As I said on the 14u topic… it’s way too early, but for anticipatory/organizational purposes, I am starting this thread in the hopes of avoiding the chaos of having all age groups discussed on a single board this year when it comes to the age group season.
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Socal looking really good. Patriot playing decent. I expect a rematch between those teams tomorrow in the BTS final.
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Whoooo I was so wrong. Love that. Gonna be an interesting year!
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Do they not post scores for the SPA league? First day of SPA league was today but I don’t see anywhere they posted scores on the schedule.
SPA scores are usually not reported as the league is development focused.
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Gotcha, I didn’t realize that, thanks. 
I wasn’t able to see any of my boys 12U boys games this weekend at the Evan Cousineau but saw the results. Anybody see any good games or have any take aways from this weekend for the 12U boys?
I liked the Vanguard vs Mission (1 goal game) game and the Vanguard vs Stanford game (9-7).
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Top 20 12u Boys Water Polo Teams
week #9 – thirty-nine weeks to JOs
#1 Mission WPC – This team is scary. Genai Kerr has called Mission’s right wing a “future Olympian”, and he’s surrounded with talent. This is the team to beat in 12u.
#2 Del Mar – Hiding. The defending 12u Boys national champions, with a pipeline flowing from a 10u A team that hasn’t lost a 10u game in 2+ years, has been ducking tournaments where coaches can get a look at them.
#3 Greenwich – Fast and move the ball well for so early in the season. They look to push every possession. Greenwich beat Vanguard but lost to North Irvine Coed at Rocktober.
#4 Vanguard – The shock performance for me at Evan Cousineau was how well Vanguard played against Mission. Note to self: don’t underestimate Vanguard’s coaching staff.
#5 CC United – This team took bronze as 10u boys in the 2024 Junior Olympics, and bronze at EC. In the immortal words of Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they were”.
#6 Stanford – Had the misfortune of being bracketed with Vanguard at EC, but played them tough. This looks to be a very good 12u squad this season.
#7 SOCAL – Played young last year and returned a solid chunk of their squad. This team is better than where they were at this point last season, and coach Paden Mitchell is a proven developer of talent.
#8 Newport – Hiding out with Del Mar. While the EC tournament was going on, Newport 12u was hosting Del Mar 12u for a closed scrimmage.
#9 ORWP – Everyone touches the ball and the threat is everywhere. Won Back to School and played well at EC on their way to a sixth place finish.
#10 CDM – Took 680 and North Irvine to shootouts where they won both games.
#11 North Irvine – When playing a Coed roster, they are the best 12u Coed team in the nation, but they only played as coed at Rocktober.
#12 Patriot – Have the fundamentals to give most teams trouble but seem to struggle versus fast big players.
#13 San Clemente – Lost to Patriot at Back to School, but beat North Irvine. Had a rough draw at EC where their first two games were against Vanguard and Stanford.
#14 Peak Polo – This 12u Coed squad out of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado had a very good showing at Rocktober. They usually do JOs in Texas but I hope to see them in California this year.
#15 Thunder Coed – While this is a boys ranking, Thunder’s leftie girl wing player deserves mention. She’s not the only standout on the team, their center is solid, but the leftie is one to watch.
#16 Lamorinda – Came away from Rocktober with a 3-1 records with their only loss being to Peak Polo.
#17 Pegasus – Went 3-2 at Rocktober with their losses being to Thunder and Greenwich.
#18 908 WPC – Knocked into the Roll bracket by Pegasus but managed a shootout victory over Davis.
#19 Davis – Lost to Peak Polo at Rocktober but beat SD Shores in a shootout.
#20 San Diego Shores – Finished second at Back to School and won the 12u division at Pacific Fall Classic before a weaker performance at EC.
