West Coast Sevens: September 27—TOMORROW (round one)

Winter HS season NC and SoCal: December—10 weeks away

🏉 Bonnies in command

St. Bonaventure is rolling in D1.

They stretched their unbeaten streak with a close 32–29 win over Queens last weekend — a game that showed they can grind out results even when it’s tight. Now they welcome Kutztown, who landed at #8 in the Top 20 coaches poll (Bonnies are sitting pretty at #1).

You can bet Kutztown circled this matchup the second that poll dropped. It’s one thing to be top-ranked… it’s another to defend the throne when the hunters show up.

🏉Notre Dame has a stud at 8

Jack Waterhouse. He’s back from injury and he’s trampling people.
Just take a look at this montage ND posted (sorry Aggies fans).

The guy is gigantic—and he doesn’t mind putting the team on his back.

Plus, what a great name. Very easy to remember.

Notre Dame faces off against Michigan State tomorrow. Let’s see if Waterhouse continues his rumbling ways, or if Michigan can lock him down.

We’ll follow up next week to recap Round One. In the meantime, here’s a snapshot of who’s competing and when👇

🧢Wanna catch the bad guys?

Ok that’s a little dramatic. Here’s the deal:

David Pelton is looking to get more rugby Citing Commissioners signed up in the USA.

What’s that, you ask? It’s the person who reviews games and catches bad behavior that the referee missed in real time.

It’s an important part of keeping our game free of nefarious behavior (think biting, punching, cheap-shots) and World Rugby needs more individuals to step up and join the ranks.

Here’s a nice interview by The National Maul that gives a little more context on what a citing commissioner does.

If you are interested in becoming a citing commissioner, then go here.

The 2026 high school rugby calendar is shaping up to be legit. Big tournaments are locked in, teams are upping their travel schedules, and more games will actually be on screen for the rest of us to watch. A few highlights:

👊 Friendship Cup (March)
Outside of Nationals, this might be the most competitive tournament on the calendar—especially at the club level. It’s going down in Nashville this time, and some of the biggest names in club rugby are making the trip.

👊 Gonzaga Classic (March)
Always a banger. Head Coach Peter Baggetta has a knack for finding international teams: a South African side one year, Father Duenas from Guam the next. Who shows up in 2026? Stay tuned.

👊 Best of the West
The first edition of this Utah tourney showed promise (though tough timing, a week before Nationals). Round two should be even better in 2026.

✈️ Travel games heating up
Charlotte Catholic (NC) vs Cathedral Catholic (CA) in January is an early-year headline clash. Word is St. Joe’s (PA) is heading to SoCal to face Cathedral too.
And Doylestown—Pennsylvania’s reigning state champs—will trek down to Charlotte to face the Cardinals.
This just in: Okapi (FL) will travel up to Nashville for the Friendship Cup.

🎥 Streaming going mainstream?
More games will be filmed and live-streamed in 2026. We know the Catholic showdown will be streamed, Friendship Cup is a lock, Gonzaga is in the works, and we’re pushing for more regular-season matches to be streamed on YouTube.
Ok, maybe it’s not going mainstream—but there will definitely be more games streamed live than last year. That’s a good thing.

I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while.

I hear this a lot:

“Psh, Nationals isn’t really a national tournament. It’s just an invite-only tournament that’s run by an old boys club.”

And guess what—you’re not wrong. But there’s nuance.

I’ll be the first one to say “yeah, we don’t really have a true national tournament format.” Cause we don’t.

I was pretty skeptical when I jumped in my car to drive eight hours to Elkhart this spring. Grabbed a bag of trail mix, checked the oil, put The Pogues on shuffle. And somewhere on I-80 I had a thought: Should I write about this as just another tournament, or treat it like the Nationals the organizers intend it to be?

After three days in Elkhart, I decided on the latter. Here’s why.

Given the current landscape, it’s the closest thing we have to a national tournament… for now.

The USA rugby scene is fragmented. Not broken, just undeveloped.

Different season schedules, few regular facilities, rugby calendars that don’t match academic calendars, limited travel resources—you name it. In a perfect world, state champs would play for regional champs, and East and West would collide in a true final. But friends, we’re not ready for that yet.

California finishes its season in March. Connecticut starts in March. Wisconsin doesn’t start until April. Massachusetts ends in June. North Carolina wrapped in February. You get the picture. Until we clean up the calendar chaos, a real bracketed Nationals isn’t possible.

Could varsity status help, like USAYHS is pushing for? Maybe. It would fix some scheduling, though it comes with plenty of red tape.

So, back to Elkhart.

It’s a well-run tournament. Great officiating. Live coverage on The Rugby Network. Smooth operations and, yeah, maybe a little too much talk about how nice the grass is.

Do I think it’s a real national tournament? Not quite.
Do I always agree with the selections? Nope.
But it is the closest thing we’ve got today.

What it misses, as an invite-only, is the magic of a team getting hot and making a run. That’s the pure drama you only get in an open bracket.

Elkhart is more of a competitive microwave—where your skill, depth, and stamina are tested over three grueling days. And make no mistake: the rugby is high quality. You’re watching some of the best programs in the country, clashing back-to-back under real pressure.

“All systems are flawed, but some are useful.”

And this one is very useful: it creates aspiration. Winning in Elkhart means something. It gives players a stage to chase.

Nationals isn’t a true national bracket — it’s a very well-run invitational. But it’s also the one stage we have right now where a national title is even up for grabs. Until the sport matures enough to build a bracket that includes everyone, this tournament holds that space. For now, it’s carrying the load until something better comes along.

And kudos to the “old boys club.” Without their efforts, we’d have zero national championships.

Agree? Disagree? Drop me a line.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Across the pond, Spencer Huntley (formerly with SD Mustangs) is rocking out with Hartpury University in England. Check out some highlights the team shared on Insta👇