CHAPEL HILL -- Most coaches would envy Robert Joseph. Not many get to start their seasons with national team players on their roster.

The Highlanders Rugby Club of Chapel Hill has not one but two members of the United States U17 National Team on their side as they ready to defend their second straight state championship for high schools.

And the Highlanders have even loftier goals. They already expect to represent North Carolina in the USA South Region championships in April, and hope to advance to the U.S. Nationals after that.

"That's our goal," coach Robert Joseph said. "We think we've gotten to the point where we can compete at that level."

Asher Thomas and Jonathan Marshall, chosen for the national U17 squad at a selection camp in late December, top the roster of almost 50 Highlanders, the largest group with which Joseph has started preseason practices.

"It's the biggest we've ever had," Joseph said. "And it's a young group. We have 15 sophomore and 20 juniors."

Thomas, a 6-feet-8 second-row player (roughly equivalent to a lineman in football), is a junior, and Marshall is sophomore center back, likely to play wing for the U.S. team.

Their selection to the U17 team that win tour internationally this year, as well as Matt Daniels' invitation to try out for the U.S. U18 squad, immensely pleased Joseph.

"We think it validates the program," he said. "I think it reinforces that we're teaching the right things.

Thomas, Marshall and Daniels, along with Highlanders Aaron Rogoff, Drew Zabor, Graham Joseph, Jim Morrison, Colm O'Reilly and Kieran Kepler, competed with the N.C. all-stars who won the Baltimore Challenge Cup in June. That sort of all-star play, more than prep varsity championships, is where players get noticed. And that's exactly where Highlanders caught the eye of national coach Sean O'Leary.

"He said Asher was the most improved player of anyone at the Christmas (selection) camp," Joseph noted. "Asher hired a personal trainer between summer camps and Christmas, and he put a tremendous amount of work and determined effort into it to get ready."

Marshall has been a phenom among younger players since the day he picked up a rugby ball.

"He started with the (Highlander) U15 team last year. We had to keep taking him out because he kept scoring so easily," Joseph said.

Moved up to the Highlanders' 'A' side during his freshman year, Marshall scored a try from a midfield run in their 10-0 victory over the Union County Lions in the state championship match.

The Highlanders (9-1 last year) begin their 2008 season with a home match Feb. 16 against West Mecklenburg. The site is still to be determined, because the club has been unable to reach an agreement with any local school to use their field for games.

"Playing home games in Raleigh is not out of the question for now," Joseph said.