CHULA VISTA, Calif. – Christian Dyer finishes a 10-day assembly Saturday with Team USA at the Elite Athlete Training Center outside San Diego, where the junior seeks selection to the 12-player squad that will compete at the upcoming Pan American Games.
 
Having first convened June 5 at the training facility in Southern California, Dyer is vying in a 30-player pool to make the final count of 12 players, with three alternates, heading to Lima, Peru, for the July 27-28 Rugby 7s competition at the Pan Am Games.
 
The selected Team USA squad reassembles July 7 for two more weeks of preparation before departing for Peru.
 
"I am humbled by the prospect to potentially represent my country in the Pan Am Games," Dyer said. "It has been an incredible experience and I'm grateful for the opportunity to compete for selection."
 
"We have our fingers crossed for Christian's selection," said head coach Jack Clark. "If not this time, it will happen in the future. He puts a lot of effort into his rugby, and he'll receive his rewards."
 
If Dyer is selected to Team USA for the Pan Am Games, he will follow in the footsteps of two previous Golden Bear greats in Blaine Scully and Colin Hawley, who traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico, for the 2011 Pan Am Games.
 
Both multi-time national champions and All-Americans at Cal, Scully and Hawley were among the first U.S. rugby players to receive contracts to be headquartered at the Olympic Training Center.
 
"We were contracted by the International Olympic Committee with the goal of a podium finish at the Olympic Games," Hawley recalled. "Talk about pressure."
 
Also a 2011 Rugby World Cup participant and player for the U.S. on the World Series 7s circuit, Hawley said the Pan Am Games were then and remain today an important proving ground for the United States 7s program, which was in its nascent stages en route to earning qualification to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
 
"Folks on the IOC wanted to see if investing in the rugby program was the right thing to do. Could the USA compete for a medal?"
 
By taking the bronze medal in Mexico, Hawley said, "We proved that Americans can compete."
 
Scully, the current captain of the U.S. National Team with his third Rugby World Cup on the horizon later this summer, recalled the tone in 2011 as America seized its opportunity to return to the Olympic Games.
 
"The opportunity to compete in a pinnacle international event such as the Pan American Games alongside fellow members of Team USA in other sports, then earning the bronze medal alongside teammate and former Bear Colin Hawley, those are personal career highlights," Scully said.
 
Like Scully and Hawley, Dyer came to Cal from Sacramento's Jesuit High School and made an impact on arrival for the Blue and Gold. As a first-semester freshman, he was part of the Bears' PAC Rugby 7s championship team in 2016, and has since been a member of the Bears' 2017 national 7s championship team and the 2018 and '19 national 15s finalists. This spring, Dyer, a Scholar Athlete majoring in Political Science, was No. 3 on the team in tries scored, both in 15s as well as the Olympic 7s style of the game.
 
The U.S. National 7s Team, distinct from the Team USA squad going to the Pan Am Games, has already earned automatic qualification to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where another Golden Bear, Danny Barrett, could compete in his second straight Olympic Games.
 
Common among all these players, in addition to their degrees from the No. 1 public university in the world, is their pedigree developed at Cal under head coach Clark and associate head coach Tom Billups.
 
"Coach Clark and coach Billups have prepared some of the best there have ever been on this path," said Dyer. "I'm grateful to them, the staff and my teammates for everything leading up to this experience."
 
Rugby Bears in representative rugby this summer also include five players with the U.S. U-20s and several others in camp competing to be selected as Collegiate All-Americans.
 
While the program prepares to host Cal Rugby Summer Camp July 23-26 and welcome in August the incoming class of new student-athletes for 2019-20, everyone at the University of California wishes success both to Dyer in his quest for selection and to Team USA for success at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima. Good luck and Go Bears!