I’m starting to work on my preview of the 2024 boys’ high school season and my preseason top 20 list. To help me with these endeavors, I am asking interested coaches, players, parents, and fans to send me schedules, rosters, and/or other information for or about their schools. Please send your comments to my personal email address, jeff58873@gmail.com.
It’s early but I predict that Newport Harbor and JSerra will have the two best teams in the country for the third year in a row. Newport finished first in my final unofficial rankings for the 2022 season; JSerra finished second. JSerra finished first in 2023; Newport finished second. In addition, Newport tied for first with Sacred Heart Prep in my final unofficial rankings for the 2021 season and finished second behind Harvard-Westlake in the CIF Southern Section Open Division Tournaments in 2018 and 2019. (The Southern Section didn’t have a championship tournament in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.) That’s a great run for Newport.
I intend to post my preview of the 2024 boys’ high school season and my initial rankings in late August or early September.
Newport Harbor, JSerra, Harvard-Westlake, Oaks Christian are the Top 4 in Southern California. The next tier would be Santa Margarita, Corona Del Mar, LB Wilson, Foothill, Mira Costa, Loyola. Then, Mater Dei, HB, Laguna Beach, Los Alamitos, and Orange Lutheran.
I know some quality players on San Marcos, Ventura, Ventura (Buena) and Westlake, but not sure on the overall depth.
Cathedral Catholic and The Bishops are the best in San Diego. La Jolla HS is young, but has some talented kids coming up. Intrigued by Canyon Crest Academy, Carlsbad, etc…
In Northern California Sacred Heart Prep, Miramonte, and De La Salle have the most talent. Campolindo is young, but are talented. Intrigued by Bellarmine Prep, Tamalpais, Redwood, Archie Williams, St. Ignatius, San Ramon Valley, Menlo, and College Park.
Oaks Christian will be Top 4…CDM lost a lot of seniors, but have some good underclassmen coming up along with stud senior Jackson Harlan (UCSB commit). …
I don’t see a clear cut #4. Foothill, Huntington Beach, San Clemente, Laguna Beach, CdM, Loyola and Oaks Christian will battle for the spot, but in the end it won’t matter.
Sorry GoBears, I have to agree with JFran on this one. He should know, he did an stellar job live commentating for Futures this past year. His knowledge and expertise were second to none. So he watched, analyzed every top player from the teams your are mentioning. Of them, only two of them played as a team with out seniors for futures, Mission and Pride. I can see Oaks getting third behind Newport and J Serra. No one can compete with the non recruitment windfall of talent pulled by Newport and J Serra. I could see Newport getting in trouble for at least one recruit who left another school, I hope they are honest with their reporting to CIF. At least play by the rules.
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Sorry GoBears, I have to agree with JFran on this one. He should know, he did an stellar job live commentating for Futures this past year. His knowledge and expertise were second to none. So he watched, analyzed every top player from the teams your are mentioning. Of them, only two of them played as a team with out seniors for futures, Mission and Pride. I can see Oaks getting third behind Newport and J Serra. No one can compete with the non recruitment windfall of talent pulled by Newport and J Serra. I could see Newport getting in trouble for at least one recruit who left another school, I hope they are honest with their reporting to CIF. At least play by the rules.[/quote]
We will see. That is why they play the games.
As to Newport, they don’t have “recruits”. A lot of players want to go their for the exposure, but the rules for a public school are very different than those for JSerra, Mater Dei, Oaks, OLu, etc. They say they are not different, but that is not the reality on the ground.
Newport Harbor
1a. JSERRA
3-Harvard Westlake
4- Oaks
5-Loyola
6-8 CDM, SM, Mira Costa
Top D1 Foothill, Huntington, Laguna, Westlake
Ready to Upset: LB Wilson, San Clemente, Best of the IE Foothill schools— pending final rosters.
