Coach Malpass shares his thoughts.
Hello Supporters of UC Davis Rugby,
The 2023/24 season is fast approaching for the Men’s Rugby sides. It’s been an exciting summer with lots of background work in motion prior to the pre- season. First, let me introduce this season’s coaching staff:
Andy Malpass | Head Coach
Ethan O’Neal | Assistant Coach + Head of Attack
Ismael (Ish) Aramburu | Assistant Coach + Head of Defense
Tristan Tadano | Assistant Coach + Head of Strength and Conditioning + Development Side Head Coach
Mary Swanstrom | Assistant Coach, Forwards and Contact + Athletic Trainer
Bryan Wijaya | Assistant Coach, Development Side + PHD student
It’s wonderful to have Ethan back in the coaching fold having taken a sabbatical to complete his teaching credentials. Congratulations Ethan! This will only strengthen Ethan’s coaching and the overall team. He brings a wealth of game knowledge and is constantly learning as a student of the game.
Also excited to welcome Mary into the fold. Mary brings many years of rugby knowledge and passion. She is a coach educator for USA Rugby and an Athletic Trainer working with the UCD Women’s Gymnastics team as a full-time job.
Bryan Wijaya joins us as Assistant Coach and grad student to work on the development team and continue his rugby education as a coach.
Tristan returns this year having done a wonderful job last season taking over as head development coach mid-season. Tristan brings a wealth of knowledge as a specialist S&C coach and is a sponge for rugby knowledge .
Last but definitely not least with our coaches is Ishmael. He is returning for his 3rd season and will be heading up our defense this season after he returns from his World Cup vacations in France.
Next, we officially kicked off practices on Thursday and had 52 players show up. This is always an exciting but challenging period of the season, balancing the return of more experienced players with newcomers that have played some rugby but in many cases none. To this end I have been having weekly meetings with our two captains; Francis Schumann (fly half) and Jack Hanson (prop) to develop a strategy that incorporates the student athletes needs and the teams overall goals as a competitive D1A side playing in the strongest conference in the US.
Our goal is to develop a highly skilled side that will play with pace, freedom and enjoyment. For that we will spend a lot of time reinforcing the basics of the game. Practices will take place at Hutchinson Field from 6pm to 8pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and there will be camps on Saturdays . We have 42 hours of evening practices to produce a D1A side to play newly promoted D1AA champions Sac State in our Conference opener on Saturday morning November 18th. This is the first of two Causeway Classics to be played on the same day at UC Davis with Rugby going first at Russell Field at 10am followed by the Aggies Football side in the Aggie Stadium at 2pm. We hope to give supporters the chance to come and support the boys in both events, and to tailgate and catch up with fellow alumni, friends and family. This game will follow a 10s tournament in San Luis Obispo at Cal Poly, and warm up games against our UCD Alumni on the 4th of November and San Jose Seahawks on the 11th of November.
I am also going to be part of the High-Performance coaching team for the collegiate California pathways. This is aimed at giving our topflight students a pathway to national and professional opportunities. This will comprise of three camps and a California Conference North vs South game that will be viewed by national coach representatives and MLR coaches, either in person or live streamed .
We are hoping to replace some equipment this season and add some new equipment including a new scrum sled, two individual scrum sleds, new contact shields, 30 contact suits and new field dressings. We hope that we can get help raising 25K from alumni and family support to make this happen. The equipment is critical for the team to be able to get the most out of practice and training. The contact equipment allows us to do more contact work to develop safe techniques, get greater reps, and prepare our student athletes’ bodies for the rigors of the modern game. For more on this or to donate, click here.
On that note, we’ve had several meetings with the school’s Athletic Director Rocko Deluca and we have managed to get access to the weights facility for the program. This is a huge step for the team allowing them to do strength and conditioning work as a team in a world class facility. We are currently the only non-NCAA program granted this privilege however it does come at financial cost to the program and help with donations is always welcome.
Finally, we are looking forward to our returning players and officers recruiting for the 2023-2024 team. We are bringing together this wonderful volunteer coaching staff to pass on our vast wealth of knowledge and introduce the young eager players to the greatest game on earth to build on their wonderful education with the strength of being a part of the UC Davis Aggies Rugby family and the greater world rugby family.
Hope to see you soon,
Coach Malpass
