Granite Bay has started off their 2015 season with an impressive result over CK McClatchy and while several players played well in the opener, many are looking up, way up, to Chase Bixby.

The 6-6 second row forward is on a bit of a roll as he contemplates taking a trip with the High School All Americans to Las Vegas to play in the HS Boys Elite 7s. 

For someone with his height, especially a young player, to be picked to play 7s is a little rare. But it could be a stroke of genius.

“I’ve only played two 7s games in my life,” Bixby told Goff Rugby Report. “It is a lot of fun. I think I can contribute on set piece, in the lineouts, at the restart. I’ve got some height and I’ve got long arms. So I want to control possession.”

That is, after all, what he’s good at in 15s.

Bixby has been working with his Granite Bay coaches on some of the finer points of 7s, and he does fit in nicely in that type of game. HSAA Head Coach Salty Thompson said Bixby was one of his fastest forwards, and he expects Bixby to cover a lot of ground.

But right now the rangy lock has a HS season in Northern California to think about.

“We just need to stay focused on what we’re doing,” said Bixby. “We’ve got a good team and we got a good start last weekend. But we need to avoid looking too far ahead and just worry about right now.”

Well, we don’t have to worry about that; we can look as far ahead as we want. Bixby has a big upside, and yes, we are talking partly about his height. At 207 he’s not big, although he claims to have put on ten pounds since his last HSAA weigh-in. He is planning to attend Arizona State University and play rugby there. It’s all looking good.

Chase Bixby is our Aircraft Charter Solutions Player of the Week.