Mixing fun and business
Kangaroos, koalas welcome Cardinal to Australia for game with Rice
SYDNEY — Within hours of touching down in Oz, Stanford head coach David Shaw ticked off the two items perched atop his Australian bucket list: He gazed upon the Opera House and came face-to-face with a kangaroo.
It kick-started his team’s weeklong trip to Australia’s largest city, a visit that culminates at Allianz Stadium on Sunday afternoon (7 p.m. Saturday PDT) when the Cardinal take on Rice in the Sydney Cup.
Stanford’s traveling party walked straight off the plane Monday morning local time and headed for the Taronga Park Zoo, where most players and staff also saw koalas, wombats and emus for the first time. That night, they visited the famous golden shores of Bondi Beach.
Then on Tuesday morning, when the Cup was officially launched in the shadows of the steel-arched Harbour Bridge, Shaw finally got his
opportunity to cradle what’s known Down Under as a “joey.”
“No. 2 on my list after the Opera House was to get close to a kangaroo,” Shaw said.
Stanford’s Hawaii-born kicker, Jet Toner, who looked every part a Bondi local with his sandy hair and laid-back attitude, said Sydney had left an instant impression on him.
“I’m taking it all in right now; just walking around, the city’s incredible,” Toner said.
“It’s beautiful, everything here is beautiful. I was just playing with a koala and held the kangaroo. That’s a bunch of things to check off my list.”
The welcoming of Stanford and Rice to town started like most official proceedings in Australia, by verbally honoring the native Aborigines who used to freely roam this land — the Cadigal people, in the case of inner Sydney.
Shaw spoke of his delight of being able to ship his entire football program halfway around the world for a week, and Rice head coach David Bailiff praised Australia’s sheer beauty and its friendly locals.
The Cardinal attended a lecture at the University of Sydney on Tuesday night. Plans for Thursday include a harbor cruise, and the team will gather for photos at the Opera House the following morning.
Stanford’s final duty will be paying a visit to the Sydney Children’s Hospital before the players head into game mode, looking to open their season with a win. Shaw reiterated that Keller Chryst, who tore an ACL in December, will start at quarterback.
“He is completely healthy. He’s ready to go. He’ll start the game, he’ll play the game, and it feels great,” Shaw said.
This week’s trip has been 18 months in the making for senior associate athletic director Matt Doyle, who twice visited Australia to scope out Sydney. He used the trips to draw up a meaty itinerary that will allow Cardinal players to explore and experience the local culture while still maintaining a rigorous practice schedule.
“Part of my preparation for this was I was there a year ago, I was on the ground last year to witness the operation that Cal and Hawaii went through,” Doyle said of last year’s inaugural Sydney Cup, which the Bears won 51-31.
“I saw the fields. I saw the hotels. I saw the (central business district). I saw the weather, so I know what it’s all about. Then I got to go back in February once the game was confirmed, I got to go and see it under a different lens. I got to see the summer.
“I can safely say without hesitation that it is one of the best cities in the world.”