The fighting Dorosti brothers

Good thing Cyrus Dorosti is graduating -- he might not have enough working fingers left for any more national championship rings.

Cy's Cal team upset favored BYU at Stanford yesterday, clinching their third consecutive USA Rugby title and bringing Cy's collegiate career to a glorious and merciful end while his body is still sort of intact.

Here's a recent article in the Daily Cal, headlined, "Cyrus the Great," detailing the Dorostis legendarily high tolerance for pain and suffering. My favorite part is how he went through his first two years on the team without telling the coach that he had been observing Ramadan and going without food or water. The top knuckles on his hands are all bent from snapped tendons, he wears ankle braces every time he plays anything, and his shoulder is messed up so badly that he couldn't even raise his arms over his head at the closing whistle Saturday.

Meanwhile, Cy's older brother Arcia is travelling with his Mission teammates to South Carolina in two weeks to play for the somewhat less prestigious and more alcohol-based USA Rugby Championship at the Division III level. In contrast with Cal, the Mission team has no coach (the program guide actually lists the coach as "uncoachable") and is sponsored by Fred's Place of Mountain View, "The last neighborhood bar where everybody knows your shame." That of course doesn't stop Arcia from taking it very seriously.

A great line by sports writer Vytas Mazeika in today's Daily News, which features the Mission team in an article that liberally quotes the older Dorosti: "The only thing that may match the intensity of the tournament is the drinking that follows it."

Having seen these guys drink, I figure it must be one hell of a tournament.

UPDATE: Mission won their semifinal match with a team from Toledo, Ohio today in South Carolina, on a missed point-blank kick as Arcia prayed and time expired. After they recover from their hangovers, they will travel to San Diego June 3 to play for the Division III national championship against a team from Boston.