I’ll give it a go, most likely a little change of the guard with Miramonte Campolindo and Acalanes all losing some significant talent.
Sacred Heart Prep: Loaded with ODP talent — seniors Natalia Szcerba and Vivian Golub, juniors Ellison Brush (goalie) and Casey Coleman, sophomore KK Hogan have all been on National Teams and they will be the team to beat this fall.
Carondelet: Quinn Arroyo and Josie Haast are both solid and Sarah Wright is an underrated goalie — incoming freshman could be helpful too.
Miramonte: John Roemer will always have this team playing fast and hard. Ally Larsen, Ali Sagara, and Audrina Kang lead a senior class that also has Eliana Bottene in goal.
Arroyo Grande: Won the HS champs tourney this summer so could be a sleeper team with a strong senior class along with a couple of very high level juniors too.
Campolindo: Well coached but will feel the loss of Ana Pieper a bit. Still have an excellent goalie and field players with a lot of experience.
Acalanes: Ella Del Rosario is excellent but they are losing a lot from last year so I’d expect a small drop off here from last year.
Leland: Again losing a lot but will still have Chrissy Flynn and I’ve heard also a couple of solid freshman coming in to replace their losses.
Clovis East: The Clovis schools will definitely have a very entertaining league this season but I think East has the best player in Reece Helsel.
Saint Francis (MV): They always seem to be around here giving teams a tough game. This year won’t be too different with Anna Fazioli leading the way.
San Ramon Valley: Solid results at HS Champs and seem to be adding pieces each year to a young and talented group.
11-20 I am going to rank based on previous season results and HS Champs results
It probably would make much more sense to talk about top 10 or top 12 teams as after the top 10 things will be pretty murky and teams are probably much weaker.
Carondelet is rapidly improving in NCS- no doubt about it. Miramonte vs Carondelet CIF final should be a fun game to watch.
Sacred Heart will win CCS. AG is a clear favorite in Central with Clovis schools a few steps behind.
SJS is weaker this year. I am not sure if Davis will play any juniors and seniors at all, so they will be super young. Granite Bay being a much older team will try to capitalize on this one in a decade chance and win the section.
Arroyo Grande-Great win at HS State Championship this summer. Coach Allen has that team fired up and ready for the HS Season.(1st at CA HS Championships)
Righetti-This summer at the HS State Championship, Rhigetti had a great win vs. Soquel and Clovis West. However, the season is 28 games played over 2 1/2 months, can they handle the burn. With 10 returning starters, they have a chance to finally live up to the expectations the rest of the Section has been waiting to see. (15th at CA HS Championships)
Clovis West/Buchanan-New coach at Buchanan, new coach/old coach returns for West. Buchanan coach has been playing things close to her vest (my daughter plays at Buchanan, but no bias here), so not a lot of plays have been used or seen in public. (CW took 11th Place at CA HS Championships, Buchanan did not place, went 3-3 at CA HS Championships)
Buchanan/Clovis West-Toss up between these two. This summer scrimmages, West won both games, but Buchanan subbed the JV in for most of the scrimmages. (CW took 11th Place at CA HS Championships, Buchanan did not place, went 3-3 at CA HS Championships)
Tulare Western-The coach’s daughter can score. She will score from the 2, 6, half-court (wait, I think she just scored another goal) if you let her. With possibly 8 returning players, this is the team I think that will cause damage if you don’t watch out.
Clovis East-One national team player and her supporting cast (Timberwolves Four-Headed Monster) makes this interesting. She will put the team on her back, score, dish the ball to her other 3 scorers that she has would not be surprised if she pushes the team to the #3 spot, Caveat Emptor. (Clovis East took 12th place at CA HS Championship losing to Clovis West)
Sanger-Sanger is the team that could. They could win D2 Valley, they could win two game in D1 playoffs, but each year it seems they could not get over something. They win too many games and get moved up to D1 and lose, but during the season when they play against teams in the D1 bracket, they lose. This is a team that gets the short straw at the end of each season and forced to hit the road and play a opening round playoff game against the #1 or 2 team in D1. I believe if they are in D2, they win the Central Section Championship.
Clovis North-They will ride and die with the Goalie they have. With Savannah Fitzgerald leaving North to become the Assistant Coach at UOP for both Men and Women’s, they have a new coach. They have a great player in the coach’s daughter, but after that, I think the lineup is thin. They graduated 5 Seniors, with three of the seniors accounting for majority of the goals. A lot of players left have time in the pool with their club teams, but I don’t think it will be enough. (North did not place, went 2-4 at CA HS Championship)
Clovis-If there is one team in the Valley you can never discount, it is a team coached by Noah Minton. Coach Minton can squeeze blood out of a turnip and make Red Velvet Cupcakes. This is another team I would be leery of and would not be surprised at all if they end up in the Central Section Championship game from his in-game wizardry. In the Valley, Minton is the #1 HS coach in my opinion. (Clovis did not place, went 1-5 at CA HS Championship).
Garces Memorial-The problem with ranking Garces is you have no idea who is going to be in the pool. Do they go and pull the 16U/18U Kern Premier team players from Bakersfield or will they have a team that consists of JV players playing Varsity? As a private school Garces talent ebbs and flows. Garces has a scrimmage vs. Buchanan on the 24th of August, so we shall see what team they have in the water.
San Luis Obispo-There was a time when SLO was the leader of the Northern League and CIF-SS. Will SLO ever get it’s Mojo back? With that beautiful pool on campus, there is no reason it should be viewed this low.
Bullard-A team that is full of talent that needs to just put the pieces together. With 12 returning starters, this team may be a stalking horse waiting to get off the brindle. In 23 Fall season, they went 21-6. 3 of six losses are to Sanger (2) and SLO (1).
So, my opinion only. If you disagree, you can. However, this is what I saw from the club season from November to July, Summer Scrimmages at Clovis East and the CA HS Championship. If you have a better ranking and think mine sucks, post it, lets see what you have. In my opinion, #2-6 is going to be where some great water polo is going to be seen this year. If you see the word ‘Valley’ in here, my bad. Other than AG, SLO and Righetti, it is the Valley.
Hey @retiredguy ! What do you think of the updated top 10 below? Same teams as you originally had, switching order for a couple teams based on results to date.
AG could end up in the top 4 at the end of the month after they play SHP, Miramonte and Campolindo, but, as of now, they have not done enough to be at #3.
I agree, AG needs to do more, but they have a great goalie, a strong center and two fast attackers. One of these attackers is Natalie Whitfield, National Cadet Team player. They are one to watch.
Miramonte’s 11-8 victory over Sacred Heart on Tuesday should remind us that it’s way too early to count them out. No high school girls’ team is coached better.
I agree that it’s good to see more parity this year. An NCS team has won all five of the CIF Northern California Regional Tournaments. Sacred Heart has a good chance to break that streak this year. It’s also nice to see Arroyo Grande in the mix.
AG 14U Girls practice four times a week and 12U Girls practice three times a week this Fall- as they should for these age groups. Now compare it with Sacramento based clubs.