The San Diego Mustangs, a rugby team featuring players from 14 area schools, including La Jolla High, went into their latest season expecting great results. They got them — and ended up making team history along the way.
The Mustangs competed in the Boys High School Rugby National Championships in Elkhart, Ind., over a three-day period May 22-24 that saw 24 high school and 18-and-younger club teams face off in three brackets.
San Diego, playing in the multiple-school club team bracket, achieved something it hadn’t before — winning a national championship in its division.
The Mustangs secured their title in cinematic fashion, taking down the reigning champion Charlotte Cardinals in the final round, 19-14.
To start the tournament, the second-seeded Mustangs handily defeated the Woodlands Youth Rugby Club, 50-18. And in the semifinals, they cruised past the third-seeded Salt Lake City Cavemen, 36-12. In that game, they scored six tries (the equivalent of a touchdown) with six different players.
“I think what makes us what we are and who we are is that they are a very, very intelligent group of players,” said coach Matty Sandoval, who also is head rugby coach at Torrey Pines High School. “Rugby is a game that you cannot micro-coach because it’s continuous action … the players have to make decisions for themselves and determine where the other team is weakest and attack that area.”
This year marks the Mustangs’ 21st season and their 13th competing in the national championship tournament. Though 45 players across “A” and “B” teams traveled to Indiana, the volunteer-run organization boasts more than 300 players ages 8-18.
The A team competed for the championship. Though the Mustangs were seeded second in their bracket, Sandoval said he and the group felt it would be a disappointment to finish anywhere but first.
“This team was the best team we’ve had,” Sandoval said. “And frankly, all of us, including the players, kind of thought this was our year and [that] we do have the best team in the country.
“They were prepared and they worked all year like they were the best team … and then they went out and proved it.”
Of the 45 Mustangs who went to the tournament, four — Myles Baechli, LaDainian Cano, Harlan Birch and Oszkar Kovacs Morgan — were of La Jolla High School’s team. Baechli and Cano were on the A team.
Cano, in his second year as a Mustang, just graduated from Helix High School in La Mesa. With no formal rugby team there, he played on La Jolla High’s squad. He plans to continue playing when he attends San Diego Mesa College starting this fall.
Similarly, Baechli recently graduated from Scripps Ranch High School, though he was part of La Jolla’s rugby team. He intends to continue playing at Penn State University.
Sandoval described Cano as an “uber athlete” who is “energetic, aggressive and very athletic” and “lights the fuse” for the team.
The coach described Baechli as “big, strong and very tough” and “more of a hard-hat player.”
Cano said the team’s success is a testament both to the coaches’ rigorous practices and structure and the players’ dedication to winning.
“We worked really hard throughout the entire season and had a really good season,” Cano said. “And it just felt like all the hard work that we put in — all the long days, long practices and running — had finally paid off. It felt like we really deserved it.”
“It was incredible,” Baechli said of the championship. “The coaches talked every year [about] how we wanted to get it done and we’d never done it. So to finally … win a championship was a big relief for everyone.”
Though the team — who also come from high schools including Torrey Pines, Cathedral Catholic, Rancho Bernardo, Francis Parker and Eastlake — often compete against one another on their school teams, club rugby s them together on one team with one vision.
“It’s not as hard as you might think, because in rugby, one of the core values is just respect, whether it be to the referee, the opposing team, the opposing coaches, your coaches,” Cano said. “It’s just a respect thing.
“We were all really close the entire season, but that [Indiana] trip — staying in the hotel together three to a room, sleeping on the couch — I felt like it just brought us a whole lot closer and it made that tournament a whole lot easier for us.”
For more information on Mustangs rugby, visit sandiegoyouthrugby.org. ♦
