Intense Start to HSAA Ontario Tour

Game day looms for the USA High School All American team as they prepare for tomorrow's clash with the Ontario Junior Blues u19 team.

The HSAA players met up on Monday morning in Buffalo and took a team bus to Appleby College in Oakville, Ont. that day. Some players had traveled ahead and met the team there. The team stretched their legs with their first on-field training session late Monday afternoon, and then met for some meetings and team-building. There's not much time to get everyone on the same page, especially as Ontario has been together for somewhat longer. So there's a lot squeezed into every session. Tuesday featured two intense sessions on the field, working on individual position responsibilities and folding those into the team plan. More meetings in the evening, and then today has been more of the same. Those will be the two most intense days of the assembly.

Thursday the team will go through a run-through in the morning and then rest and prepare for the game with Ontario at 7pm local time.

The reason Tuesday and Wednesday are the most intense are in part because the team has just the one day to recover before playing the second game, on Saturday. That day happens to be Canada Day, a national holiday north of the border. The team will have a light session and then get a chance to enjoy the festivities. But there will be a job to do on Saturday at 3pm, as well.

It's still too early to speculate who will play. It's a tough initiation for some of the players, as they are expected to be game fit, and switched on, and serious, and yet being positive and a pleasant team member are important, too. 

Below is a list of the players for this Eastern trek - a different group will be touring British Columbia later in July. Some names have links to more coverage of that player on Goff Rugby Report.