It’s almost Christmas and you know what that means … it’s almost time for the post-Christmas High School All American Camp.

 

This year the camp will be hosted at the hugely impressive Casa Grande Sports Academy, which is a high-end complex in Arizona. There the players will stay in adjoining dorms and have access to full-size fields (normally used for soccer) and a 58,000-square-foot high performance center. 

 

Head Coach Salty Thompson will invite about 140 players to this camp, widening the net for selection for the Las Vegas Invitational, a JV tour, the Rosslyn Park 7s, and the summer trip to South America.

 

Thompson was enthusiastic about the camp locale, and the first thing he mentioned wasn’t the facilities (which are very nice) but the food.

 

“They know how to feed athletes,” he said.

 

The HSAA camp is about more than just developing the High School All American team. Thompson has pointed to several players who didn’t make the HSAA team because they were beat out by a bigger or more athletic player, but who grew over the years and made the U20s, or College All Americans, or the Eagles. 

 

“We are developing players for all of these teams,” he said. “And helping these players go back and make their current clubs or school teams better.”

 

College programs are full of players who have been part of these camps, and that’s partly why Thompson likes to expand the list. He also wants to develop depth for the HSAA team. The players have been assembled from performances in the Regional All-Star Tournaments in June, the HS championship seasons, and from showing well in the series of Eagle Impact Rugby Academy clinics and camps held around the country.

 

The HSAA camp will be held December 26-31. Out of this, two squads will be selected for the Las Vegas Invitational Boys Elite 7s bracket. Following that will be a squad for the Rosslyn Park 7s, which might be different from the LVI group.

 

Then the younger 15s team - essentially a U17 squad but called HSAA JV, will go on tour over Spring Break. And finally the full HSAA 15s team will go to Argentina to revisit the Cuatro Naciones tournament.