Jumping into this week's single-school top 50 rankings is Eagle Mountain-Boswell, a relatively new program in North Texas.

The team started, actually, as a youth program in middle school before its players worked their way up to compete for Fort Worth Boswell High School. The Eagle Mountain school district, which as a whole has been very supported of the sport and is working on a plan to integrate rugby into all of its schools.

Full HS Single-School Rankings

"Our short-term goals will be to have rugby treated just like powerlifting and gymnastics, where programs are funded and administered by the school, but the sports are not part of UIL, which regulates most other sports in Texas," head coach Mickey Patterson said.

Patterson hopes to grow the game in the district, which is north of Fort Worth and have single-school teams in the other Eagle Mountain high schools. Then those players can combine as Eagle Mountain for select-side purposes.

Last year, Eagle Mountain-Boswell started playing 15s for the first time and won the Texas D2 state title, beating Timber Creek 45-5 in the final.

This year, the team has moved up to D1 and has already defeated a very strong Dallas Jesuit team, prompting Eagle Mountain to jump into the single-school top 50 rankings at No. 23. 

The school is also sending a sevens team to the Las Vegas Invitational in early March.

"We have access to our football stadium to include stadium lights at no costs for rugby events," said Patterson, pointing to a huge issue for many school rugby teams. "And in the event of inclement weather we are also given access to the indoor training facility so that we can still practice."

It is very unusual for a high school football program in Texas to cooperate with a rugby team that way, and it's been a big help in the development of Eagle Mountain's standout players.

Dutch Patterson played with the Atlantis U17s at the NAI 7s. Jason Tidwell also played with Atlantis at the NAI 7s and will be playing on Atlantis U18 Elite side in Vegas. Jesse Emerson and Will Humphreys are crossover athletes who are planning to go to Midwestern State University in Texas to play football and rugby.  

Atlantis U17 Elite vs. Rock Rugby Academy:

Playing sevens rugby has helped make Eagle Mountain fit, and that showed this past weekend. Jesuit was more fundamentally sound in the forwards and at one point led 36-14. However, the last 30 minutes was all Eagle Mountain, as the team scored 31 unanswered points to win 45-36.

"It will be a long season and I am sure we are going to have some good and bad, but we were at least happy to see we can compete with the D1 teams," Patterson said.