☀️West Coast Sevens Round 1:
Saturday, Sept 26
Dignity Health Sports Park, Los Angeles
🎥 Watch the action

A brief look at some of the sevens action happening across the country.
Send us a recap of your sevens exploits to be included next week.

Pennsylvania Fall Sevens | La Salle Event

Doylestown, Berks County, La Salle, and Elizabethtown each hold a 4-0 record after the first weekend of PA Fall Sevens.
Next up is a stop at Kutztown this Sunday, Sept 27. Will we see one of these squads separate from the pack? The road to the sevens state final is just getting started.

Side Note: In a recent conversation with Alex Goff, I asked if there were any places where he particularly likes the way they run their sevens season. The first state he name-dropped was Pennsylvania. That’s because there’s a coherent tournament-style season that leads to a state final. “It’s just easy to understand and follow,” said Goff.

Ohio Sevens | South Tournament

Reigning champs St. Ignatius gutted out a 7-5 win over rival St. Edward. A last-second chip-and-chase by Ignatius was the clincher in a tight contest between the two Cleveland squads. St. Ed’s went 3-1 on the weekend, with only that one loss, while St. Ignatius found success across all their sides.

The St. Xavier Bombers meanwhile went 2-0-1 in their first sevens action of the fall. That draw was an exciting 12-12 clash with Moeller, which included the Bombers scoring a try while down a man due to a yellow card. Not too shabby.

Utah Sevens

Cavemen and Herriman sit #1 and #2 in Utah sevens after two weeks of action. The Cavemen went 3-0 in last week’s festivities and scored 78 combined points. Herriman dropped games to Mountain Ridge and North Side Red Wolves, but did defeat War Frog/Olympus in a close 24-17 battle.
There must be more to the story, because at first glance the Red Wolves might have a legitimate claim to the #2 spot over Herriman. Maybe Herriman started pretty hot in week one.

We’ll follow up on that.

New Jersey Sevens

New Jersey got rolling with their sevens tournament series this past weekend too. It’s maddeningly difficult to find scores, but here’s some sweet photos featuring St. Augustine Prep:

🎙️Stacked

Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
West Coast Sevens has a killer lineup of live-commentary talent for their broadcast this weekend:

Will Hooley, Dallen Stanford, Jeremy Ognall, Alex Corbisiero, Caleb Tomasin, and last year’s WC7s MVP and MLR #2 Draftee— Solomon Williams.

Rugby commentary truly does not get better than this in the USA.

I’m especially interested in hearing Solomon Williams on the mic next to all those studs. No pressure kid.

A collection of Hype songs from Player Profiles

Rugby Riot pick: It’s gotta be Iron Man. Lots of old souls this week.

You’ve probably heard of West Coast Sevens—or at least seen some highlights and promos leading up to this weekend. But what is WC7s all about, and what are they trying to build?

We caught up with the man behind the curtain, Warren Spieker, to find out:

Rugby Riot: What is West Coast Sevens and where did it begin?

Warren: West Coast Sevens has actually been around since about 2012 or 2013, and was originally started by Andy Doukas, and he’s still heavily involved today. When it was announced that rugby sevens would be included in the Olympics, he started West Coast Sevens to give college rugby players an opportunity to compete at a high level and hopefully be identified and called up to professional teams and the USA National Teams. That’s where this started, over a decade ago.

Along the way, there have been several West Coast Sevens players who have gone on to play for the National Team for both Sevens and 15s; Lucas Lacamp, Ben Broselle, and most recently Rand Santos. And those are just the most recent examples. We take a lot of pride in that—seeing former West Coast Sevens players go on to play at that level.

Rugby Riot: How have things evolved since the birth of West Coast Sevens?

Warren: Well, it’s expanded since the early days to now include high school boys, high school girls, and college women as well. The idea with the high school players is that they’ll be able to see this path to playing college rugby, and hopefully professional/international rugby, and be exposed to that by being in close proximity to these college athletes competing at the same event as them. They’re playing right alongside each other, and the college coaches also get to see the talented high school players who might be a fit on their team as well.

Rugby Riot: With the Olympics coming up in 2028, are there any specific goals you have with West Coast Sevens as far as participation or growth?

Warren: I’d say that our goal is to grow, but also with a limit. I don’t envision us hosting 100 teams or anything like that. We’re really focused on an elite level of play. We want to have the best teams competing here. I’d love to see a Life University play someone like a St. Bonaventure, or Indiana, or Cal. I’d like to see all those folks playing together at the highest level. Because iron sharpens iron, and that will strengthen our national team.

Rugby Riot: Let’s imagine it’s 2030 — right between the Olympics and the Rugby World Cup. What would you be really proud of at that point regarding West Coast Sevens? If you could look around at the rugby landscape in 2030 and say “We helped contribute to ‘X’”, what would that be?

Warren: In 2030, if CRAA and NCR collegiate teams are playing against each other in a national championship, that’s success right there. That’s our nirvana.

West Coast Sevens kicks off tomorrow, Saturday, September 26.

If you want to watch all the action, go to their YouTube page.

To see which teams are competing in the first leg of the series, check out the West Coast Sevens Instagram post:

Oddball musings, thanks to the cold tub.

🏉 These Guardian Helmets are getting out of control in the NFL. Pretty soon they’ll be wearing those big inflatable bumper-ball outfits.

🏉 If I bring Rugby Riot temporary tattoos to tournaments, I think I could get at least 3 people to use them, not including myself. Branding on a budget, like a boss.

🏉 Which Carmichael Hawks player is going to give us a Quote of the Week at West Coast Sevens this weekend? My money is on Noah Gomez.