The official summer sevens season comes to a close this month with the USA National Sevens competition taking place on August 14-15 in San Francisco California.

The tournament – which started in 1985 – features the top 16 club sevens teams in America who gain entry through various qualifiers in their region.

Some areas have the luxury of playing several qualifying tournaments in which points are awarded for standings, and thus teams have plenty of opportunity to improve as the season goes on. In other regions a team may win one qualifier and this gives them entry to Nationals. Those situations are slightly more difficult, lacking quality opposition in the social tournaments that follow.

The eligibility rules have also seen some changes in recent years and will probably be looked at again after the 2010 edition.

This past weekend concluded all the qualifying rounds, and we now have the pools set.

Pool A
Belmont Shore (So Cal #1)
Humless of Provo (Pacific #2)
NOVA (Mid-Atlantic #1)
Dallas Harlequins (West #2)

Pool A starts with defending champions Belmont Shore (called Blues to differentiate between their second side) from Southern California.

They will be led by USA Eagle Matt Hawkins and include several present and past international sevens players. This pool is perhaps the toughest of the tournament and sees Humless of Provo and NOVA in action.

Humless will have 2008 National MVP and Eagle veteran Mike Palefau as well as the experienced Jason Pye directing proceedings. Some very talented youngsters are in this side, and they could be one of the surprises of the event.

The NOVA side has also picked up some excellent players including USA 7s star Thretton Palamo, and have plenty of stalwarts to pose some serious threats. The slippery PJ Komongnan will be one of their key playmakers. Palamo is fresh from being the MVP at the Collegiate 7s tournament, which was aired on NBC, and could prove decisive for his new club. Interestingly enough, the host team San Francisco Golden Gate (SFFG), will not be taking part this year with amongst others, the loss of all three Palamo brothers.

Rounding out the pool are the Dallas Harlequins, who have had a very impressive run this season. They will be an unknown quantity and can certainly compete, having run the Denver Barbarians close during one of the qualifiers. Look out for youngster Curtis Chaffin.

Pool B
Life (South #2)
Boston (Northeast #2)
Chicago Griffins (Midwest #2)
Denver Barbarians (West #1)

Boston has played NYAC in four finals this summer and has lost out to the New Yorkers on each occasion. But anything can happen in sevens - will they have enough firepower to reach the top eight? They will be led by Duran Vota and will rely on the experience of David DelCourt and Derrick Wavomba.

The Chicago Griffins could fall in the same bracket as Boston, unless the experienced Eagle Andrew Suniula and Brendan Brown can make an impact.
Life has a great chance to make the quarters with the creative Tui Osborne leading the charge. Their captain Ben Jones coaches Life and he is determined to take his side all the way.

Denver should be favourites in this pool playing a solid sevens pattern all summer. They are lead by Eagles Mark Bokhoven and Nic Johnson together with Ben Haapapuro.

Pool C
Chicago Lions (Midwest #1)
Mystic River (Northeast #3)
Belmont Shore II (So Cal #2)
Atlanta Old White (South #1)

Aaron Manheimer has worked his magic this season by attracting Collegiate sevens sensation Rocco Mauer to the Chicago Lions. The Lions surprised Aspen during the CCI 7s tournament in February with a comeback win in the semi finals. They will be hungry for the National title and with a never-say-die attitude should be one of the favourites this year. Consistent stars to watch are Jeremy Nash, Scott Peterson and Matt DeGutes, with of course speedster Mauer.

Mystic River come into Pool C (surprisingly no sign of Old Blue this year?) and will have plenty to prove. The team is led by attacking threat Dimitri Efthimiou and should be well supported by USA u19 players Chris Tofte and Evan O’Driscoll.

Atlanta Old White traditionally has plenty of firepower, including some serious side-steppers. They have beaten Life this year already, and will need to be consistent to get out of their pool.

The Belmont Shore second side (Belmont White) finishes off the pool and will see some younger talent developed over the weekend. They are hoping for a top 8 finish, but it will be tough going for the Californians. Also missing from the tournament is OMBAC – who traditionally have one of the top sevens programs in the country. They lost out to Belmont during qualification.

Pool D
Old Puget Sound Beach (Pacific #1)
Charlotte (Mid-Atlantic #2)
Aspen (West #3)
NYAC (Northeast #1)

NYAC have been very consistent this summer, and almost featured two teams at Nationals this year. Their squad is well rounded, and it will be interesting to see how far they will end up. The club has dominated the 15s arena in recent years and would love to follow that up with an excellent 7s showing. Try scoring machine Miles Craigwell will be a player to watch as well as Eagle Justin Hundley.

Charlotte come into this tournament having almost beaten NOVA during qualifiers, and have exciting Samoan 7s international Morgan Salesa on the team sheet. They should be very dangerous.

The Aspen side will be limited this year without key playmakers Palefau and Pye, and find themselves in a tough pool to make the final 8. Highly regarded coach Andy Katoa will have a well-drilled side, and look to develop some potential stars for the future. They have the experienced Merritt Johnson as well as Eagle Leonard Peters.

Old Puget Sound Beach (OPSB) are captained by Nolan Allen and came off an impressive victory over Humless of Provo at the final of the Pacific 7s Championship. They have pure quality finishers in Fili Botitu, Isi Daveta and Shane Moore. This pool is also going to go down to some nail-biting finishes.

The event will be a superb opportunity for USA 7s coach Al Caravelli to identify future talent, and UR7s will be on hand to interview the hard working sevens man.

The USA National 7s competition will take place in San Francisco on Treasure Island during August 14 & 15.

UR7s.com columnist Dallen Stanford played 7s for the USA from 2006-2009. He is now an ambassador for the Tackling Cancer Foundation. He will be representing Belmont Shore at Nationals this year, looking to defend their 2009 title.