The NAI 7s tournament is expanding its U14 and U16 boys divisions into two tiers each.

Every year the tournament asks for feedback from the participants, and this move is a direct result of that feedback.

"What we found was that there are brand new teams just starting to play and they want to come to the tournament, but there's definitely a mismatch between those teams and the more experienced teams," said Tournament Director Michael Cressler. "At the same time, there are some parts of the country that play touch or flag rugby up to U12s, so they have just started tackle. They asked us, 'can you offer a different level?'"

NAI 7s, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 23-24, 2022

That the tournament is doing exactly that, offering a Tier II for U14 Boys and U16 Boys for teams that aren't high-level select sides, but who also want to compete against groups that they don't see often.

The expansion will depend on numbers, so if there aren't a lot of teams applying for Tier II brackets, then those brackets might be folded into Tier I—they need at least eight teams for each bracket to make it work— but Cressler said he is confident of the demand.

The U14 brackets have a weight limit of 185 lbs.

Cressler also said that as the tournament grows he wants to see multiple tiers for the girls U16 and U14 brackets as well.

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