BERKELEY – California rugby opens its fall 7s schedule this weekend as the Bears head down to Cal Poly for the annual West Coast Collegiate 7s tournament.
 
"It will be good for the team to compete," Head Coach Jack Clark said. "We are at the stage in our trainings where some competition lessons will help our development."
 
Cal will send two sides ("blue" and "gold") to this weekend's eight-team tournament. The gold team will compete in a pool against Cal Poly, Long Beach State and UCLA while the blue side will face Arizona, UC Santa Barbara and either USD or USC (depending on the outcome of an earlier play-in contest). Each team will play three matches against pool teams before heading to the knockout rounds. Cal's first contest will take place at 10:40am when the gold team faces CSULB. The blue team will follow shortly after with its opening contest at 11:20am versus the winner of a matchup between USD and USC.
 
The Bears' last 7s season was in 2019 as the coronavirus forced the cancellation of 2020's fall tournaments. That season, Cal compiled a 10-4 sevens record and won the PAC Rugby 7s Championship. Since the commencement of the Pac 7s Championship, Cal has won seven of the eight conference titles. Furthermore, the Bears have previously won four West Coast 7s Championships in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Cal has also won five 7s collegiate national championships since the game's inaugural championship tournament at the collegiate level in 2011. The Bears won five straight from 2013-2017.
 
This weekend, Cal will feature 10 underclassmen in search of their 7s debut with the Bears. Sophomores Mack Fell and Tom Dixon both contributed to Cal's amended 15s season in 2021 with Fell receiving a start and playing all 80 minutes in a 48-7 victory over Arizona. Meanwhile, 18 upperclassmen will be making the trip including four fifth years (Gavin Janis, Kevin Saunders, Sam Golla and Seth Purdey) and seven seniors (Nathan Zylstra, Jake Broekhuizen, Sam Walsh, Henry Poon, Luke Freeman, Luke Ogburn and Nick Bloom). Zysltra, Golla and Schumacher all started the PAC 7s Championship match versus Arizona in 2019. Walsh started in the semifinals against UCLA, but was injured due to a high tackle in the third minute and went on to miss the entire spring 2020 season. This will be his first 7s tournament since his injury. He started all three 15s contests in the spring of 2021, collecting two tries and two conversions.
 
Here is a list of players who will represent Cal this weekend:
Miles Beaubelle (junior)
Nick Bloom (senior)
Jake Broekhuizen (senior)
Dougie Brown (freshman)
Alex Brundage (junior)
Jack Casey (junior)
Max Clark (junior)
Tom Dixon (sophomore)
Mack Fell (sophomore)
Luke Freeman (senior)
Sam Golla (fifth year)
Callum Janis (Junior)
Gavin Janis (fifth year)
Cal Liebowitz (junior)
Kealan O'Connell (freshman)
Luke Ogburn (senior)
Henry Poon (senior)
Jon Puckett (freshman)
Seth Purdey (fifth year)
Griffin Rudy (freshman)
Nate Salter (junior)
Kevin Saunders (fifth year)
Max Schumacher (junior)
Will Shankland (sophomore)
Jafer Snipes (sophomore)
Caleb Tomasin (sophomore)
Sam Walsh (senior)
Evan Weigold (sophomore)
Nathan Zylstra (senior)
 
To follow Cal rugby this season, be sure to visit CalBears.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.