet on the media landscape during the 2011 season, coach Clark sits down for his first Q&A with CalBears.com since 2009 to offer his thoughts on a range of issues, from those that have affected the team on campus to others that concern everyone associated with American college rugby.

Cal Rugby Head Coaches
1882-1905: Competed without a coach
1906-14: Oscar Taylor and James G. Schaffer, 78-21-10 (.716)
1915-1930: No outside rugby
1931-37: Ed "Mush" Graff, won-loss records not kept
1938-74: Miles "Doc" Hudson, 339-84-23 (.760)
1975-83: Ned Anderson, won-loss records not kept
1984-present: Jack Clark, 522-68-5 (.877)

What are your overall impressions so far of Cal's rugby season?
With all that has occurred, from demotion and reinstatement through facility construction, the team has been very resilient. There has been strong leadership within the team. From a performance view, we have been mostly good. We've had some excellent performances mixed in with the more ordinary, but I believe we are an improving team. Our best players are as good as they've ever been, but there is a thinner crust to the team. In the years ahead we have some serious work before us to develop teams to our standards.

What effects have you seen on the team from its obligation to play an all-away schedule in 2011 after losing Witter Rugby Field for all competition and a good degree of its training capabilities?
We are the true road warriors, but it has been bearable. I feel bad the seniors haven't had a season on Witter Rugby Field in Strawberry Canyon, although they have been very good about it. The loss of a training venue has been the most difficult obstacle to overcome. We use less than half of a poorly constructed, synthetic-turf field. Not having the space to properly train hasn't helped our development. But once again, the boys haven't said a word. We are just getting on with it and ignoring that which we can't control.

How has the new College Premier Division worked out in your view, and do you think the teams that qualified for the national postseason out of the CPD were the most deserving?
The competition efficiently produced the right final eight teams, in my view. I don't think there is a third-place team in any of the conferences that has a real gripe. The postseason teams look to be mostly the historic postseason qualifiers, but we got to this point with less time and expense. This efficiency allows the teams to better manage their resources, while still competing in traditional rivalries and even other competitions, such as conferences like the Ivys and our own Pac-10 tournament, which I sense will expand. The CPD has provided a more competitive league for many of the teams, especially Utah and BYU, who were caught between the West and Pacific teams in the old format. With BYU and Utah joining the two Arizona schools in the new Western division we have really improved a big area of the country. The East has a cluster of good teams, so it's really just the geography of the Mid-South conference which is problematic. The Midwest through the Southwest and Southeast is too much landmass.

Certainly the CPD teams and their leadership proved that a competition of this type can occur. I am very proud of all these coaches and their teams for making this point.

With this said, it has been a far-from-perfect inaugural season. In my opinion, USA Rugby has been a poor custodian of the competition. They haven't performed much from a commercial standpoint and really haven't been good communicators. My sense is this can be corrected if USA Rugby is willing to work at it.

The teams need a bigger input into the management of the competition. The conference representative system which was put in place was perverted into a USA Rugby proxy, as opposed to a system where the teams could have input into the new competition they were financing. The obligation to 31 teams as partners is not a difficult assignment, but USA Rugby has made hard work of it. USA Rugby will need to understand its role and be responsible back to the teams or a different path will need to be explored.

After advancing through the quarterfinals and semifinals, Cal and BYU meet once again for the national collegiate championship. What are your thoughts on what will be the sixth straight meeting between the Bears and Cougars?
Yep, it is the BYU Cougars in Utah, which should be a fantastic occasion. Utah as a state has a really strong rugby culture. I am hoping for an event that can help grow our college game. The semifinals in Glendale were a disappointment in this regard. There were so few spectators. Those same semifinal matches have been recently played in front of several thousand spectators at Stanford. Rio Tinto Stadium could have record attendance, which will increase Cal's challenge, but will be great for the game's growth. The one concern would be with additionally hosting the national high-school and Under-19 championships, the field will get quite a workout prior to our evening match.

Cal carries a 7-1 all-time record against BYU into Saturday's contest. Does that series success give your team a measure of confidence?
Nothing that has happened in previous years ever matters in chasing a championship. Championships are always won and lost in the here and now.

