While most of the Serevi Cup teams playing this coming weekend are from the Pacific Northwest, the girls bracket does welcome the Tundra from Minnesota.

Head Coach Jimmy Hanson, who led the Armstrong team to a fifth-straight state championship in 15s, has been looking for a challenge for the summer, and has found it.
 

"In just the last couple of years Minnesota has started getting its High School 7s programs off the ground, but there aren't very many 7s opportunities for our kids," Hanson told Goff Rugby Report. "With only three clubs having actual 7s programs, we at the Tundra program saw a gap and a need for higher level 7s development, so we decided to expand the Tundra program to include 7s."

The team played in the Las Vegas Invitational in January, and Hanson said the team showed well.

"We have been using the lessons we learned to try and sharpen our 7s skill set over the last months," he said. "Many of those players are making the trip to Seattle, supplemented by some new talent that has joined up with us since then."

At first, the Tundra coaches only intended to take one team. However, with 25 players training regularly with the team, they decided to put in two full squads, joining Rugby Washington in fielding two teams. Rugby Oregon and APEX Rugby Academy (http://www.goffrugbyreport.com/hs-girls/apex-girls-set-serevi-cup) out of Colorado round out the field. 

 

"This team has a wide variety of youth, experience and athleticism," enthused Hanson. "Without knowing much about our competition and the style of play we expect to see out in Seattle, it has been a challenge for our coaching staff to figure out what our top seven will look like because we have such a variety of athletes. This squad spends a lot of time competing against each other in the Minnesota Youth Rugby leagues in 15s and 7s, but they haven't had many opportunities to test themselves as a unit against outside competition. They, and the coaching staff, are looking forward to being a part of a top level event with some great competition."

 

Amy Schroeder Armstrong

Andrea Sanabria Hopkins

AnnaMarie Combs Faribault

Averie Mitchell-Brown Burnsville

Brooke Miller North Suburban

Cecilia Hammond North Suburban

Chelsy Carrilo Burnsville

Chloe Thomas Armstrong

Corbin Terry Armstrong

Hanah DeMars Faribault

Haylee Thull Armstrong

Jennifer Lowry Armstrong

Jenny menendez Faribault

Jill Kearney Armstrong

Kirstin Tanner Armstrong

Lexi Struzyk Edina

Lily Strehlow Hopkins

Megan Miller Hastings

Rachel Mower Armstrong

Renee Gonzalez Armstrong

Sonetta Williams Armstrong

Tatum Johnson North Suburban

 

Jimmy Hanson (Armstrong)

Mikayla Miller (North Suburban)

Dan "DJ" Johnson (Hopkins)