And so we get to the HS Club rankings after the National Championships.

Now ... we will see some changes lower down as Colorado still has a championship to decide. But for the most part, pending a longer, more introspective look into things, this is the rankings for the season.

Thunder Rugby, in the end, has to be #1. No one beat Charlotte, and then Thunder did. You knock off the top team at the National Championships, you should at least be considered for #1. Thunder was #7 largely because they lost to the SOC Raptors during the regular season. They also, of course, beat those self-same Raptors twice ... so there you go.

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Charlotte lost by five in the final and didn't do much to make us think they weren't really good. They remain #2. Aspetuck was a bit of a surprise, but it's worth noting that they drifted down because of lack of games, and their loss to Royal Irish, which we couldn't discount but which we knew was a bounce-of-the-ball-close kind of game. Aspetuck could easily have been #3 coming into the Nationals tournament.

Had Woodlands beaten Aspetuck in the 3rd/4th game, they would have been #3. Genesis, then, could, you might argue, be #2 or #3 if the team they lost to in the opening round had ended up the champions. But that's not the case. There's an argument for Genesis to be #4 ahead of Woodlands but the Texas team's very close losses push them over the top, along with the fact that Genesis lost to Aspetuck by nine points, and Woodlands lost by four.

(Yes we are splitting hairs that much.)

West Valley was very, very close to Genesis and we have a hard time bumping them out of the top 10.

Royal Irish almost beat Thunder, and that victory keeps them close at #7. It's reasonable that the Raptors could be ranked ahead of Royal Irish, but Royal Irish gets credit for playing a lot outside its state, and beating, remember, Aspetuck and St. Ignatius.

Then we come to what might be a controversial call—we rank three teams ahead of Fort Hunt, which finished 8th in Tier 1 of the HS Nationals. All three of those teams played in Tier 2. How can we do that? Well, it's tough, because it's possible, certainly, that Fort Hunt could have won Tier 2 had they played there. But we watched the games, watched the teams, and were very impressed with San Diego, Tempe, and SFGG, and reasoned that they were all very close. It is, in the end, a compliment to the quality of competition throughout HS Nationals that those teams get ranked where they do.

We welcome Glenn Ellyn out of Illinois into the rankings. They have had a really good season. Legend out of Colorado won a playoff game and that team comes in too. 

Rank	Prev	Team	Notes
1	7	Thunder Rugby (CA)	Beat Royal Irish (4), Aspetuck (9), Charlotte (1)
2	1	Charlotte Tigers (NC)	Beat SOC (8), Woodlands (5), lost to Thunder (7)
3	9	Aspetuck (CT)	Beat Genesis (2), Woodlands (5), lost to Thunder (7)
4	5	Woodlands (TX)	Beat Fort Hunt (4), lost to Charlotte (1), Aspetuck (9)
5	2	Genesis (UT)	Beat Royal Irish (3), SOC (8), lost to Aspetuck (9)
6	6	West Valley Warriors (UT)
7	3	Royal Irish (IN)	Beat Fort Hunt (4), lost to Genesis (3), Thunder (7)
8	8	SOC Raptors (CA)	Lost to Charlotte (1), Genesis (2), beat Fort Hunt (4)
9	11	San Diego Mustangs (CA)	Beat Vienna (24), Raleigh (13), Tempe (10)
10	10	Tempe (AZ)	Beat KC (17), SFGG (12), lost to San Diego (11)
11	12	SFGG (CA)	Beat Phoenix Alph. (26), Raleigh (13), lost to Tempe (10)
12	4	Fort Hunt (VA)	Lost to Woodlands (5), SOC (8), Royal Irish (3)
13	13	Raleigh Redhawks (NC)	Beat Eastside (34), lost to San Diego (11), SFGG (12)
14	14	SLV Rhinos (UT)
15	15	Danville (CA)
16	16	Red Mountain (AZ)
17	26	Phoenix Alpharetta (GA)	Beat KC (17), Vienna (24), lost to SFGG (12)
18	17	Kansas City Jr. Blues (MO)	Lost to Tempe (10), Phoenix Alph. (26), beat Eastside (34)
19	18	Harlequin (TN)
20	19	Fairfield (CT)
21	20	Naples (FL)
22	21	Granite Bay (CA)
23	22	United (UT)
24	23	Doylestown (PA)
25	24	Vienna (VA)	Lost to San Diego (11), Phoenix Alph. (26), beat Eastside (34)
26	25	Menlo-Atherton (CA)
27	27	Berks (PA)
28	28	West Shore Utd (PA)
29	29	Carmel (IN)
30	30	Liberty (WA)
31	38	Belmont Shore (CA)
32	31	Pendleton (IN)
33	32	Eagan (MN)
34	33	Marin (CA)
35	34	Eastside (WA)	Lost to Vienna (24), KC (17), Raleigh (13)
36	Unr	Glenn Ellyn (IL)	Undefeated in Illinois
37	36	HSE (IN)
38	37	Avon (IN)
39	Unr	Legend (CO)	Beat PAC (35)
40	35	PAC (CO)	Lost to Legend
41	39	Boca Raton (FL)
42	40	Morris (NJ)
43	42	Albert Lea (MN)
44	43	Minnetonka (MN)
45	41	Colorado Springs Falcons (CO)	Lost to East HS
46	45	Jacksonville (FL)
47	46	Downingtown (PA)
48	47	Germantown (TN)
49	48	West Houston (TX)
50	49	Maryland Exiles (MD)