HS Boys

One More Hat in HS 7s Ring

Denver, CO - NDP Championships, a division of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, and United World Sports (UWS) announced today a national partnership centered around the formation of The Sevens Championship, a youth and high school 7s tournament.

The Sevens Championship, which will be held annually in Florida from December 29-31, will feature boys and girls HS-age teams from around the USA and, presumably, Canada.

“This is a monumental day for rugby, as The Sevens Championship will redefine the sport’s competitive landscape,” said Steve Govett, president of NDP. “We couldn’t have found a better partner for this event and concept than UWS.”

Eagle Back Joins Pelham Coaching Staff

KC Jr Blues Star off to Ireland

Graduating Kansas City Jr. Blues player Will Ben Sims will enroll at Trinity College, Dublin University, this coming fall.

Sims follows the path of several prominent American players in spending time at Trinity, but most of those players attended as graduate students. However, current USA and Stade Francais star Scott LaValla made the same choice some years ago, opting to play rugby at the Tony Smeeth-coached Trinity team, and ultimately captaining the team in his senior year.

Meanwhile, Sims was captain of the Jr. Blues.

Loggers Fell Oregon in Serevi Cup

The Washington Loggers rode some excellent team play to victory in the Boys bracket of the Serevi Cup 7s tournament Saturday. Led by an MVP performance from Dominic Lindstrom, the Loggers beat the Northwest Nomads 47-7, Oregon II 21-7, and Eastside 52-7 to win their pool. That set up a semifinal with Oregon II, which they won comfortably. Meanwhile, Oregon I beat Prairie 20-17, Loggers II 22-0, but lost to Rose City 7s 24-17 in pool play. Still they emerged winners over Loggers II in the semis to make the final in the main stadium at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila Wash. In the final, the Loggers continued their outstanding work in the breakdown - as in their 15s efforts they were powerful and precise, and secured solid possession without making silly turnovers. The result was that every Oregon mistake was punished, and the Loggers beat the Redhawks 45-0.

Serevi Cup Boys Latest

Here are the latest scores from the Boys Bracket of the Serevi Cup, the HS all-star tournament being held in conjunction with the National Club 7s.

The Washington Loggers came in with big expectations and so far have delivered, as they beat the Northwest Nomads soundly in their opener.

Oregon split their squads evenly, so there really wasn't an A side and a B side. However, both have acquitted themselves well. It is a competitive tournament, but it looks as though the Loggers are the team to beat.

Scores:
Loggers II 28 Rose City 7s 14
Oregon I 20 Prairie 17
Eastside 12 Oregon II 12
Loggers 47 Northwest Nomads 7
Prairie 21 Rose City 7s 14
Oregon I 22 Loggers II 0
Eastside 38 Northwest Normads 5

7s for the Young a Good Idea

Every summer is a bigger and better summer for high school 7s.

And while, contrary to what some might think, I don’t believe 7s should replace 15s in the hearts and minds of all rugby players, I do think that 7s is enormously important for young American athletes learning the game.

Consider that just a few years ago, there was virtually no high school 7s at all. Some 7s tournaments had U19 brackets, but almost no girls teams showed up and the boys brackets usually boasted no more than four teams.

But once rugby 7s became an Olympic sport in October of 2009, the ice that young players should play 7s took hold. Now many states hold HS 7s series through the summer. The Surfside 7s series held a national championship this year.

Serevi Cup Schedule

The schedue is set for the Serevi Cup HS 7s tournament to be held this weekend at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wash., just south of Seattle.

The Serevi Cup is being held in conjunction with the USA Rugby National Club 7s Championships.

In the Boys (Men's) Bracket, the Washington Loggers select side looks to be the favored team, with Rugby Oregon a close second. The Loggers are a little bit more experienced in 7s and has more players with national team exposure. But whether that's enough remains to be seen.

Rugby Oregon Boys Prepare for Serevi Cup

The Rugby Oregon select side program will enter two boys teams in the Serevi Cup this weekend in conjunction with the USA Rugby National Club 7s at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wash.

The Serevi Cup tournament has become almost exclusively a select-side event, even though any HS teams are invited, and that’s partly due to the time of year - in August the players that want to play 7s really, really want to play, but they are often a scattered group.

“This is the first time we’ve put together a 7s team,” said coach Troy Hall. “We picked the team based on form from our 7s series here in Oregon, and it’s the first step, I think, to developing a real high performance 7s program.”

Oregon HS 7s Season Concludes

The Rugby Oregon Boys 7s Series concluded last weekend with North Clackamas edging Union 19-12 in the Cup Final.

This was something of an upset as Union had dominated through much of the sumer.

Other results.

