2017 Rocky Mountain HS All-Star Challenge

HS Club Rankings Extra: Do Warriors Move Up?

HS Club Rankings Extra: Do Warriors Move Up?

Special extra rankings for HS Clubs to round out the 2017 spring season.

Jun 20, 2017 by Alex Goff
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We said we would possibly have another edition of the Boys High School Club rankings depending on what happened in the all-star tournaments, and this past weekend's results warranted some additional changes to the top 55.
 
Our philosophy in regard to clubs playing against all-stars is that it can only help the club, not hurt it. If you play against select sides and lose all your games by 50, you won't be penalized in the rankings. If you show up with not all of your players and just do OK, you don't get any credit for potential. Your team is your team. The West Valley Warriors left two football scholarship players behind to play in the Rocky Mountain Challenge, and they were going to be judged on their weekend performance only.
 
You can help yourself if you're good.
 
And one more thing before the explanation below... sometimes we look at everything all over again, and we find a team we should have rated highly all along. That happened this week.


Goff Rugby Report / FloRugby Boys HS Club Rankings 2017 Week #19
Rank Prev Team Notes
1 1 Royal Irish (IN) The West Valley Warriors beat four select sides over the weekend at the Rocky Mountain Challenge. They beat Eagle Impact Rugby Academy SoCal, Missouri, Wisconsin, and EIRA Midwest. In doing so, they outscored opponents 131-23 and extended a 56-game winning streak that spans four years.
 
If there's any better example of a club team making a statement against all-star teams, we can't think of one. While West Valley doesn't travel much, the Warriors did make the effort to go to Colorado, and it paid off.
 
So where do we put West Valley, which was ranked No. 7 last week. Well, the Warriors think they should be No. 1, and having seen the top-ranked teams play, we'd say West Valley can definitely compete at the highest level. But it's tough to say that the Warriors are better than Royal Irish. We also have to acknowledge that Fort Hunt is only a whisker below Royal Irish, and Danville could possibly be better than either of them.
 
It's a difficult call, but we're going with this: move West Valley up because of the RMC but not into the top three. Putting the Warriors at No. 4 seems right.
 
In addition, we're making no change to Okapi, which also played in an RCT and went 1-3. The Wanderers were competitive but not dominant. They stay where they are in the rankings.
 
The big beneficiary of all of this soul-searching is West Jordan. The Utah club jumped out at us as we went back on our Warriors research. West Valley proved that Utah rugby is really strong, and that's partly why Herriman, United, Genesis, Highland, Snow Canyon, Olympus, and East all are ranked somewhere. West Jordan slipped under the radar because it didn't go deep into the state playoffs and doesn't play much outside the Beehive State.
 
But West Jordan only lost by five to United in the state playoffs and only lost 37-22 to West Valley in the regular season. West Jordan even beat Olympus. So, our final move is to bump previously unranked West Jordan to No. 22.
2 2 Fort Hunt (VA)
3 3 Danville Oaks (CA)
4 7 West Valley Warriors (Utah)
5 4 Granite Bay (CA)
6 5 Doylestown (PA)
7 6 Woodlands (Texas)
8 8 Irvine Rhinos (CA)
9 9 Back Bay (CA)
10 10 CK McClatchy (CA)
11 11 Belmont Shore (CA)
12 12 Genesis (Utah)
13 13 Cy Fair (Texas)
14 14 San Diego Mustangs (CA)
15 15 United (Utah)
16 16 Coastal Dragons (CA)
17 17 Quins Colts (Texas)
18 18 Katy (Texas)
19 19 Chargers (WI)
20 20 Harpeth (TN)
21 21 Peninsula Green (CA)
22 Unr West Jordan (Utah)
23 22 Kansas City Jr. Blues (MO)
24 23 Union County (NC)
25 24 SFGG (CA)
26 25 Bayou Hurricanes (LA)
27 26 STA Florida
28 27 Okapi Wanderers (FL)
29 28 Prince William/Loudon (VA)
30 29 Media (PA)
31 30 Tacoma (WA)
32 31 Liberty (WA)
33 32 Santa Monica (CA)
34 33 Beaverton (OR)
35 34 South Bay (CA)
36 35 Maryland Exiles
37 36 Bethesda (MD)
38 37 Red Mountain (AZ)
39 38 Edina (MN)
40 39 Eagan (MN)
41 40 Little Rock (AR)
42 41 Elkhorn (WI)
43 42 SacPD PAL (CA)
44 43 Elsie Allen (CA)
45 44 Central Parkway (CA)
46 45 Chico Oaks (CA)
47 46 Ravenwood (TN)
48 47 Valley Rams (OR)
49 48 Raleigh Rattlesnakes (NC)
50 49 Charlotte Tigers (NC)
51 50 Millard (NE)
52 51 Allen (Texas)
53 53 Siouxland (NE)
54 54 Gretna (NE)
55 55 Ahwatukee (AZ)