2024 Futures League Super Finals

Club - Boys
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Here are the results from last weekend’s Division 1 girls’ 16u and 18u Futures League Super Finals:

16u

  1. SOCAL
  2. SD Shores
  3. Diablo
  4. Lamo
  5. Clovis
  6. Stanford
  7. SB 805
  8. Legacy

18u

  1. SET. Ethan Damato was the coach. Chrissy Flynn, a rising sophomore at Leland High School in San Jose and the sister of Jenna and Nina Flynn, played for SET.
  2. Lamo
  3. Regency. This was Regency’s top 16u team. If this team plays in the 16u division at the JOs, they will be the heavy favorites. Watch out for Matter Dei in the spring.
  4. Newport
  5. Legacy
  6. SOCAL
  7. Stanford
  8. SD Shores
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Here is the link for the boys this weekend

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=6F253EF3AFCFE1C8!63004&authkey=!ABExN3kyWEttnaU

Link for girls results

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=6F253EF3AFCFE1C8!63003&authkey=!ABum-vcT4S3dQvg

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With another opportunity to be dead wrong in public, here are my predictions for this weekend’s boys’ 18u Super Finals. Fourteen of the top players will miss the Super Finals because they are representing the United States in the Youth World Championships. Nevertheless, the Super Finals should be a great tournament.

Boys’ 18u

  1. Newport Beach. This pick assumes that Ross Sinclair plays Newport’s top 16u players in the 18u division. Newport is missing Luke Harris (goalie, Newport Harbor Class of 2025, USC), Connor Ohl (Newport Harbor Class of 2026, one of the top 2 or 3 players in the Class of 2026), and Gavin Appeldorn (2MD, Newport Harbor Class of 2024, Princeton). Sinclair has Newport Harbor and Newport Beach running on all cylinders. Newport Beach is led by, among others, Peter Castillo (center, junior national team, one of the top 2 players in the Class of 2024).

  2. Stanford. A solid team comprised mostly of Class of 2024 players who will play in college. Lachlan Rossi (center, Harker Class of 2024, UCSD) is one of the most underrated players in the tournament. At least two of the “Big 4” schools will regret not recruiting him. Cormac Mulloy (Menlo Class of 2024, will play for Stanford in 2025 after taking a gap year) is a very good goalie.

  3. SOCAL. A talented team with a chance to win the tournament. Cole Francisco (Los Alamitos Class of 2024, U.C. Irvine) chose not to play in the Youth World Championships to focus on SOCAL and U.C. Irvine. If I’m reading the schedule correctly, SOCAL and Newport are likely to play in the semifinals.

  4. Vanguard Blue. The top seed. I probably would have picked Vanguard Blue to finish second but their starting goalie, Nehemiah Pavoggi (Oaks Christain Class of 2024, USC), is expected to miss the tournament with an injury and Nathan Banos (Mater Dei Class of 2024, Princeton) is representing the United States in the Youth World Championships.

Notes on some of the other top teams.

Mission. Just how good was JSerra’s 2024 high school team? Mission will have two of the top three seeded boys’ 18u teams in the Junior Olympics. One team will be comprised of returning JSerra high school players and one team will be comprised of JSerra Class of 2024 players and one non-JSerra player. Five JSerra players won’t play in the Super Finals because they are representing the United States in the Youth World Championships: Maddox Arlett (2MD, Class of 2024, Cal), Colt Bradley (center, Class of 2025, USC), Tyler Anderson (LH center, Class of 2026), Bode Brinkema (Class of 2024, USC), and Taylor Bell (Class of 2025). Goalie Jonas Ransford (Class of 2026) started for the United States in the just-completed 16u World Championships until he was injured in the first half of the game against Spain. Ryder Dodd (Class of 2024, UCLA) is on the Olympic team and Will Schneider (center, Class of 2024, Stanford) is on the Junior National Team. Dodd and Schneider are not playing for Mission in the Super Finals. Tas Palcza (Class of 2024, Princeton) will play for Mission. James Mulvey (LH attacker, Newport Harbor Class of 2025) played for JSerra during the 2024 high school season but has since transferred to Newport Harbor and will play for Newport Beach in the Super Finals.

CC United. CCU is missing two of its top players: Haakon Lacy (goalie, Archie Williams Class of 2024, UCSB) and Ben Forer (Northgate Class of 2024, Stanford). Lacy and Forer are representing the United States in the Youth World Championships. Forer, an outstanding shooter, was one of the top players in the Class of 2024.

Atherton. Atherton is the Sacred Heart Prep team and includes Class of 2024 players. Atherton is well coached by SHP’s Brian Kreutzkamp. Center Oliver Marcin is one of the top players in the Class of 2026 and is a likely “Big 4” recruit.

The 680 team is coached by Cal’s Kirk Everist. They have several future “Big 4” players and could finish in the top 4.

