The Boys High School All Americans will split up for the summer of 2016, with two separate teams on two separate tours.

The apparent reasoning behind this is in part to expand the pool of players used, and in part to make travel somewhat easier for everyone. In addition, this plan will give players a little more time to plan for the travel.

The Eastern HSAA will be chosen after the early RCTs (South, Northeast, West), and the Western HSAA will be chosen after the later ones (Midwest, Northwest), with possibly some crossover between those tournaments.

The teams will play age-grade provincial opponents in two sites in Canada, with the Eastern HSAA likely playing the Ontario U18s in the Toronto or Ottawa area in late June, while the Western HSAA team will likely play the British Columbia U18s at the University of British Columbia in July 13 and July 16 (BC Rugby lists games with Eagle Impact Rugby Academy for those dates, and in fact the EIRA program will send two younger teams, U16s and U17s, to BC at the same time).

Both provincial U18s teams will be using these games as buildup to the national provincial championships in August.

With the timing of the tours, it seems fairly certain that excellent performances at the various Regional Cup Tournament all-star teams is important. 

Players who are very good and have serious expectations of making the HS All Americans, but are unable to play in an RCT (such as graduation or other important event conflicts with an RCT, or your league/SRO doesn’t have a team), can still hook on with an all-star team.

To get involved in an RCT even if you don’t have a team (and you’re good), contact HS All American Head Coach Salty Thompson at saltythompson@gmail.com.