The National Youth Sevens Championships kicks off Friday at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio with brackets for Boys U16s and Boys U14s.
We’re seeing a little bit of a shift to some more single-program teams involved.
U16 Boys Pools
Pool A
Gorilla Rugby
Atlantis
Woodlands
St. Ignatius
Woodlands out of Texas is one of the most involved clubs when it comes to taking players from the very young up through into high school and beyond. They will bring a unified group. St. Ignatius has young talent and is a local (Cleveland) program with a ton of players with 7s experience.
Gorilla has been an effective select side mostly out of Texas, while Atlantis is the gold standard of this type of select 7s program and could well be coming in as one of the favorites.
Pool B
Tribe Rugby
USA Panther Academy
Pasefika
Badger Rugby Selects
Tribe is more of a self-contained club and they won the U14 bracket last year with plenty of power. Panther Academy is always strong and they have a well-organized buildup, which is why they won it last year.
This year’s team includes some outstanding talents from all over, including a couple from The Woodlands(!). Elijah Pimentel from Pendleton, Wyatt Appleton from Raptor Rugby, Bryson Cook from Tampa, Jake Orefice from Raptor, Trace Snellman from The Woodlands, and Harrison Redmond from Rebel.
Pasefika travels the furthest and probably works the hardest to get there, and they have a ton of talent. Badger Selects will be an interesting group to see as they are just coming out of their league season.
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