At the National Development Summit in January, USA Rugby gave Salty Thompson an award for his service to American rugby.

The award is richly deserved. Thompson has been at the forefront of developing high-level rugby players at the high school level for close to 20 years, has produced Eagles, has made the High School All-Americans successful, and continues to work hard to keep those talented kids involved in the game.

But did the award also feel a little bit like a set of steak knives you give someone just as you kick him out the door?

You’re not alone. The sotto voce feedback from many who learned of the award and support Thompson kind of sensed a caveat to the whole thing.

“Here’s your award, and thanks for doing this basically on a volunteer basis, but piss off now.”

Asked about this directly, Thompson demurred and simply said, “It was a very nice honor, but I don’t think I am done working with kids.”

That’s the other thing. Those close to the High School All-American program and to Eagle Impact Rugby Academy say Thompson just loves doing what he’s doing.

But… USA Rugby has long been thinking about deemphasizing touring foe age-grade teams. 

USA Rugby HP Head Alex Magleby gets annoyed when I write this, but it has the ring of truth. When the USA U20s have failed to qualify for the Junior World Trophy, the coaches always say the team will do something else. It never does. 

The High School All-Americans played in a four-nation event about four years ago. It was wildly successful. All USA Rugby had to do was to sign off on another go, but it’s not been repeated. This year, the HSAA team is not expected to even go to Canada. And, in case you haven’t check, Canada is, like, right next door!

So you might not see so much of Thompson this year, as High School All-American head coach, anyway. The Regional Cup Tournaments — the high school all-star events — will be used as a scouting opportunity for the Winter Camp (how very meta). And Thompson, who also runs the Eagle Impact Rugby Academy and has assiduously avoided conflating the two, will concentrate on EIRA, which actually does tour.

Last year, EIRA toured Canada twice, won the Boys Elite 7s at the LVI, and toured Ireland. This year they will be just as active.

So maybe there’s a bootprint on the seat of his pants, but that doesn’t mean Thompson is done — and that's a good thing.