Warriors Announce Assistant Coaching Staff

Salt Lake City, UT (February 26, 2018) — Head Coach Alf Daniels and the Utah Warriors announce the appointment of Assistant Coaches Mark Numbers, who will oversee the backs and Robert Randell, who will, in turn, oversee the forwards and set the Warriors’ defensive strategies.

“This is historic for the US rugby scene as well as an exciting time for rugby in the state of Utah,” said Numbers. “I’ve been able to be a part of some great local rugby programs, but I am now thrilled to have an opportunity to be involved with a professional program and work with a coach like Alf”.

Mark Numbers is a native of Utah and has been heavily involved in the local rugby community at many different levels. As a player, Numbers was a part of the Highland Rugby team in the mid ‘90’s. In College, Numbers played at the University of Utah, before playing Senior Men’s rugby with local club Park City Haggis.

Numbers specializes as a backs Coach and has worked in this capacity for the last 15 years at The University of Utah, Highland and most recently at Olympus. As a player Numbers was a starter for Highland’s 1995 and 1996 National Champion High School team. While as a head coach Numbers led the Utes to a 2005 Collegiate National Final where they lost to the eventual champion University of California-Berkeley.

Most recently Numbers, along with head coach Brad Anderson and others, have quietly been building Olympus Rugby into one of Utah’s top youth and high school rugby programs.

Speaking of Numbers, Warriors Head Coach Alf Daniels said “Mark is a local man and his unique perspective has been extremely powerful in helping us as a coaching team develop our philosophies. Mark has very high standards, puts a huge amount of time into preparation and offers very sound advice. He has a quiet approach that instills trust and confidence into the players, resulting in a very strong relationship with his backs.”

Former USA Eagle Rob Randell also joins the Warriors as the forwards and defensive coach.

Randell grew up in Hamilton, New Zealand and played his High School Rugby at Church College where he was selected for the NZ Secondary Schools side. After moving to the United States, Randell won national championships with Old Blues and Belmont shore, then made his Eagles debut in 1992 vs Australia (Eagle #228).

Randell has a great deal of coaching experience locally being involved with the Utah Youth Rugby Cannibals representative side for a number of years, and as an assistant coach at the University of Utah. In 2016 Randell was the forwards coach for the Junior All-American team (U20’s) and has spent significant time shadowing the Highlanders Super Rugby Coaching staff and also former All Blacks Coach John Mitchell.

“Rob joins the Warriors coaching staff as one of the most experienced players turned coach in Utah, having played and coached at the highest level here in the USA,” said Daniels. “He has spent a large amount of time developing his coaching resume both domestically and overseas. Rob has a great rapport with the players and understands the ‘detail’ that we as a coaching staff want to deliver to our team. He is very meticulous in his organization, offers clarity in his delivery and demands a high level of accuracy from the players. His time with the USA U20 squad allows him to bring a good knowledge of the up and coming talent here in the USA.”

The Warriors 2018 Season kicks off on March 30th against the Glendale Raptors. Get your tickets today at shop.warriorsrugby.com