2025-2026 12u Boys Club Season

Club - Boys
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Top 20 12u Boys Water Polo Teams
week #18 – thirty weeks to JOs

#1 Mission WPC – Beat Del Mar by 1 point to claim the top of the podium at SPA Championship and blew everyone out at Holiday Cup.

#2 SOCAL – Shocked Del Mar at SOCAL Winter Classic before falling to Vanguard. Coach Paden Mitchell has this team playing solid water polo.

#3 Del Mar AA – Formidable but haven’t put the pieces together yet. They did the same last year with early season losses to Mission and SOCAL.

#4 Greenwich – Haven’t seen them since Rocktober where they beat Vanguard and I know their coaching staff never rests.

#5 Vanguard – Has a roster that creates match-up problems for opponents as an otherwise stellar SOCAL found out at SOCAL Winter Classic.

#6 San Jose Express – Took silver, racking up some good wins in the platinum division at Holiday Cup.

#7 ORWP – Won the 12u division at Vegas Founders Cup. They execute on the fundamentals and are unselfish. This is the best ORWP 12u team in memory.

#8 CC United – Looked good at EC but I haven’t seen them since.

#9 CDM – Flying under the radar but had a great showing versus Del Mar at SOCAL Winter Classic before coming up a bit short. They have role-players who know their roles. CDM is one to keep an eye on this year.

#10 Stanford – Haven’t seen Stanford since EC but polopolopolo is a believer so they’ll hold their spot in the top-10 for this ranking.

#11 San Diego Shores – Finished just off the podium at Holiday Cup and had some promising showings at the beginning of the season.

#12 North Irvine – Fifth at Holiday Cup and third at SPA Championship. They have moments where the potential of this team is evident.

#13 San Clemente – Plays to the level of their competition and ends up in a lot of shootouts. Lost shootouts to SD Shores and N.Irvine. Won their shootout versus Del Mar Alt.

#14 Del Mar A – I’m calling this team ‘Del Mar Alt’, and they are dangerous. Del Mar Alt finished in sixth at SOCAL Winter Invite where they beat Newport, sixth at SPA Championship where they went to a shootout with San Clemente, and second at Vegas Founders Cup with a dominant win over Route 66.

#15 Route 66 – Grabbed bronze at Vegas Founders Cup including a two-point win over Tsunami in the quarter-finals.

#16 Tsunami – Finished top-3 in 12u Platinum at Holiday Cup.

#17 908 WPC – Had a nice win over Patriot at SOCAL Winter Classic.

#18 Lamorinda – Looked competent at Rocktober but I need to see more of them before moving Lamorinda up.

#19 Patriot – Clocked Newport at SOCAL Winter Classic.

#20 Newport – It is looking to be a down year for Newport in 12u but it is early. If any team has a 12u coaching staff up to building through the season, it is Newport.

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No idea about Greenwich, top 3 looks accurate, I think I would flip 4 and 5 but maybe I just dont understand the depth of resources at Greenwich.

6th place SJX gets top spot for parent chants after Holiday Cup.

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I think Tsunami should be quite a bit higher. They handled North Irvine and SD Shores pretty easily. There is almost no daylight between Del Mar A, CDM, North Irvine, Patriot, San Clemente, and Sd Shores. I think Newport and 908 could be in that group also

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Tsunami did look good at Holiday Cup. They have size. I thought they might take SJX but they fell. I think they will do well in the summer.

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Nice update Marco! One correction, Del Mar A (Alt) beat San Clemente in a shootout at the SPA Championships and went 3-1 overall in Platinum. I watched that game and noticed they got the score wrong on the spreadsheet.

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I’ll leave it as is but in future rankings I’ll be sure to remember it. I agree with nerd that at this point in the season that whole group can beat any other member of that group on any given weekend. It will be interesting to see how those teams develop over the next 30 weeks as that will be a true indication of coaching talent and the way the environment at these difference clubs fosters development. It is looking to be a fun and hyper competitive year in 12u.

@nerd, you may be right on Tsunami. This early in the season they are hard for me to get a good gauge on. In that, they are like Temple City was last season, and it took me until San Diego County Cup at the start of the summer session to feel comfortable with the grasp on the team.