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So much for my prediction that Stanford would make the final four. Yesterday, Stanford lost to LA Premier 13-12 and 680 13-10. 680 beat LA Premier 15-12 to finish first in a tough group of three.

I should have mentioned LA Premier in my initial write-up. LA Premier is Harvard-Westlake’s club team and is very well coached by Jack Grover. Since the end of the 2023 high school season, Harvard-Westlake has lost three players who probably would have started in the fall: Jaaziah McZeal (goalie, Harvard-Westlake Class of 2025) decided to stop playing water polo, Lucca Van Der Woude (center defender, Newport Harbor Class of 2025) transferred to Newport Harbor, and Aidan Romain (Class of 2026) decided to play in Spain for the next two years. With those three players, Harvard-Westlake would have been one of the three co-favorites to win the CIF Southern Section in 2024.

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Link for Rosters 18s

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Today’s semifinal games:

12u
CI United vs. Newport Beach
NORCAL vs. Patriot

14u
Del Mar vs. Stanford
Mission vs. CI United

16u
Del Mar vs. CC United
Trojan vs. Stanford

18u
LA Premier vs. Vanguard Blue
Newport Beach vs. SOCAL

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The top four in each age group:

12u

  1. Newport Beach
  2. Patriot
  3. CI United
  4. NORCL

14u

  1. Mission
  2. Del Mar
  3. CI United
  4. Stanford

16u

  1. Del Mar
  2. Stanford
  3. CC United
  4. Trojan

18u

  1. Newport Beach
  2. Vanguard Blue
  3. LA Premier
  4. SOCAL
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One should be careful not to read too much into any one tournament. Nevertheless, as explained more fully below, Mission’s victory in the 14u Super Finals suggests that JSerra will continue to be one of the top two high school programs in the country.

Mission’s 14u team is loaded with talented players and it appears their top players will attend JSerra. In addition, I heard that two top 14u players from other clubs will attend JSerra. Now that Mission has established a very strong 14u program, both JSerra and Newport Harbor have club teams that will provide them with a pool of talented young players. In addition, because success often breeds success, talented high school players are transferring to JSerra and Newport Harbor. For example, here is a hypothetical team comprised of players who transferred to JSerra or Newport within the last few years:

Jonas Ransford - JSerra Class of 2026, goalie, Cadet National Team
Joey Kent - JSerra Class of 2024, goalie, UCLA, former NTSC Youth National Team
Santino Rossi - Newport Class of 2025, center defender
Lucca Van Der Woude - Newport Class of 2025, utility, NTSC Youth National Team
Brian Barnuevo - JSerra Class of 2025, utility, NTSC Youth National Team
Ryder Dodd - JSerra Class of 2024, attacker, UCLA, Olympic team
Tas Palcza - JSerra Class of 2024, attacker, Princeton, former NTSC Youth National Team
Connor Ohl - Newport Class of 2026, attacker, Youth National Team
Gavin Conant - JSerra Class of 2025, attacker, Youth National Team
Kai Kaneko - Newport Class of 2026, attacker, Cadet National Team
Connor Colman - JSerra Class of 2026, attacker, Youth National Team
James Mulvey - Newport Class of 2025, LH attacker, NTSC Youth National Team, transferred from JSerra to Newport
Luke Weichert - Newport Class of 2026, LH attacker

Four of these players transferred to JSerra or Newport Harbor from Mater Dei.

Here is my prediction: As long as Brett Ormsby coaches at JSerra/Mission and Ross Sinclair coaches at Newport Harbor/Newport Beach, it will be very difficult for other schools to challenge JSerra and Newport Harbor on a consistent basis.

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Taking nothing away from that Mission 14u team, they are bad ass, very talented, well coached, and have been 1A behind Del Mar all year…and finally got over the hump at Super Finals with a super smart game plan that had DM’s big dog in the middle swimming 2 to 2 and rolled in the 3rd quarter.

How they built that 14u team…questionable (there was a letter sent to dozens of ODP and high level kids offering priority JSerra HS admission if they joined Mission Club last fall) and taking kids that had been developed for years at Vanguard, Newport, Patriot, OCWPC, Laguna, and other clubs doesnt feel great for those clubs who had their rosters decimated…but “super teams”, once a fun last hurrah for 18u seniors and are an emerging reality in the younger ages.

Newport is so insular I was shocked that Mission was able to peel off their best 14u player before this season (even though his brother attends JSerra)…will be interesting to see if they can do that more and more and cut into Newports pipeline that has been developing kids from the youngest ages.

14u is super interesting 1-8 and even 12 this year…tons of parity as all the top teams have beaten and lost to each other at various points…all close games. Even at SF, Mission was down at the end of the semifinal game and beat the Channel Team with seconds left.
With no (or reportedly no) international imports at JOs it should be an interesting 4 days to see who comes out on Top.