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We will start this week with a bit of a shocker.
Cal Rugby
Cal head coach Jack Clark is to be inducted into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame, in a ceremony in Houston on June 7. What? How is Jack Clark not already in this Hall of Fame given all that he has done for Rugby in the U.S. on the collegiate level and also on the international level? In his 31st year as the Cal head coach, Jack Clark has lead the Bears to 22 national titles in the 15s and 1 in the 7s. It has also been well documented how Jack Clark is more than just a rugby coach.
From the Cal Rugby press release, my favorite line is the following:
[In 2000] another former Director of Athletics at Cal, John Kasser, was quoted in a campus article titled "Master Craftsman," saying, "Jack Clark could coach any Cal team to a national championship, he just happens to coach rugby."
There have been other Cal Golden Bears in this Hall of Fame:
With his entry into the U.S Rugby Hall of Fame, Clark joins former Golden Bears coach Miles "Doc" Hudson, who led the program from 1938-74; fellow Bear Colby "Babe" Slater, a two-time Olympic gold medalist; and seven other Cal players - Charles Tilden, James Winston, Matt Hazeltine, George Fish, Charles Meehan, George Dixon and Ed Graff - whose 1920 and 1924 USA Olympic gold-medal teams were previously inducted.
A huge congratulation to Coach Clark from all of us here at CGB on this great honor.
As for what is going on with rugby on the pitch, the Bears just triumphed over that other school down the bay to keep the Scrum Axe by a score of 61-7 on Thursday night to improve to 7-0. Bears played a very young lineup (who had some moments of inconsistency to allow 'Furd to get a try) in anticipation of this weekend's huge matchup with our true Rugby rival in the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. In the battle for the "World Cup" (named after the Vancouver newspaper The Vancouver World), Cal has won 14 of the last 17, including the last 7 straights. The very important home leg of the "World Cup" battle is this Saturday at 1 P.M. Head out to Witter Field to congratulate Coach Clark in person.
Cal Women's Swimming
Also heading into a Hall of Fame is Cal Women's Swimming head coach Teri McKeever, who was inducted into the Breitbard Hall of Fame on Thursday. Breitbard Hall of Fame is the "highest honor for any San Diego athlete" according to their website. The plaques of the various Breitbard Hall of Famers are displayed in the San Diego Hall of Champions in Balboa Park.
From CalBears.com:
A graduate of San Pasqual HS in Escondido, Calif., McKeever is in her 22nd season at Cal. She has guided the Bears to 17 consecutive top-10 NCAA finishes, including national championships in 2009, 2011 and 2012 and a runner-up showing last spring. In addition, she served as the head USA women's Olympic coach in London in 2012 and is a two-time USA assistant Olympic coach. In 2012, 11 current or former Golden Bears competed in the Olympics, collecting 13 total medals.
Congratulation to Coach McKeever on this great honor.
In the pool this weekend, No.1 Cal Women's Swimming will have their last dual meet of the season on Saturday morning at 10 A.M. and it is a Big one. The Big Meet against No.4 'Furd will be broadcasted live on the Pac-12 Networks with Natalie Coughlin serving as the color commentary.
In anticipation of this Big Meet, Missy Franklin did an interview with the Pac-12 Networks where she also showed off her dance moves by doing "the worm" at the very end.
Missy talked about swimming at Cal as well as watching the Winter Olympics. I do like the "Cal Fast Fact" in the 2:55 mark of the video that said "Missy never stops smiling...seriously".
Cal Men's Soccer
You can be sure that current U.S. Soccer National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann will be watching the Cal Men's Soccer with a close eye in the next few years. After announcing 7 signees last week, Cal Men's Soccer built on their 2013 success by adding to the squad.
The more famous name of two new Golden Bears is Jonathan Klinsmann who is the son of Jurgen Klinsmann.
I have verbally committed to the University of California, Berkeley today! Can't wait what the future holds! #GoBears pic.twitter.com/4DyMVPudmG
— Jonathan Klinsmann (@jonklinsmann) February 11, 2014
I noted last week how none of the signees this years are keepers, that changed with the addition of Klinsmann [given this is only a verbal, I am not completely sure that Klinsmann is a member of the 2014 class or 2015]. Interestingly, Jurgen Klinsmann (who was spotted checking out the Cal home game last year against San Diego) has voiced some complaints in the past about U.S. College Soccer. From TopDrawerSoccer.com:
Jurgen Klinsmann has previously been somewhat of a critic of the college game given its unique rules and shortened season.
"It's still a bit of the 'Wild West' here because U.S. soccer is disconnected from college soccer and college soccer is disconnected from pro soccer," Klinsmann said in 2012. "Maybe we'll never be able to connect it all perfectly. But a lot is happening. Our goal is to connect the dots everywhere we can."
The other new Cal Bears is a 4 star recruit by the name of Paul Salcedo.
Welcome to the Cal Family, Jonathan and Paul.
Back to some results on the field/pool.
Cal Women's Tennis
Cal Women's Tennis made a nice run in the ITA Indoors last weekend. Then No.8 Bears were able to overcome No.13 Clemson and No.4 Georgia before a close loss in the semifinals to the eventual champions in No.10 Duke. No doubt this run is a great experience builder for the two Cal freshmen that the Bears are leaning on heavily this year in Denise Starr and Maegan Manasse.
Junior Zsofi Susanyi earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honor by being perfect in her singles matches.
There have also been a change in the rankings since last week:
Cal moved up to No. 4 in the rankings & has 6 Bears ranked in singles! Check out all the rankings on the ITA's site http://t.co/YTmaYJNDxm
— Cal Women's Tennis (@CalWomensTennis) February 12, 2014
The highest ranked singles player for the Bears are No.15 for Starr and No.16 for Susanyi. Other ranked Bears in singles are Anett Schutting at 37, Manasse at 59, Lynn Chi at 66, and Klara Fabikova at 88.
With this weekend off, the Bears return to the court with a trip to LA next weekend. The UCLA match on Feb. 21 will be broadcasted by the Pac-12 Networks.
Cal Softball
No.23 Cal Softball had a 3-1 record in the Kajikawa Classic hosted by Arizona State last weekend, beating New Mexico (8-2), Bradley (10-3) and Portland State (8-3), but lost to Creighton (6-4). Nisa Ontiveros got two of the Cal wins (throwing 14 innings) while the Bears slugged 5 homers in the 4 games. Cal's other main pitcher is freshman Katie Sutherland-Finch who pitched 12+ innings.
This weekend, the Bears head down to San Diego (I wonder if they ran into Coach McKeever yesterday) for 5 games in the Campbell/Cartier Classic, including tonight's meeting with San Diego State at 7 pm that is streamed online (we will have an open thread for that).
Cal Men's Swimming
No.2 Cal Bears had two easy dual meet wins this past week, by beating CSU Bakersfield 140-108 and then USC 174-125. With this weekend off, the Bears will head down to The Farm for the men's Big Meet with 'Furd next Saturday (11 AM) that will be shown on the Pac-12 Networks.
Cal Women's Water Polo
No new results since the last time, but the Bears are hosting both Long Beach State (at 1 pm) and Santa Clara (at 5 pm) tomorrow in a busy day of Cal games on campus (along with Rugby and Baseball).
Cal Women's Gymnastics
With the Oregon State meet cancelled last weekend due to weather, the Bears won't compete until next weekend.
Cal Men's Gymnastics
Finally, we get to this week's Cal Olympic Report featured athlete:
Donothan Bailey and the No.8 Bears are in Columbus, OH this weekend for tonight's meet against No.4 Ohio State.
GO BEARS!
