Tropical 7s Back for East and Keeps Growing

04.01.2026Elite 7s

Tropical 7s in the sun.

Author: Alex Goff

The Tropical 7s returns for Easter Weekend with 17 divisions and over 220 teams in action.

“We’re still growing and we are getting a lot of demand in certain divisions, especially Boys and Girls U18 Open divisions, and the U14 divisions,” said Tournament Director John Siner.

It is true the Open divisions, representing the desire for stiff competition, but with a sense that this is also a fun trip to Florida, is strong. Teams come from all over the country and also from overseas. Canada has always been represented well in this tournament, coming, as it does, right before provincial playoffs. Teams from Australia are competing, as well.

Siner said the event is also adding some new features. GOLS is live-streaming all of the games, while there will be a live Gameday show going on (shown on YouTube) in which there will be interviews, updates, and guests.

“We are always looking to make this better,” said Siner.

lindenwood vs harvard 2023 tropical 7s alex goff 0

The tournament itself has little features that are important for player welfare. There are cooling stations, places in the shade where fans and players can rest, but also they use little pop-up soccer benches, which provide shade for players on the sidelines. At a tournament where it is frequently sunny and hot—at least, much hotter than those coming out of a northern winter are used to—this is hugely important.

The Tropical 7s has also brought back a program they kicked off last year, the Tropical 7s teams. The tournament invites players who want to compete but don’t have a team to play for. The players spend the week before the tournament training and working to develop themselves as a unit, and then take the field. They will play in the Boys U18 Open, and the Girls U18 Open.

Siner said the Open Division is the right place for this group, “and it has been really successful.”

And one more bracket that seems to have exploded is the Women’s U23 Open. Many of the teams in this bracket are college teams fielding their 2nd sides, with their 1st sides in the Elite bracket. But many more are just smaller college programs looking for competition and, potentially, a warmup for the CRC tournament in three weeks.

On the men’s U23 side, the Elite teams are compilation sides, not stand-alone college teams. The Open teams are a combination of compilation sides and college teams.

Here’s a quick look at some of the brackets:
U18 Boys Elite: EIRA, Atlantis, and Rebel lead a densely good group of 11 teams.

U18 Girls Elite: The Rugby Advantage might be the favorite, but this is a stacked group with NRU Thunder, Atlantis, Majestics, and Utah Cannibals.

U18 Boys Open: Panther Rugby Academy and Canada Misfits lead this.

U18 Girls Open: This is wide open. Celtic Barbarians, Panther Academy, USA West, Upright, and more all are good.

U16 Boys Elite: Eight excellent teams. Anyone wondering about the future of the game should watch this bracket.

U16 Girls Elite: Shockwave from Australia shakes this up while some strong Canadian talent goes up against the likes of Atlantis, Panther Academy, and USA West.

U23 Women’s Elite: We won’t talk about the men’s elite because they are compilation sides and we haven’t seen their rosters. For the women, Trinity Western, Penn State, West Point (!), Harvard, Brown, Life, and LIU join Canada Misfits. This is a really interesting group. LIU is not a team to sleep on. Harvard could be primed to win the CRAA Premier 7s. Brown has won the not-as-stacked Women’s Premier in the CRC multiple times—we’d love to see them in Indianapolis, but for now we’ll settle for a comparison in Tampa.