The Utah Warriors Are Preparing For Upcoming Season Opener
Feb 16, 2023, 5:27 PM | Updated: Feb 17, 2023, 4:56 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Warriors held a press conference in Zions Bank Stadium on Thursday ahead of the season opener.
The Warriors will travel to Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Saturday to take on the San Diego Legion.
Built on DEDICATION.
Join us in the journey of what it means to be Utah Built. #ForTheNation #UtahBuilt pic.twitter.com/PVUYBDfxW4
— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) February 16, 2023
“This is six weeks of preparation. It’s been intense,” Head Coach Greg Cooper said. “The warm-up games help. But this is round one, the real stuff. Really excited about taking on San Diego in San Diego”
Cooper is in his first season as the fourth Head Coach in Utah Warriors franchise history. He said he was looking forward to the season opener.
“We’re confident,” said Cooper. “We’re taking on strong competition. But, we’re prepared.”
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Coach Cooper was candid about the state of the team from last year and what he expects going into this season.
“We need to play to our strengths,” said. “Clearly, we’re a strong set-piece team. That’s our key strength. Our defense last year wasn’t particularly strong, we want to change that. We want to see this team get more aggressive on the defense.”
Bailey Wilson, Flanker for the Warriors, has his eyes set on the short-term. A win in week one.
“We just want to have a good start to the season,” Wilson said. “I think that’ll set us up in a nice spot. Hopefully, we can see the work we’ve put in come true.”
2 days left until we take on San Diego 🔒#ForTheNation pic.twitter.com/2065yU66id
— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) February 16, 2023
Coach Cooper gave a similar answer, but he made his season goal known as well.
“I made it clear that our goal is to make the playoffs,” said. “While we’re confident we can go far, we still have to take it game by game.”
The Warriors played the Legion in a preseason match on February 10th
“We learned a lot about San Diego,” Cooper said. “But, we can’t think that that will be the same San Diego we see on Saturday. It was still an incredibly valuable scrimmage for us.”
Preseason Battle vs @SDLegion ⚔️
Friday, 1pm MT#ForTheNation pic.twitter.com/80z9824Wqk
— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) February 10, 2023
Chandler Holt is a Digital Sports Producer for KSLSports.com, specializing in all things basketball and football. Follow Chandler on Twitter at @ChandlerHoltKSL.
