Having coached the USA Men’s 7s team to a place in the 2016 Olympics, and to their first-ever World Series tournament victory in London, Head Coach Mike Friday can cross a couple off his list of goals - now there’s another list entry to worry about.

Don’t be lured into thinking the 2015 Pan-Am Games are a throwaway event for the Eagles just because some of the higher-profile players aren’t in Toronto. Friday knows what he wants to see.

“We have high expectations of each other and the group knows that when they take responsibility for the USA 7's shirt, they accept the accountability that brings,” Friday told Goff Rugby Report. “It only matters who is here, not who isn’t. They are hungry for this opportunity and that is the unity that drives them as a group to try and achieve Gold or die trying!!!”

This was an emailed response, so the three exclamation points are all Mike Friday.

The team trained hard in San Diego before flying to Canada, keeping their preparation as normal as possible. The players being looked at by the USA 15s team were expected to be unavailable, so it’s no big shock for Friday that Danny Barrett, Folau Niua, Zack Test, and Andrew Durutalo aren’t there for selection. If there’s a surprise for anyone, it’s that Brett Thompson, also on the USA 15s list for the Pacific Nations Cup, is in Toronto.

“We want all the players to develop and evolve as rugby players, so individual decisions were taken for all of them, and we worked with the 15s to ensure that we give those players that opportunity,” said Friday. “That’s  why it was better for Brett to participate in the Pan-Am Games, so he can gather momentum into the PNC.”

The addition of Thompson, now back after a shoulder injury that sidelined him most of the season, is a big plus for the Eagles in T-Dot. The tall, powerful 15s wing is a very versatile 7s player, and one who knows where the tryline is. His experience will help the veteran halfbacks Madison Hughes and Nate Augspurger, link up with the danger men Carlin Isles and Perry Baker on the outside.

(Also not wit the team is Maka Unufe, who is just being give time off - Unufe’s efforts for the USA team this season can hardly be overstated, and, Friday said, he just needs a break.)

There are players on this squad who have toiled for the USA before. Martin Iosefo is expected to be a steadying force, and one who gives the USA go-forward. Patrick Blair is a bulldozer, ruck-winner type. Mike Te’o can play almost anywhere and, along with Stephen Tomasin, provide power, versatility, and a boatload of effort.

Will Holder is like Thompson, a tall, rangy back with a variety of skills. Ben Leatigaga is the only uncapped player on the team, and one who could break out this coming weekend. Perhaps the guy who has the most on his shoulders is Garret Bender. Without his Bash Brothers cohort Danny Barrett, Bender will be the one expected to bring the physicality, power in the air, and destructiveness.

“In terms of the expectation of the guys coming in, it is about transferring what they have been doing on the training pitch on to the pressured environment of the international stage,” said Friday. “It is their time to contribute and lay their marker down as team players who are capable of performing under the pressure of an international competition. I am only interested in players contributing selflessly to the systems and frameworks that we operate within. If the players positively buy into that, I am sure they will be successful.”

Friday sans to finish the Pan-Am Games with a Gold Medal, and also with a longer list of players he knows can produce at the highest level, improving the program’s depth, which, he said, “we need to continue to do if we want to not only stay in the Top 6 but break into the Top 4.”

Bender and Iosefo are relatively established players, so their job is to become leaders.

“This will allow players such as Garrett and Martin to take more responsibility in the team and stamp their personality into the group, which will be great to see and is a new challenge for these boys,” said the coach. “I am looking forward to seeing Garrett inspiring the group from the field with his attitude to work and his physicality in the breakdown and at the tackle. He has grown over the season and will only inspire the others around him with his no-nonsence approach come gametime. Martin continues to impress with his power, step, and physicality wherever he is deployed, and this tournament provides him the platform to be more vocal as a leader on and off the pitch.”