Richmond's Tomasi Vataiki and Harjun Gill are among 37 players named to the B.C. Elite Youth Sevens rugby program that will be participating in next month's Las Vegas Invitational Sevens.
The players will soon be divided into three teams to compete in one of North America's largest youth rugby tournaments. British Columbia-1 (BC-1) and BC-2 have been entered into the 'International High School Elite 7s' competition while the third and younger BC-3 squad will compete in the 'High School Boys 7s' division.
Gill is a product of the Richmond Rugby Club and also plays at the high school level for St.
Georges. Vataiki is a key member of the rugby program at McRoberts secondary and plays at the club level for Bayside RFC.
They are among a strong group of Grade 11 athletes who helped Team B.C. win gold at the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games and also have the attention of national team selectors.
BC-1 and BC-2 will be tested against state sides from Washington, Utah and Colorado as well as representative sides from Ontario and Canadian Prairies regional selects Dog River Howlers. Also entered in the competition are two national development sides known as the All-Americans 1 and All Americans 2.
"We spend most of the year holding ID camps and trials to get the top athletes together for this tournament," said B.C. head coach Shane Thompson after announcing his traveling roster. "The Vegas event is quickly growing into the largest youth tournament and we are able to field teams at a feasible cost. As a provincial program we need tournaments like these which serve as great measuring sticks for us to see where we are in comparison to other national and regional programs."
As a result of rugby sevens being included into the 2016 Olympic Games, the B.C. Elite Youth Sevens program was designed by the British Columbia Rugby Union to identify, train and develop athletes for representative competition.
