It was great to see so many teams at the BTS tournament again this weekend!
Organization wise there were some hiccups, but I saw many many new faces in the pool. Good to see new kids are joining the sport!
Overall it seems like Patriot is looking strong at every age group this early in the year. La Jolla had some good showings as well.
Looking forward to when competition starts getting more intense.
At the 12u level, it will be fun to see if North Irvine can build on their results going forward. They played tough against Newport and beat La Jolla to come away with second.
That said, I don’t think we know where everyone is until the big dogs start showing up to tournaments. On the boy’s side at 10u, 12u, and 14u showing at BTS, I think Patriot 10u Navy was the only potential JO platinum division champion. Until proven otherwise, I’m thinking Vanguard will be the club to beat in 12u. While I’ve heard rumors of issues, this is Channing Wigo’s older year for CIU in 14u and they should be considered the favorites for that division.
Yes, Patriot 10u Navy always looks like a contender. I was also impressed with their 12u girls team and heard their 14u Girls team took second in the 18u division.
I agree with the North Irvine 12u girls! They look like they have lots of potential. If I saw it right I believe Ed Carrera’s daughter was on both the 10u and 12u team. She’ll develop into a monster!
I didn’t get to watch any 14u boys this weekend but I heard there was a scrimmage at UCI between Newport, Del Mar and Patriot 14u. Does anybody have any insight on how these teams would stack up against CIU?
Purely speculative as I haven’t seen them play this year, but I’m thinking Patriot Navy will be capable of beating CIU. That is not to say they will win, only that I could see it happening. At 2023 JOs, when Channing Wigo was in his older year at 12u, CIU 12u finished 1st and Patriot finished 2nd. I have heard rumors of CIU losing players, which if true could make Patriot the favorite.
In that same JOs, Newport Blue 12u finished 12th. It is dangerous to count Newport out as the pipeline of transfers to that program is never empty and their coaching staff is top notch, but this could be a down year for them.
Del Mar is a giant mystery at 14u. In that same 2023 JOs at 12u, Del Mar finished 3rd. They lost to Channing Wigo’s CIU team by 1 point, and they lost to Patriot by 1 point. They have the talent but this off season they lost their 14u coach who had just won his third straight national championship. Del Mar’s championship-winning coach is now on the coaching staff of Patriot. Del Mar’s 14u A-team is being led by a coach new to their program.
Will Patriot continue to build this program into the high school age groups? Or is this batch of whippersnappers on the Beckman track or a collection from around the irvine area?
Seems they’ve been more or less the Beckman HS club team for past years and have competed and done decently but would be cool to see a new club among the top OC teams and not just SOCAL running the (public school) show
The 14u scrimmages at UCI included Patriot, LA Premier, Newport and Delmar. It was very much a teaching scrimmage with lots of kids rotating. Del Mar appeared to be the strongest, with good size kids. The other three seemed to be competitive with each other. LAP had a smaller headcount. Newport had a lot of kids in the pool and a number of them from last year’s 12’s. Impressed with the goalie from LAP or Patriot (forgot which team).
Regarding SDfan’s Patriot comments. I think Patriot’s emergence can be tied to a couple factors. 1) They pull from a wide area, 2) They were opportunistic coming out of covid, pulling kids that would have naturally gone to North Irvine’s club, filling the void of clubs that no longer exist in Irvine (Kahuna) and Tustin, and have pulled kids from SoCal when SoCal’s numbers were bloated. Finally, they have some good euro coaches that focus on the fundamentals and techniques, practice more than most and film everything.
That said, I don’t think the current Patriot success will transfer to Beckman success. The Patriot players who don’t naturally map to Beckman will either stay and play in their local high schools, or as evidenced this year with a couple of their 14u’s who transitioned to high school, the strong ones will go private (JSerra or Mater Dei).
I expect Mission to only get stronger as they continue to build-out their youth program on both the boys and girls side.
Not sure what to expect from Vanguard going forward. Sounds like they lost a couple of last year’s 12u’s who transitioned to 14s elsewhere. Vanguard’s disconnect with Mater Dei has certainly impacted Vanguard’s boys and girls programs.
USA Water Polo has announced the 2024 Junior Olympics All-American teams:
Weird. I wonder what the story is behind Del Mar not submitting any nominations. It leaves 14u Boys with no MVP.
Weird. I don’t see any Del Mar athletes listed.
Some clubs (e.g. 680) do not nominate pre-hs age group players to JO All-American teams. I do not know about Del Mar.
Lots of programs opting out this year on the girls side:
Lamo all age groups
Diablo all age groups
SOCAL all age groups
Regency all age groups
805 18U
These awards have blown apart more teams than I can count. Own-team coach picked is silly. In the two months since JOs USAWP could have run a proper poll of all coaches and made this a real award. 2025 wish list!
Del Mar did it last year and previous years. Sadly, I think some coaches/clubs just forget to submit.
Anyone know if the spreadsheet can be updated if teams submit their selections late? Lots of teams missing from this list who historically submit and who would definitely have slots allocated in nearly every age group.
SOCAL did not submit either
They fixed it, updated the 2024 Junior Olympics All-American teams and added Del Mar player, Del Mar club said they submitted nominations but in wrong format so USA water polo wasn’t accepted.
I agree 100 %. The thought a team can get almost it’s entire starting line-up on 1st and 2nd team is ludicrous. Brings new meaning to the slogan “to the victors go the spoils”. I watched a ton of games at the 18u and 14u levels and there are a number of talented players that could have been nominated, but their club chose not to for some reason or the coach forgot.
Also, another “wish list” change is the August cut off period. In my opinion, if an athlete has a July birthday after JO’s is completed they should be able to compete at that age-group level.
At the 2024 Junior Olympics, Newport’s Kai Kaneko was named the MVP of the 16u age group and was named to the all-JO 2nd team of the 18u age group. Does anyone know whether any other person has ever been named to the 1st or 2nd all-JO team in both age groups?
Jewel Roemer , maybe?
I was thinking maybe a Neushul too
Hard disagree. Having the framework clearly defined is the best way to avoid corrupting the system, and serves as motivation for overachieving mid-major clubs who have no shot at the podium but might make the top-15.
As for coaches or clubs not submitting names, it should serve as a disincentive to talented kids playing for those programs. I was a big fan of the older policy of making it very clear which clubs and coaches failed to allow for the recognition of their player’s hard work. Those clubs and coaches should be embarrassed.