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Yes, Tsunami looked good when I saw them in Vegas. I watched a few of their games and they played fast and aggressive/pressed well during stretches. Surprised they didn’t walk away with more w’s in that tournament. They will be a dangerous team later in the season as they continue to develop and pull it all together.

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Here’s my rankings on the 12u boys

12u Rankings

1/18/2026

1 Mission

2 SoCal

3 Greenwich

4 Vanguard

5 San Diego WPC

6 CCUnited

7 San Jose Express

8 Rancho Tsunami

9 San Clemente

10 Newport

11 ORWP

12 Stanford

13 908

14 CDM

15 SD Shores

16 North Irvine

17 San Diego WPC B

18 Patriot

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I think your top 5 are correct but disagree with the order. I think Socal has shown that they deserve the #1 spot for now even if we are judging Mission without #7, who was not in the Greenwich game or in the pool at Futures yesterday.

My takeaway from the first Futures weekend (other than a lot of excitement for weekend #2) is that San Clemente as always is scrappy and might be more dangerous than anticipated. Even if Socal was missing a starter, yesterday was a shocker. I think San Clemente jumped up my rankings and are now in the 6 to 8 range. It could be a fluke, but they played much better than I expected.

Another takeaway from the weekend is that Newport is progressing very quickly as I believe @Marco said they would. They belong in that rising 7 to 10 range but i lean toward putting them in 8th, and San Clemente in 7th.

On the flip side ORWP underwhelmed and have fallen outside top 15 for me. Could have just been a bad day, maybe they figure it out.

1/18/2026

1 Socal

2 Greenwich

3 Mission

4 Vanguard

5 SD Dons WPC

6 CCUnited

7 San Clemente

8 Newport

9 San Jose Express

10 Tsunami

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San Clemente proved they can play with anyone, but their tendency to go to shootouts this season is bizarre. Over half of their recent games have gone to shootouts, including both of their games yesterday.

In D2, I was impressed with La Jolla United’s play. They dominated in both of their games.

In D3, I’m really looking forward to weekend #2 to see if either South Coast or San Clemente B can score a goal versus SD Dons B who shut out both opponents yesterday.

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Took a look at the Norcal Futures results. Nobody has ranked 680 in 12U. Anyone know how they match up against Stanford and San Jose Express who have played in So. Cal. recently? Are our rankings missing a really good team or is 680 expected to be mid pack in Platinum?

Late edit to answer question: 680 is mid pack.

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I believe that all the top NorCal teams will be at Kap7 (12’s). Also, SJX and Stanford play each other at Frozen Cup this weekend. We should have a great idea what the rankings should be in two weeks.

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Last time I saw 680 was Evan Cousineau and at the time I’d place them around CDM (game went to shootout).

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For the next Futures weekend the top 12U teams will play each other. Anyone want to take a swag at the outcomes?

Mission vs Newport was just seen so I think Mission wins.

SoCal vs Vanguard is a tougher one to call but I am going to say SoCal.

Mission vs Socal is the matchup I have been waiting for. If Mission is full strength I think Mission comes out on top and unseats Socal at the top of my rankings.

Anyone think otherwise?

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12 U - Stanford 13 - SJX - 12

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Was a close game the entire time, no team led by more than 2 goals at any point. SJX beat Stanford handily the first time 2 1/2 months ago 16-9. Stanford was missing their top scorer in the first matchup and SJX was missing their other center in the matchup yesterday.

SJX has the best overall 12u player in NorCal (who I would say is also a top 5 player in the nation). He is really tough to deal with at center and creates tons of matchup problems on the perimeter. SJX is the only top NorCal team that is in the SoCal tournament instead of KAP7.

Stanford may matchup with CCU on day 2 of KAP7.

Looking forward to seeing the SoCal schedule!

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Stanford is for sure doing KAP7. They will also be at the Vanguard Showcase two weekends after KAP7, but will be missing 2 players for that tournament.

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Here’s the schedule for the Vanguard Showcase 2 weeks after KAP7/SoCal.

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This was posted under Chawp/Socal tournament in a different thread, but I’ll repost here too since 12U platinum division looks like the biggest group.

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Any thoughts on how this tournament goes? Any challengers to SoCal?