On-the-Outs: OLU and Los Al
San Diego
Cathedral
(Big Drop) Bishop
LaJolla,Vista, Carlsbad, Poway
NoCal - Sacred Heart then a big drop to Bellarmine. Dark Horse: De LaSalle. By end of season expect some upsets from them.
??- they DO have recruits and major CREDIT to them and the program for being attractive enough to encourage “District Transfers” from both near and far….South OC, LA,(Premier) and Greenwich CT.
It may not be the coach who directly recruits the players but the quality program and players most certainly do—and to be clear, credit to them for doing so!
For CIF SS, my initial thoughts are as follows. My take is there is a pretty clear 1-4, followed by a relatively interchangeable 5-10:
Newport - so much firepower and solid goalkeeping. But lack of an on campus pool could be an issue. Too many names to add here…. If they made a “B” team, it would probably finish top 10.
J Serra - played together in Spring through JO’s with good chemistry and is definitely a top contender. But injuries at key positions will impact early results for JS.
Harvard Westlake - still a top program with one of the most dominant centers in HS. Unfortunately, some key departures will limit the Wolverines ceiling.
Oaks - played together as a group in Futures into JO’s. Good (but not elite) talent. Well coached. Good enough to beat everyone except #1-3. Burstein, Kokur and Biddle make for strong nucleus. Goalie play a question. Some good younger players in Williamson and Fogg.
The following schools are relatively interchangeable in the back half of Open and top of D1:
5. Loyola - They’ve lost so much talent over the past few years. But Healy will find a way to get this program into the Open Division by year-end
6. Mater Dei - I’m actually surprised no one even mentions MD here. They have good goalie play, decent 2m, decent attackers, multiple lefties and played together as a team in the spring into JO’s.Also, they qualified for championship division at JO’s. Their pipeline is almost officially dry and some high profile departures didn’t help.
7. CdM - Harlan will carry this team. Some teams will struggle with his size and strength. Will need consistent production from Simoncelli.
8. Mira Costa - Should be young with Guenther, Pearce and He providing a good base. Unsure on goalie play.
9. Santa Margarita - lost a lot due to graduation. Center and goalie both major questions. Also, physicality likely an issue. Still some young athletes like Wu should shine.
10. Foothill. Will have good goalie play with Scott. Perimeter players are also good with Metz, Bergstedt. Center game and depth a huge question. Also, unsure if they will play a base offense or motion offense.
Best of the Rest (likely firmly D1):
HB - lost so much due to graduation…including their coach. Still have Dusan, Squires and Jones. Goalie play a question and overall depth. Have questions about coaching and style of play under new coach.
LB Wilson - I expect good center play from Brigagliano. Outside of him, they’re very young. Not much size. Unsure about goalie play after departure of Chrichton. Will probably rely on the counter attack from Baker, Abing and others to overcome their lack of size.
San Clemente - Unsure about overall high end talent. But decent players in Childs and MacBeth.
Laguna: another team decimated by graduation. Williams is the primary returner for the Breakers (formerly known as the Artists).
I’m sure Jeff and JFran will have an awesome breakdown shortly. Looking forward to a fun 2024 season in the CIF SS.
Like what Mater Dei did when CS was there. I knew boys from HB, CdM and NH who were personally and openly recruited to go to MD. Having a quality program that players want to go to is not the same thing.
We’ve got two conversations going here, but, my thoughts on Newport “recruiting” is that they are simply making the school an attractive destination for polo players. It’s easy to see how many players on the team didn’t play Newport club prior to 16U in addition to the obvious HS transfers. However, it’s not like they are offering scholarships or any other incentives that the private schools can.
When an elite level coach, coaches an athlete on the cadet national team or any club team and then that athlete leaves a school 60 miles away after getting into some trouble and shows up at a public school where that coach coaches, that is clear as day, UNDUE INFLUENCE. That athlete must sit out one year just like LM had to do when he transferred to Mater Dei. It is impossible to say that anyone transferring in to Newport harbor who played water polo before is not making an athletically motivated move.