Thirty years ago this month, when the USA took the field for the first time in the modern era, few would have described Dennis Storer as a prototypical American coach.
To be sure, the UCLA mentor’s resume was comprehensive, including successful stints with the Bruins, Southern California, and the Pacific Coast. His record included a winning mark against Cal, thereby displacing the Bears as America’s top college side, and notable tours of Australia and New Zealand.
Yet Storer’s technical pedigree was borne of his playing days at Blackheath and Leicester, where he earned a trial with the English national team.
Can a British expatriate be described as uniquely American? Yes, for Storer’s leading attribute was neither his background nor his record – enviable as both were – but his willingness to set aside convention in order to make the best use of domestic strengths.
Having studied how body types contribute to success in contact sports, and written a master’s thesis on converting football athletes to rugby, Storer was well equipped to make use of the gridiron players then common in American rugby. In the New World, he favored the counterattack and encouraged broken-field running, telling his charges to rely on schoolyard instincts rather than make poor passes.
Over half of the “original Eagles” were once notable footballers, and they battled Australia to a highly credible 24-12 loss in Anaheim, California.
“From a coaching perspective, Dennis is one of the true greats of American rugby,” according to Jack Clark, head coach at the University of California. “He worked in a grand era of West coast collegiate rugby, with Miles ‘Doc’ Hudson [Cal], Derek Blackwell [USC], and Pete Kmetovic [Stanford]. What all of these coaches had in common was the ability to bring elite athletes to the sport.”
Sometimes it’s said those who saw Storer’s pioneers thought it would be only a few years before the USA became powerful. The observation is meant to demonstrate how misguidedly optimistic Americans once were.
Putting aside the perils of making predictions based on one game – those who dwell on last June’s Wales test take note – perhaps the question is not what do we know now that we didn’t know then?; but what did we know then that we don’t do now?
Of tremendous importance to the nascent US rugby movement was Dennis' welcoming of anyone who was interested in coaching to his coaching courses be they male, female,etc. where all were schooled together. He was a true renaissance coach. There was no required pre-qualification by previous classical coaching experience. If you were sincerely interested you were always welcome.
If you were a back coached by Dennis you would notice that he used the word "flair" constantly while holding the ball cradled in the tips of his fingers as if it were an egg about to break. If you were a forward you were praying that the backs would not go overboard with the idea as "flair" at times resulted in isolated breakdowns at unpredictable locations requiring extra effort by those having just been freshly pressed in a scrum. However, the end result was more handling of the ball by the fowards in the open field which took advantage of the American athlete's hand-to-eye coordination previously developed playing basketball and baseball.
Here was an Englishman telling Americans it was OK to play the game like Americans with their unique skill set rather than imitating others. It was "have a go" rather than "do as I say it is the correct way". Some players even learned the rules, errr "laws" of the game, becoming even more successful.
Dennis provided an important counterbalance to the visiting overseas rugby coach "expert" whose main qualification was a change in location.
If one visited Dennis' office at UCLA one realized he was not a "neat freak". He was one of us. This was confirmed beyond all doubt by his ability to constantly forget where he left his sweater, jacket, etc. Without Dorothy he most definitely would eventually have run out of clothing.
So, Yea for Dennis. Just one last comment. How long was Tommy Smith actually enrolled and playing for UCLA before he "graduated" and was no longer eligible? Are we talking single or double digits here?
There must be many "Dennis" stories out there.
Posted by: Hutch Turner | 06 January 2006 at 18:53