JV Boys Cup Final - Union (17) vs. Lakeridge (12)
JV Boys Plate Champion - Beaverton Barbarians
Varsity Boys Cup Final - North Clackamas (19) vs. Union (12)
Varsity Boys Plate Final - Reynolds (19) vs. Lakeridge (12)
Varsity Boys Bowl Final - Eastside (31) vs. Newberg (7)
Varsity Boys Shield Final - Pendleton (21) vs. Central Catholic (15)

Washington Loggers Prep for Serevi Cup

Held during the senior Club 7s Championships, the Serevi Cup is a two-bracket high school 7s tournament hosted at the Starfire Sports Complex, where the club nationals will also be held.

The Boys Bracket is mostly select sides from the Northwest, but some from father afield. The Washington Loggers select side program will field two teams. Coach Steve Brennan said the teams will be split along A-side and B-side lines, with the majority of the A-side having already played 7s for the Loggers at the Las Vegas Invitational in January.

“The timing of the tournament is good for us because it’s not too close to football so a lot of players are interested,” Brennan told Goff Rugby Report. “The A-side has a lot of seniors, so it will be an experienced team.”

Seattle Boys Sweep 7s Titles

The Seattle Vikings program won both the Boys U19 and Boys U17 state championships at the RugbyWA 7s Championship Series sponsored by the Subway Summer Games.

The Summer Games is a statewide, multi-sport event that includes Rugby 7s.

The Vikings won their second Washington State 7s Championship in three years (both teams) by taking the Cup Finals at the Rainier 7s tournament Sunday in Auburn, Wash.  Seattle defeated the Eastside Lions Black 54-12 in the U19 Cup Final and defeated the Rainier Highlanders 33-12 in the U17 Cup Final. The victory was the third straight tournament win for both Seattle teams, after each lost in the Cup Final in the first tournament on June 29.

Aircraft Charter Solutions Boys Player of the Week - George Fotu

Standing at 6-5 and weighing 225 or so, George Alexander Blake "Leki" Fotu is a big unit, but he's getting bigger.

"I think he grows more every month," said High School All American Head Coach Salty Thompson.

Size isn't everything, of course, but Fotu is quickly getting to a point where he can become a huge factor in games. And here's the kicker, he's only 15. Fotu does have some developing to go as a lock in elite rugby. He was still green when he toured Europe with the JV HSAA team this pas spring. But he has the pedigree - both of his brothers players with the HSAA team - and the desire.

"He is a monster," said Thompson. "He's one of the finds of this year. He is working really hard, doing a lot of good work in the line outs. He's played every minute for us. He's just been tremendous."

Atlantis Boys Win at Surfside

The Atlantis select side program won the Boys' High School Division of the 2014 Surfside Sevens by defeating the Maryland Exiles 19-7 in the final Sunday in Stone Harbor, NJ.  

It was a battle of two undefeated teams, a hard game with excellent skills on view. 

There were 16 teams in the Boys' HS Division and the format was four brackets of four. Beyond the round-robin stage, however, the format was unforgiving: no crossovers in case one division happened to be loaded. The top four teams played for places 1 through 4; the second place team in each division for places 5 through 8, etc: (third place teams for 9 through 12 and fourth place teams for places 13 through 16). 

Round Robin. The winners of the four divisions were Atlantis, NJ Blaze, Maryland Exiles, and Carolina United.  

Washington Teams Host Merchant Taylors

The Merchant Taylors’ school, an English public school that is more than 450 years old, is touring North America and stopped in the state of Washington this past week to face Chuckanut and Eastside.

Against a Chuckanut team with a couple of extra players thrown in, Merchant Taylors’ won 39-21. They followed that up with a 31-7 defeat of the Eastside Lions. Flyhalf Alfono Cornu scored Eastisde’s only try and was named Eastside's player of the game. Connor Pederson was Eastside's top player in the 2nds game.

Merchant Taylors’ has a long history in success in academics and sports, and was where former USA U20 captain Will Magie went to school.

Eastside coach Josh Young was very happy with the game.

HS Teams Compete at 7s Nationals

The Club 7s Championships hosted by Serevi in Tukwila, Wash. will include two high-school-age tournaments as well.

As many as eight teams are slated to play in the HS Boys bracket of the Serevi Cup, with most being select sides. Rugby Washington will field two teams, Rugby Oregon will field one, and the Eastside Lions of the Seattle Area will also play.

Prairie Mustangs, out of Yelm, Wash., and the Rose City team out of Portland, Ore. will also play, while Pleasanton out of California will take a team, as well.

The tournament will feature two pools of four, with the games being played on satellite fields (field 6 and 7) at the Starfire Sports Complex, where the club championships are being held. The final will be held in the main stadium, with the winners getting a $500 prize.