Zack Test: The USA head coach that 'grew up' on the World Series

When Zack Test was appointed head coach of the USA Men’s Sevens team it felt like a full circle moment.

The 36-year-old made his debut for the team in 2009 and was one of the first wave of players to become professional after rugby sevens was confirmed as a sport at the 2016 Olympic Games.

A stalwart of the side his entire career, and a true SVNS great, Test took over from Simon Amor as the USA’s head coach after the team’s relegation to HSBC SVNS 2 at the end of the 2024/25 season.

In recent years the team has seen much change. Whether that be the retirement of free-scoring Perry Baker or the vastly experienced Folau Niua, there are voids for new greats to emerge. The possibilities are almost endless.

Test arrived in the role from the same building. Never too far from the USA’s Southern California training base, he has traded an assistant role with the women’s set-up for top job in the men.

When the former flyer jumped on a video call he beamed. It is hard to think of any head coach that has seemed so at home in their surroundings.

“I grew up in this programme,” Test told RugbyPass. “I came in as a young 18-year-old that was bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I didn’t know east from west. I was just trying to be the best rugby player I could.

“(It) really showed me how to be a man, how to live my life and what you need to do to be successful.

“When the opportunity came up to lead this programme, it was ‘absolutely’. Every goal I had as a player was to leave the jersey in a better place than I had found it.

“Now it’s the same thing as a coach – how can I drive this programme forward again and leave the programme in a better place?”

‘The greatest years of my life’

In so much that Test has been an almost regular fixture at Chula Vista’s Olympic training centre since the sevens programme opened up and for the past four years has been Emilie Bydwell’s assistant in the women’s setup.

He has been seen running on the water, offered vital messages from the sideline on match day and helped coach the side to Olympic bronze in Paris at the 2024 Games.

While his change of scenery has only changed to a new office down the hallway from his last, Test grins when asked about the time he spent with Bydwell and building a podium worthy side.

 

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“Those years were just so great,” he said. “Not just because of the highs that we had, it was always the lows that we had and all the stuff we went through as a group.

“We went through a lot of stuff together and we learned a lot together. We all grew together. I will miss them a lot because there’s a lot of good memories and a lot of good connections.”

For Test those three years working alongside Bydwell have been instructive.

He watched closely as the 40-year-old nurtured a squad all the way to Olympic success and won the admiration of a nation in the process.

“Emilie showed me the way of how she does things and I take a lot from her,” Test said. “She’s an incredible coach and you can see it in how the girls play and the culture.

“I took a lot of learning from how she does things and tailored it to how I do things. It was some of the greatest years of my life.”

‘Chop Wood, Carry Water’

In the six months since his appointment Test has been setting the standards for his players.

This has included a new set of values – bravery, honour, discipline and commitment – to set the everyday benchmarks for players in the high performance environment and put his stamp on things in Southern California.

After a season of such disappointment and heartache, the need to start on a positive note was needed. Relegation from core status was a major disappointment, particularly when the side that had competed with the best in the world for an extended period of time.

Test’s appointment not only offers a form of continuity, but an intrinsic understanding of the programme, as well as the deep passion of a former player that thrived on the sevens field and competed for Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In his half-year since taking the reins the California-born coach has not reinvented the wheel. He has simply underpinned it.

 

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“It was almost like reinforcing the foundation that was there and introducing a couple of new beams that could make that foundation even more secure as far as the standards, the culture and how they think about being in here daily,” Test said.

“The big thing I started off with is, we read the book Chop Wood, Carry Water, which is about falling in love with the process of becoming great.

“As a professional rugby player at sevens, you do kind of the same routines day in and day out. It can get mundane, so this book really helps the collective be like, ‘we’re on the path of mastery’.

“Every time we go out there and we dial in and have real attention and awareness on the details we want to get right, we’re just getting better on our path to mastery.”

It is not the first time that Test has called on Chop Wood, Carry Water either.

In 2018 as an assistant coach with Major League Rugby outfit San Diego Legion, he and head coach Rob Hoadley called upon the text to help the squad prepare for their debut season. They finished the year as semi-finalists.

Two years later Test was appointed as co-head coach of the Legion alongside former Scotland lock Scott Murray. It was a post he held for a year across a Covid disrupted season in North America.

Now a half decade on from that first taste of being a head coach, Test feels a lot more comfortable in the role.

“I’m so much further along than I was there,” Test said. “Just all the experiences of the Olympics, the World Cups, all these different things we did over there with the women.

“Just so much seasoned and understanding all the intricate parts of what it takes to be successful in a pivotal moment and in pivotal games.”

‘What’s the next step for us this week?’

While the USA Women’s Sevens will begin their season next week in Dubai, Test has several more weeks of preparation with his players.

Relegated to HSBC SVNS 2 at the end of last season, as part of the newly reformatted sevens calendar, the team will begin their campaign in February and aim to compete at the World Championship Series that begin in April.

Between now and then there is work to do for Test. Because even though everyone knows that the 2028 Olympic Games are being held up Interstate-5 in Los Angeles, the immediate goal of getting back to the World Series is front and centre. Dreams can wait.

“We’ve got to do what we need to do this season, because if you look down the road then you’re not looking where your feet are,” Test said.

“We’re focussing on how we can become the best team that we can be this year. That then sets us up for what we need to do in year two and into the Olympic year.

“We understand what the destination is. But right now it’s like, what’s the next step for us this week? What’s the next step next week? We’ve just got to tackle those little goals and get that right.”