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Thanks for that Marco. Always nice to get different opinions on teams. I was able to watch that Mission vs Vanguard game on video at EC tournament. Vanguard was up with a good lead but once Mission figured out how to adapt to that huge center, they made a solid come back win. Don’t think they gave up a single goal in last quarter. And if it’s the rightwing I think you’re talking about for Mission, he wasn’t even playing, as he was recovering from a broken arm. I have been trying to see what is going on with Del Mar 12U also but the match ups have been weird in a couple tournaments as I think they were playing up. Agree that they have been keeping low profile. Not sure what that’s about. Watched Newport play in spa league couple weeks ago, but not sure if that is there A team or not but if it is their A team they are looking pretty rough.
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Thanks, and that is the Mission wing I’m talking about.
If the team you watched in SPA league was called NBWP Blue and was playing in 12u, that is Newport’s B team. It is not Newport’s A team despite Blue normally being NBWP’s A color designation.
Gotcha, then that was there B team I saw. I was going to say, I couldn’t imagine that being there A team, so that makes sense.
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I was able to watch the 12U SPA League championship Platinum finals today. Del Mar and Mission made it to finals. Great game, Mission took the lead early, Del Mar made some adjustments and came back up by 2, then Mission buckled down and ended up winning by 1, it was a great back and forth game with two good teams. Mission had 2 kids major out but still was able to fight back for the win. Should be a fun 12U year from what I saw between those teams. Anybody see any other 12U games this weekend worth mentioning?
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I believe the top Pacific teams right now are CCU, Stanford and SJX.
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I got to see most of the games.
Del Mar A and Mission were definitely a step above the rest of the teams.
North Irvine, Patriot, Del Mar B, and San Clemente were all very close. Any of those teams can beat any of the others.
San Clemente was the closest to Del Mar A. It was a 7-5 game in the 4th. San Clemente ended up losing 9-5.
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It was interesting to see Del Mar B beat San Clemente. Looks like their 12U program is pretty deep this year and they might have 2 top 10 teams.
I think Mission has a bit more up their sleeve, but they are in the correct place at the top of the list in my opinion.
Del Mar has picked up some talent, will be interesting to see how they gel. #10 has a formidable cannon!
Socal (Edit: beat del mar this weekend) is the only team that has bested Mission and Del Mar. I think they need to be #2 (I still give Mission the nod after taking top spot in EC, Spa Champs, and Holiday Cup).
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Actually SoCal did not take the invitational, Del Mar A did. SoCal, Vanguard, and Del Mar A played a round robin for 1-3rd and Del Mar took it based on goal differential.
SoCal 12 - Del Mar A 6
Del Mar A 15 - Vanguard 4
Vanguard 9 - SoCal 6
Some interesting observations from the SoCal Invitational Tournament…
Newport is really down this year and not competitive. They finished 9th out of 10 teams and will struggle to win games if they continue to play in platinum.
CDM lost to Del Mar 6-5 but were winning most of the game until a few mins left in the 4th qtr.
Vanguard is a tough match up for SoCal and it was surprising to see them come back and beat them 9-6 after getting pummeled by Del Mar 15-4.
ORWP is an extremely physical team that’s going to be a tough out for any team this year. They finished 4th in the tournament and beat CDM (who finished 5th) 7-3 on Sunday but the score was not a true reflection of the two teams since CDM played an hour previously while it was ORWP’s first game on Sunday.
Patriot is fundamentally sound but lack size and struggle against bigger more physical teams like Vanguard (lost 12-7) and 908 (lost 11-7).
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Thanks for reply. One of the Del Mar dads told me in conversation that they took second. He must have thought that based on getting beat by Socal without considering point differential. Glad they won, sorry for the error. Still SoCal is the only team to have taken a W against Mission (and Del Mar). Arguably the win against Mission was in SPA League play (scores not published) and not a tournament atmosphere (they did not make final against Mission at EC where Vanguard lost) so might carry less weight, but it is the only time the current Mission A squad has taken an L at all.
Vanguard performance i think varies dramatically based on defending their center. If a team sticks to man on man that center will make them pay.
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