The final zone allocations should be out June 8 plus or minus a week.
For most, JO Quals should be 6 to 8 weeks away depending on zone and age group. Per the schedule, Hawaii did their first group of Quals this past weekend and SWZ is set to do theirs in 2 1/2 weeks.
The upper platinum (places 1-12) and upper gold (places 25-36) brackets are structured the same with a huge advantage for medals given to the teams going 2-0 on day #2. It is still possible to win your way back in, but most National Champions play and win 7 games. It is possible for a team to play as many as 11 games at JOs.
The bracket below is a ‘no-upsets’ projection for 12u boys. There will be upsets. There always are.
@Marco How are teams seeded for JO quals? is it based on last years JO results? assume same for all zones but specifically looking for how seeded in SPA zone.
The seeding is typically handled on a conference call or in-person meeting where coaches and administrators plead their case for why their team should be ranked above some other team. In SoPac, it is not how the teams finished in the prior year. For example, in 2023, Patriot Navy was the highest finishing 12u team. In the 2024 SoPac JO Qualification seedings, Vanguard got the #1 spot and Patriot got #2.
As I understand, there is no call of coaches and administrators for the JO’s - it’s all objective based on results in Quals and the zone’s results in last year’s JO’s. Let’s use 16U girls for example, last year at the JO’s the Coastal Zone 16U girls finished 2nd (SB 805 A), 10th (SB 805 B), 12th (Channel Islands), 17th (Long Beach AF), 23rd (South Coast), etc. So, in 2025, the Coastal Zone team that wins Quals will be seeded 2nd at JO’s, the 2nd place team at Quals will be seeded 10th, the 3rd place team at Quals will be seeded 12th, the 4th place team at Quals will be seeded 17th, the 5th place team at Quals will be seeded 23rd, etc. For the 2025 JO’s at 16U girls, SoPac’s top 5 teams will get the the 1st seed, 3rd seed, 4th seed, 5th seed, and 6th seed - that’s how well the SoPac Zone 16U girls played at the 2024 JO’s. The only place you’ll see seeding calls between administrators and coaches will be for seedings at Quals.
The rule is understood. It is somehow unfair to the top performing teams in JO qual. Taking 18ub ex. if 1st CEN is way stronger than 4th SPA this year. CST 3rd will face much more challenge than CST 4th. Similar if 3rd PAC much power over 2nd SPA this year, 8th PAC has better position than 4th PAC in terms of bracket. As JO qual on different date among zones, potential misuse this rule might incurred. In stead of hard placing the spots, better bracket placement may exist. Ex. the 1st team in JO qual pick one spot from the spots available to the zone, then the 2nd team pick one spot from the remaining spots of the zone, and so on. After JO Qual, each zone submit the bracket placement. Other ex like rank all qualified teams before seeding the brackets.
The brackets will never be perfect for the reasons you mentioned and more. They include crosses and playin games to help correct any inaccuracies in the seeding, but you’re right, some teams get lucky and others don’t.
I like your idea of choosing your spot.
Looking at the brackets above, PAC 3 plays PAC 4 on day one. How hard will those teams go in the 3/4 qual game? Interesting.
Looking at your Boys 18s J & K, any chance they switch 14 & 15 so that PAC and NEZ aren’t playing each other? Looks like a simple swap the two lower seeds?
There could be a couple of those scenarios throughout. I get it, but I always have been a fan of leaving the integrity of the bracket and let it play itself out. But I know changes happen sometimes.
Is it right many of the pac zone teams did not qual for JO at all? For example. everyone below rank 18 in 16U girls cannot play? Is this when they offer Texas as an option? Why not offer session in Sacramento or somewhere less expensive to travel to. I think it’s a lot for team starting out to travel out of state but also offering an alternative option within California to grow the sport.
Would love to see a secondary competition in somewhere like San Diego or Riverside for the OC years and then East/North Bay or Sacramento/Davis/Roseville for the San Jose/Palo Alto years.
