Northeast Academy won the fall 2017 elite 7s tournament.
The details are few and far between, but evidently there’s another 7s showcase occurring at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in June. Apparently the event will mirror the tournament that occurred last September at Dartmouth College (read more).
In New Hampshire, National Development Academies (NDAs) and select sides competed in front of USA Women’s 7s coach Richie Walker, who was evaluating talent. Following that event, the USA Women’s 7s program developed an arrangement to get more NDA players to SoCal (read more). Since then, academy players like Sarah Buonopane have been contracted and others like Neariah Persinger have earned their first 7s caps.
In the second iteration, USA Rugby Women’s High Performance General Manager Emilie Bydwell will also be evaluating. Also the player pool will expand as the Women’s Collegiate All-Americans (WCAAs) will be participating – a welcomed return considering the program has not assembled since summer 2016.
There are still some commitments to be confirmed, but a potential lineup could include Atavus, CCIG (Tiger), Northeast Academy, Santa Barbara, Scion, Stars and WCAAs. We’ll start making contact with teams for rosters and more info.