Cal has won 12 of its 25 national collegiate championships outside the state of California, in states such as Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Virginia. Does playing this final in Utah create a more difficult challenge?
Yes and no. We are pretty self-contained, making us comfortable on the road. Utah is difficult because the opponent is BYU, a very good rugby team. I think the location of the venue is down the list of important factors. Performing better on the day is always the most important challenge. Next is dealing with the referee - not the laws of the game, per se, but the referee's judgments and interpretations. The match conditions and weather elements have to be negotiated. Altitude could be considered here, but it wasn't a factor in Denver, so it won't be in Salt Lake City. Finally, it would be the effect travel has on the players' body clocks, which won't be a factor in the Mountain time zone, right next door. Again, what makes Utah difficult is a very good BYU team.

On June 4-5, Cal will participate in a nationally televised sevens invitational tournament for the second year in a row. What is your view of the event, which is branded as a "Collegiate Rugby Championship" by USA Sevens LLC and NBC Sports?
Not at all happy with that name. The competition is an invitational sevens tournament and it should have retained that title in my view. Competition name aside, we loved participating in last year's event. It was very professionally organized. USA Sevens and NBC did a fantastic job of raising the profile of college rugby. What the company USA Sevens LLC is supplying American rugby is professional leadership.

University of California Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced on Sept. 28 that rugby would be relegated out of Intercollegiate Athletics to a newly created and undefined "varsity club" status, while baseball, men's and women's gymnastics, and women's lacrosse would be eliminated after this season. Once rugby was reinstated to full intercollegiate status, sportswriter Mike Silver called your reaction and the mobilization that ensued following that announcement "the greatest Cal sports miracle since The Play and there's no way it happens without the tenacity, leadership and passion of someone like Jack Clark." How did you identify and maintain the course of action that led to the team's reinstatement less than four months later, with all five sports saved by May?
I primarily stayed out of the weeds of who and why, and attempted to learn what a reinstatement pathway looked like. Ultimately it came down to two issues, Title IX and funding. We, rugby, raised much of the funds required to reinstate the two women's sports headed for elimination, while also increasing our rugby endowments significantly. Once we raised the funds to bring back the two women's teams, eliminating the Title IX barrier, it was a straightforward issue of funding for the men's teams. As I have said on many occasions, raising money in a rugby setting isn't difficult with the proprietary knowledge that rugby changes lives. Individuals who have played on a rugby team know it changed their lives in a profoundly positive way. Now, they, the donors, know that I know this. Therefore, most of the donor discussions were about the size and duration of their pledge, not whether they were going to join the effort.

Have events caused by the relegation and reinstatement created lasting effects for the program?
Out of all that threat of demotion came a great mobilization. We are developing plans now for the next 100 years of Cal rugby. I would like to see our endowment double in size through an "every man pledges" program. Additionally, I think we have a significant opportunity to participate in the business-to-business success of our stakeholders. There are so many successful Cal rugby alumni. These individuals doing business together, more frequently, is a natural. I am confident Cal rugby won't be forgotten in these B2B transactions.

We will get Witter Rugby Field back in January of 2013. We have made some improvements to the infrastructure of the complex in lighting, electrical power, water, field leveling and permanent scoreboards. We also have some further exciting plans in mind for the competition home of Cal rugby. Witter Rugby Field is an important aspect of rugby's commercial engine. We love that it is a boutique complex in such a natural setting. In my view, everything is to scale and stylish. It's our perfect home venue.

The Student-Athlete High Performance Center, on track to open at Cal in September, will include rugby among the teams that are domiciled there. How will this new resource affect the rugby program?
It will be a world-class facility, 142-thousand square feet of applied science and athlete care. We want to be regarded as a world-class university rugby program. To accomplish this, Cal rugby needs to be fully competent in developing our athletes. The high-performance center will be critical to this objective.

Cal is not going to be a match academically or financially for most of the best high school rugby players in the country. Therefore, we need to be proficient at developing to his full potential every student-athlete we are a match for.