Here is our first week of Boys HS School-Team rankings for 2023.
Obviously a couple of leagues have kicked off already and as we've dealt with in the past, it is very difficult for some of these teams to maintain high rankings through the rest of the spring. Most of that is because once they wrap up their school season in February, other teams will play and move their way past. Only if these teams keep playing and play some opposition outside their league can we get enough data to move them to the upper echelon.
And we're going to see more of that with teams that didn't do that last year. Jesuit New Orleans and LaSalle College Prep are two that have significantly raised the level of their opposition and we celebrate that.
Notice that we rank Gonzaga #1 and the defending national champs, St. Ignatius, #3. That's simply based on a bit of a guess—SIHS graduated a bunch of players and we decided it's a bit much to ask the next group to carry the burden of #1 until results tell us more. Gonzaga? They are a bit more settled.
Expect much of this to change, of course, and we do have some big games in SoCal and North Carolina and in Texas while others are waiting for the snows to melt. And when the snows melt we've got several more interesting matchups to come.
The GRR Rankings are brought to you by Next Phase Rugby, a USA-made and maintained app that connects college rugby programs and HS rugby players. It's a great way for college programs to find players they wouldn't know otherwise, and a great way for high schoolers to create and finalize their best college prospects. Go to nextphaserugby.com to download the app.
