It’s Finals Week at BYU and while the Cougars have been preparing for a D1A semifinal, they are also deep into preparing for important exams and term papers.
“There are enormous demands on the players’ time,” said Head Coach Steve St. Pierre. “It’s a really important week.”
The rugby players have to make sure they stay or get healthy; make sure they study game film; meet to get the game plan down; and get some training in. Oh, and yes, study.
Earlier in the week St. Pierre said the onus was on the coaching staff to make sure that there was no wasted time in preparation.
“We will do our best to manage it all and support the players,” said St. Pierre, rightfully recognizing that this is one of the highest-pressure weeks for the BYU coaching staff.
But learning and managing time is not new to the Cougars. They have been learning and growing throughout the season.
St. Pierre points to his team’s three-straight losses, to Central Washington, Saint Mary’s, and Life University in the space of three weeks. They weren’t blowouts—the average score was 16-30—but they were stern lessons.
“We learned a lot about ourselves,” said St. Pierre, whose team avenged one of those losses in the quarterfinals last week and could avenge another this weekend. “We saw there were things we need to do well in order to win. We’ve been working hard to fix those things.”
Meanwhile, Saint Mary’s remains the only team in D1A that hasn’t lost to a collegiate opponent. Their victory over Cal last week was about as emphatic as they have had.
(Fun fact, in the first 12 games played between Cal and Saint Mary’s after Tim O’Brien became Head Coach, Cal won all 12, by an average score of about 50-14. But since then it has been 9-7 in favore of the Gaels, and since the COVID shutdowns ended,Saint Mary’s has a 5-2 edge.
04.19.2024College Men
How did they win this last time? Fitness, speed of play, and effort.
“This may be the fastest team I have coached across the board,” said O’Brien. “We are still looking for that balance; still looking for the best use of our talent. We often end up moving players around—we’ve had Storti Pongi, and now Junior Waqavesi at #10. We have to do that all the time.”
The quote, which came from University of Oregon basketball coach Lisa O’Meara (married to former Saint Mary’s Rugby All American Brendan O’Meara) goes this way: “You’re expected to make the soup, but you can’t shop for any of the ingredients.”
Saint Mary’s doesn’t really actively recruit; they just find the players they have and formulate the team from the ingredients they find.
“It’s the group of players that makes it special,” said O’Brien. “It’s because of the leadership among them—the 69 players we have under our rugby tent—that we find a way to make the soup.”
It’s the way they work together, it’s the effort they give, it’s the support of the alumni, and it’s the classic willingness to try things. See the embedded video for a classic example (video used with permission of D1A and CRAA).
So now we’re just looking ahead to which team makes the best soup … is it a final exam?
BYU at Saint Mary’s kickoff 11:30am PT. Live stream here>>
