The youth sections of the Tropical 7s bring 24 teams to Tampa for this coming weekend's massive event.
Over 170 teams in various brackets will compete, but right now we're looking at the U14 and U12 teams.
The U12 bracket is coed and while the South is strongly represented (half the teams are from the Southeast), that's not the whole story. Hawkeyes (Idaho-based, drawing from North America), and Upright Rugby (Ontario) bring an international flavor. USA West is a Colorado-based program that really started at the younger ages and is now also expanding to older groups.
USA West brings two teams and in fact is one of the most heavily-represented programs in the entire Tropical 7s.
U14 Girls is intriguing because so many programs that are active in the U18 and U16 levels now have U14 teams. The bracket itself is six teams, which will play a round-robin (everyone playing everyone else) before the tournament ends with 1 vs 2, 3vs 4, and 5 vs 6 series of placement games.
The Rugby Advantage, Tsunami Canada Misfits, USA South, USA West, and Upright Rugby all have teams. The only non academy team in there is Woodlands out of Texas, which is happy to front-up against some impressive opposition.
The U14 Boys bracket has 10 teams that again includes U14 versions of academy and select sides, and added to that are local team Tampa Bay Stingrays, and Porirua Misfits, which is from New Zealand.
