While the North American High School (NAHS) 7s Series was canceled due to Covid-19, the North American Invitational (NAI) 7s on July 31 – Aug. 1 is happening, pending some benchmarks are met. Tournament organizers in Salt Lake City, Utah, made the call on June 15, and provided an abundance of information to teams that were still interested in participating. The new deadline for registrations is July 4.
FOLLOW the on-going NAI 7s conversation on Facebook
Below are some excerpts from the tournament director’s advisory:
1. Utah uses a color-coded stage system to indicate a country’s reopening phase. Salt Lake City is, at time of print, in orange (moderate risk) and needs to move to yellow, ideally green, for contact sports with spectators to take place. From the text thread:
“In discussion with the [Regional Athletic Complex] and county, it is expected that Salt Lake County will enter into yellow (low risk) prior to July. It is also highly likely that we will be green prior to kickoff 31 July.”
2. Safety guidelines from IAW state and USA Rugby are being drawn up and will apply to all tournament-goers. Examples:
a. All spectators must wear face coverings IF you cannot maintain a social distance of 6 ft.
b. All players must be listed in our registration system with full contact information. This allows us to comply with the state mandate on formal competitive events being able to contact-trace.
c. All players and coaches must have their temperature checked at team check-in the night before the tournament and have a temperature less than 99.6 degrees F.
d. All players, parents, coaches spectators and referees will need to take the World Rugby symptom checker and deliver it to the main tent EACH MORNING prior to play
e. We will endeavor to have divisions assigned to a single field. This will limit contact with those outside division and enable better tracing should we have an infected person.
f. We will sanitize the balls between matches.
g. We normally have CCC or WRS vending all kinds of products. That will not happen this year. We will have tourney T-Shirts made and some additional items but the merchandise tent would be too crowded.
h. All players and coaches will need to sign a waiver stating they understand that they could become infected in the tournament despite best efforts and hold the tourney blameless.
3. The RAC will have additional people onsite to ensure bathrooms and common areas are disinfected frequently throughout the day.
If Salt Lake City is not in a yellow or green state by July 31, the tournament will be canceled, as insurance will not cover the event. If the city is in a yellow state, there will be a hybrid of USA Rugby Return-to-Play Guidelines, which could mean modified contact rules. TBD.
REFUNDS
The event is now placing deposits for referees, flights for referees, tents, etc., and so if the tournament is canceled, then refunds will be prorated based on covering tournament costs. The closer to July 31, the less the refund becomes.
Registration is now open until July 4, hard stop due to the amount of paperwork and player sanctioning needed. If a division is short (fewer than five teams) then a full refund will be issued to any team that wants to withdraw.
For more information, visit https://www.nai7s.com or its Facebook page @NAI7s.