The Kansas City Junior Blues boys team is primed to get some welcome playing time outside, as well as reconnect with some familiar faces, at this weekend’s Lindenwood High School Tournament in St. Charles, Missouri.

The Blues have performed well at the competition before and in fact will have a couple of their alumni playing for Lindenwood in the Lions’ D1A game against Clemson on Saturday night after the high school games are finished. Notable among them is Sam Chapman, who had a breakout performance at the Lindenwood tourney two years ago and is now a critical part of the Lions’ efforts.

Both the Lindenwood High School Tournament and the Lindenwood vs. Clemson game are streaming LIVE on FloRugby.

Ahead of the tough, two-game tournament, the Blues took a useful trip to Texas and beat The Woodlands 19-17 and Cy Fair 19-5 on back-to-back days.

With the cold in the middle of the country, the Blues are struggling to find practice time outdoors, so playing actual games without walls around the field was a bonus.

"It's been hard to get outside," said Chris Lawler, who is part of the Junior Blues coaching staff. "It's tough to do tackling in the gym, and we've really only been able to get outside a handful of times. So the trip to Texas was good and we need a number of games before spring break. The Lindenwood Tournament is a pretty good barometer for us and shows us where we are."

Flyhalf Chandler Owens has been showing well for the Blues, and he has partnered nicely with Jack Williams at scrumhalf. Up front, the Blues traveled light to Texas due to standardized tests, but they return their front row from last year's national top four team and most of the pack overall.

Along with Owens, fullback Eric Angrisano and some others have been playing for the team for four years, but newcomers such as center Brady McCanles have also shown well.

With the Missouri Bears, Avon Swarm, Royal Irish, and St. Thomas Aquinas in the mix, the Blues will face a stiff challenge in the tournament’s varsity bracket.

"It's good to play teams we're not as familiar with as well as teams we know," Lawler said. "The key at the beginning is to try to develop depth and bring new players up to speed. It'll be interesting!"