Mike Friday Recaps Season, Looks Ahead

Mike Friday Recaps Season, Looks Ahead

USA Men's 7s coach Mike Friday looks at the 2018-19 season.

Jun 24, 2019 by Alex Goff
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One of the odd things about being #2 in the world is that while many others might be envious of you, you are thinking that you’re not #1.

The USA Men’s Sevens team has finished the 2018-19 Sevens World Series in that bittersweet spot, and sometimes it takes a bit of effort to see the silver lining.

FloRugby caught up with USA head coach Mike Friday to discuss a historic season, what’s next, and what might have been:

Exceeding Expectations

“The realist in me thinks that if you said to me at the start of the season that we’d be 2nd in the World Series and achieve automatic qualification to the Olympics, I would have taken that,” said Friday. “And if you asked me that we’d do it without Make Unufe all season, and without Perry Baker and Danny Barrett for close to half the season, I would have said you were mad.”

But, indeed, the Eagles did do all of that.

“The way the guys have outperformed—they’ve been amazing. For us to break that traditional top four in the table was massive for us,” continued Friday. “And credit to the guys.”


But …

“But, the realties is what when you get as close as we did, you look at those moments in some games and it’s also a bitter feeling. We were hugely disappointed in some key games and we need to get the experience of being in those big moments.”

If there’s one key game this season, it was the semifinal in Hong Kong. The Eagles could have put Fiji away, but instead lost. Fiji went on to win the tournament and start a roll that saw them win three out of the last four tournaments.

“We gave Fiji hope,” said Friday.

The Eagles had a chance late to win that game, but instead lost possession and Alasio Naduva went in to ice the game.

Then in London once again the Eagles gave up possession late to lose a semifinal against Fiji.


The Learning Experience

“We tried to force things in key moments rather than stick to our plan,” said Friday. “And that was a learning situation for those players. This is all new for us. For the other teams, they’ve all done it before. Physically we’ve bee able to compete. Tactically we can operate with them. Mentally we are still learning about how to think clearly in those important moments.”

Now, of course, all of the players have been in those moments, and know what it’s like to be performing a fairly simple rugby activity with a season or a championship on the line.

“In our last match in Paris South Africa gave us a lesson in resilience and sticking to the plan to get the medal,” explained Friday. “They put us under pressure. It was a good, humbling experience for us, and should sharpen the mind and the hunger for what we still need to do.”


Friday is still looking down the road. He knows, as we’ve seen this year, that one freak hit and a star player can be out for weeks, if not months.

So he’s in search of the next Carlin Isles (a player he says should have been on the World Series Dream Team), or Baker or Barrett or Ben Pinkelman.

But those players, once found, still have to be molded. Kevon Williams, Marcus Tupuola, and others are getting there.

“We were able to absorb injuries thank to this emerging group of younger players,” Friday said. “To see how Brett Thompson and Kevon Williams grew in confidence and leadership was very important. That’s the beauty of it. We’ve added two or three more to our numbers, and we’re going to keep adding two or three.”

Looking Ahead To Pan-Am Games

That’s partly why Friday has names such a young team to the Pan-Am Games in Peru. He has named Kevon Williams, Will Holder, and Anthony Welmers as injury alternates because he values their experience and leadership if they are needed. But, he stressed, “I don’t want to need them.”

So he names Scholz Award-Winner Harley Wheeler, along with previous Scholz finalists Jake Lachina, Christian Dyer, Cody Melphy, and Lorenzo Thomas. He’s asking players like Melphy and Joe Schroeder to be leaders. He’s got Tupuola and Brown, who have a fair amount of World Series experience now, and Ben Broselle, who has a little less, along with the athletic but still green Naima Fuala’au, D’Montae Noble, and Travion Clark.

“People only remember Pinkelman and Barrett at the end, and they forget what they were like at the beginning,” said Friday. “There are all players at the beginning.  Carlin, Perry, Danny, and Ben are unique, but in a way they’re not. There are more players out there. What I want is not just to prepare the USA for this year or 2020, but for five years down the road.”

This young Pan-Am team won’t have it easy. The USA has won the Bronze in the last two iterations of the Pan-Ams, and those teams were more experienced than this group.

“They’ve got a bloody big task ahead of them,” said Friday. “I don’t know what Argentina or Canada are doing, but Chile will be there full strength and Uruguay will be very strong. But, it’s what they need.”