Friday sees the High School part of the CRC Weekend kick off with the boys HSRC on the fields of Neumann University in Aston Township, Pa.

Thirty boys teams will play in two separate competitions, one for single-school teams, and one for multi-school clubs. The teams will play their pool play at Neumann University in Aston Township, Pa., and then on Saturday shift to the new satellite fields around PPL Park in Chester, Pa. On Sunday, the Cup Final for the two brackets are expected to be played in the PPL Park Stadium (we say “expected” because the CRC website says it will happen, but their 2015 full schedule on the same site seems to have the single-school final on one of the outside fields - but they also have the girls final listed twice).

Some of the pool games will also be played in the main stadium.

Regardless of the annual CRC confusion, the HSRC has become a robust competition of teams, as high school teams increase their enthusiasm for 7s.

Here’s a look at the pools, and the teams we think you should watch out for any why (links on some team names will take you to more background on that team):

Single-School A

LaSalle

Unionville

Pride

Roman Catholic

Single-School B

Malvern Prep

Archmere

Downingtown

St. Augustine

Single-School C

Salesianum

Burrell

Bishop Shanahan

Single-School D

Greenwich

Stony Point

St. Joe’s Prep

Each team from Pool C will play one opponent in Pool D to make sure the Pool C and D teams have three pool matches.

The Perry Street Pride has an excellent history in 7s, and should be the most athletic and dynamic team in Pool A. Unionville will be a physical presence.

In Pool B, Archmere has probably played more 7s than any other team in that group. All four are strong squads - St. Augustine is the #2 single-school team in New Jersey, for example. But while Archmere plays its share of 15s games, they are state champions in 7s and play it all spring. 

In Pool C, Salesianum is sort of in the same situation as Archmere. It was the Archmere Auks who upended Salesianum in the state 7s final, but they’ve been playing it, and should be better than Burrell or Shanahan in exploiting the extra space.

In Pool D, Greenwich should roll. They have outstanding athletes, and are highly motivated to make a national splash.

Club A

Doylestown 

Kiski Valley

Rocky Mountain

North Philly

Club B

Lions 1

Glendale

NJ Blaze

Maryland Exiles

Club C

Lions 2

Narberth

West Shore

Club D

Media

North Penn

Berkshire

Same deal here - Pool C and D are only three teams deep, so they play one crossover game to finish out their pool games.

It’s not always a correlation that a team that is successful at 15s will be at 7s, but it’s hard to imagine that Doylestown won’t be good. They are the best club team in Pennsylvania (unless you say West Shore is), and should be good. Rocky Mountain will have some ability.

The Utah Lions are an excellent program, and showed in Las Vegas that they can play. They won this tournament last year and are primed to win it again … except some strange machiavellian shenanigans put them in a pool with some of the other major contenders. The Maryland Exiles are state champions and an exciting team. The New Jersey Blaze is a program that specializes in 7s and is heavily influenced by NIT Tier II champs Union County. Glendale is a travel squad from Colorado that played in the elite bracket in Las Vegas. How these four teams were put in the same pool is a mystery upon mysteries.

In Pool C, West Shore is the top 15s program in that pool and won the RugbyPa 7s title, too, so they should be fine, but Lions 2 will cause them problems. Certainly Pool C is more competitive than Pool D, where we’re not sure who will emerge. No pool is as daunting as Pool B.

Who gets to the final? Pride v Greenwich in the single-school final, and Utah Lions v somebody - West Shore, Doylestown, or NJ Blaze - in the club final. West Shore lost in the semis to the eventual champion last year, and the year before, so they are highly motivated. We’ll go with West Shore v Lions then in the club final.