It’s 7s time for HS teams this summer. 

For years, that wasn’t something you normally said in American rugby. Rugby 7s was mostly the domain of men’s and women’s senior clubs, and of course they still take the summer season very seriously.

And while college teams have, in the past four years, started to pursue 7s, high school teams haven’t because they take the summer off.

But plenty of coaches and players have realized that playing the Olympic version of the sport is a good thing - it’s fun, it teaches you many of the skills you need to succeed in 15s, and it’s a wonderful way to introduce debutants to the game.

So there’s plenty of 7s to play for high school teams. 

In New York there’s the Empire 7s Series, and Connecticut team Greenwich not only won this past weekend’s Monmouth 7s in New Jersey, they finished 2nd. New York won the Plate and the Maulers the Bowl.

Next up will be the Tri-State 7s in Danbury, Conn.

In North Carolina, the Queen City 7s hosts not only a Boys HS bracket, but brackets for U14 and U12, as well. This is a perfect warmup for teams looking to play in the Cape Fears 7s a week later.

In Virginia, we don’t have much until July 12, but the Richmond Lions did win the Monk Vaughn 7s in late May.

The Lakefront 7s is the major tournament in the Midwest, with teams from all over the region expect. 

In Northern California, their 7s series waits until after the Fourth of July, as most do, but in Washington, 7s is now.

Sponsors by the Subway Washington Summer Games, the Rugby Washington HS 7s series kicks off Sunday in Yelm, Wash., with teams for U19 boys, U17 boys, and HS girls.

The teams will play a series with points awarded for how they finish each tournament.

The teams with the most points at the end of the four tournaments will be crowned Washington State 7s Champion.

The Liberty Patriots will behind their defense of their 2013 title. They have started an excellent rivalry with Seattle. Seattle beat Liberty 32-31 in the 2012 title game, and Liberty beat Seattle 19-17 last year. This year, points in the series decide the champ, so there is likely not to be a game between two teams vying for the state title at the same time.

Teams from all over Western Washington are slated to compete.