The NAI 7s has been officially canceled for 2020.

The huge high school and age-grade 7s tournament in Salt Lake City had already canceled the North American High School 7s series event that is part of the tournament. That was canceled earlier due to the fact that select sides from around the country would have a very hard time attending even if Salt Lake City officials allowed the event to go on.

But for local teams, the NAI 7s might have still been held if the State of Utah had continued to open up activities. Sadly, as has happened around the country, attempts to expand how people can interact has resulted an increase in COVID-19 cases in Utah. According to various sources, there were 84 new cases of COVID-19 on May 26. Two days later there were 333 reported and on June 5 555. New cases on June 19 were 644 and the exact same number six days later.

There is not a lot of data on how serious these cases are, or what age group is testing positive, however according to coronavirus.utah.gov, there have been 22,217 positive tests in Utah, with 1,444, or 6.5%, needing hospitalization, and 172, or 0.8%, resulting in the person dying.

But in a sense, the data is only so useful. What really matters for the NAI 7s was that the State pulled the NAI 7s mass gathering permit because it concluded that Salt Lake County would not be in a position to safely host the event. Tournament Director Michael Cressler decided that rather than ask teams to find a way to travel, it was time to cancel the event.

All teams that paid entry fees will receive a refund.

The NAI 7s will return in 2021 for July 30 and 31 at the RAC in Salt Lake City.

"Plan for 30-31 July in 2021 as we will come back bigger and better than before!" said Cressler in an email.