Personally I have daughters that play, and it’s sad we can’t have a State Championship, but I think it would be awesome to have one on the boys side regardless. There is no envy here, if they can have one, like other sports do, CIF should set that up. Maybe that would trigger their thinking caps, on how the girls side could have a State Championship also.
Look at 2 year colleges, they are in the middle of both men and women State Championships this weekend
I don’t have any information to back this thought, but it might be pool heating costs. There are a large number of small CIF High Schools in Northern California that aren’t in the Bay Area. Last winter I was visiting my in-laws ranch in the Sierra foothills and thought it might be good to get some pool time for my kid. The pool had shut down temporarily due to running out of propane, but they do have both boys and girls water polo.
On that note, congratulations to the Bret Harte Bullfrogs boys for making it to the Division 3 quarter finals, and the girls for also making the Division 3 playoffs.
Agreed both boys and girls would love to have a true state championship, if you ask the players I doubt any of them would want to deprive the boys/girls teams a state championships experience because they can’t have one. At the same time, would we be talking about the lack of girls state championships if the boys had one? Perhaps getting all water polo fans and not just girls water polo fans to push for change is the only way we could make it happen.
I would expect more girls would play water polo in the Fall when the weather is warmer and you can pull in some girls who are playing the popular ball sports in the US (soccer/basketball). Providing a state championship experience while growing participation would be great for the sport.
Curious why Norcal can make boys/girls seasons work in the fall while that’s a no-go in Socal. The clubs teams in socal are already playing year around taking up precious pool space and officials, is it that much more of a burden during the HS season?
CIF Regional SOCal Boys Predictions:
D1
Newport 10 vs Cathedral 7
Third meeting of the two teams. Newport with wins of 12-6 and 12-8. Cathedral played Newport tough early in both games.
Oaks Christian 10 vs JSerra 9
7th time is a charm for Oaks after losing the 6 prior match-ups this season, with a number of the games being 1 point spreads.
D2
Mira Costa 11 vs Brea Olinda 7
Going with MC based on performance against a few common opponents and MC’s desire to avenge a 4 OT loss in the SS Finals.
Carlsbad 9 vs Santana 7
Just going with the higher seed here.
D3
S. Pasadena 10 vs Palisades 5
SP will control this one.
San Pasqual 11 vs Cleveland 10
i think this will be an evenly matched game with SP winning a close one at the end.
SoCal Boys’ Division 1 semifinals:
Newport 14, Cathedral Catholic 10
JSerra 10, Oaks Christian 9. JSerra will give Newport a great game in the finals.
SoCal Boys’ Division 3 semifinals:
South Pasadena 10, Palisades 5
Cleveland 12, San Pascual 9
NorCal Boys’ Division 1 semifinals:
SHP 12, Miramonte 11
DLS 14, Campolindo 8
NorCal Boys’ Division 2 semifinals:
Clovis 10, Redwood 9
Menlo 11, Rocklin 10
NorCal Boys’ Division 3 semifinals:
Ripon 11, Valley Christian 10
Los Altos 8, Merced 6
NorCal Girls’ Division 1 semifinals:
Carondelet 10, Arroyo Grande 5
SHP 9, Miramonte 4
NorCal Girls’ Division 2 semifinals:
San Ramon Valley 8, Davis 7
Stevenson 13, Leland 11
NorCal Girls’ Division 3 semifinals:
Morro Bay 11, El Capitan 8
Aptos 8, Rio Americano 6
SoCal Boys’ Division 2 semifinals:
Mira Costa 13, Brea Olinda 6
Carlsbad 12, Santana 9
Cathedral may actually give Newport some games next year. They are very young.
+++deleted+++ (didn’t see Jeff updated DLS/Campo score)
Cathedral Catholic has a top 4 team this year and is likely to have a top 2 or 3 team next year.
Did Marcin play for SHP in Norcal D1 Semi?
Yes, center Oliver Marcin (2026) played for SHP (assuming 6-8 Sports got it right). SHP beat Miramonte by one goal. I doubt SHP would have won the game without Marcin. He scored 3 goals on 5 shots and drew 7 exclusions. There isn’t a NorCal player-of-the-year award but, if there was one, he’d have my vote.
Game Changer there. The DLS SHP matchup should be a great game. We’ll see who shows up for the last game of the season.
Championship game scores:
NorCal Girls’ Division 3
Aptos 9, Morro Bay 7
NorCal Girls’ Division 2
San Ramon Valley 12, Stevenson 10
NorCal Girls’ Division 1
SHP 11, Carondelet 4
NorCal Boys’ Division 3
Ripon 16, Los Altos 10
NorCal Boys’ Division 2
Menlo 12, Clovis 6
NorCal Boys’ Division 1
SHP 9, DLS 7
SoCal Boys’ Division 1
JSerra 6, Newport 5 at the half
JSerra 9, Newport 5 after 3 quarters
JSerra 11, Newport 9 (Connor Colman scored 6 goals)
SoCal Boys’ Division 2
Mira Costa 12, Carlsbad 9
SoCal Boys’ Division 3
South Pasadena 12, Cleveland 6
Does anyone know if Newport was playing starters the whole game against JSerra? They were yet to lose this year but I have heard some teams place less importance on the regional tournaments.
Yes, Newport played a tight rotation just like the CIFSS Open Championship. However, the difference was Newport went 1-9 on man up opportunities while JSerra went 5-6 on man up. Newport scored their last two goals going 7-on-6. They wanted to win.
That seems exceptionally stupid to me. Water Polo has been a Fall sport in So Cal since 1912. The Girl’s program didn’t even start until 1998. They are the one who needed to find a place to slot in. Winter was the only place that worked in So Cal due to limited pool space and officials.
Nor Cal has far fewer programs so pool time and officials are less of a problem.
The Regional Championship is anti-climatic after the Open Championship. The Open winner doesn’t not try, but they have less intensity after having won the Open Division.
The CIF SS doesn’t even include the Regional Championship in the CIF SS Record Book. That is how seriously it is taken.
Yes in CIFSS they might be anticlimactic in some ways, but in NorCal these regionals are a big deal for girls and boys. I’ve listened to people complain for 6 years about this, but it’s aligned with other sports in CA and the kids enjoy having extra games at a high level.
If you ask the players and coaches at this point, everyone likes having the CIF regionals. Hopefully someday it leads to a state championship that people will complain about because CIFSS teams would win too easily.
In NorCal, there are several competitive sections and the champion can come from any of those sections. Hence some excitement . In SoCal, it is mostly CIF SS teams playing each other again, which could be anticlimictic.
Yes, I think that the tournament is much more competitive in Northern California.
In Southern California, has any team ever won the top division that was not a part of CIF-SS?
I am more familiar with the girls side, but I do not remember any of the CIF-SD teams ever giving any of the CIF-SS teams much of a challenge in the Finals. The Bishop’s girls had a good team a few years ago and were supposedly going all out for the Regionals, but got thumped in the Finals by Laguna 20-10 or so.
With Cathedral Catholic losing no seniors from 2024, I believe the SoCal regional will hold a little more weight in 2025.