CCU wins round one of NorCal Futures, beating Stanford 10 to 3 and SJX 10 to 8.
SJX beat 680 in their first game 11-7, Stanford also beat 680 11-7 for 3rd.
Davis and Yolo A move up to D1, while SHAQ and Diablo go down to D2. Bummer for SHAQ, I believe they are missing a key player right now due to injury.
Game of the day down south so far was Vanguard vs ORWP. After an early lead Vanguard almost lost to ORWP 12 - 11. Second game against Newport could be an upset!! Hope Vanguard’s coach has a backup clipboard.
The teams today that stood out were ORWP and Tsunami. Mission looks nearly unbeatable.
@Marco im looking forward to your rankings.
Just found this site and love all of the positivity!
Spent most of the day at independence high and had a couple of observations:
SJX - looks strong - they have multiple players that are playing all game and one in particular has a really strong shot. Probably the team to beat up north.
CCU - good speed all-around and have a strong bench.
Stanford - not sure they had their full squad this weekend. They were very competitive the weekend prior.
680 - I feel like they need more consistency overall but good squad.
Top 20 12u Boys Water Polo Teams
week #28 – twenty weeks to JOs
#1 Mission WPC – The top team in 12u this season got even stronger with a mid-season transfer from SOCAL. They look unbeatable (hat tip to nerd)
#2 Vanguard – Has come out victorious in 2026 versus every team not named Mission but needed a shootout versus Greenwich and had a scare versus ORWP.
#3 Greenwich – Beat Vanguard earlier this season and nearly did so again at Vanguard’s own tournament.
#4 CC United – Beat SD Dons at Vanguard Showcase and have been dominant at NorCal Futures crossover weekend.
#5 SD Dons A – After stumbles earlier this season, the team this past weekend had the look of one who is playing angry.
#6 San Jose Express – Thrashed Tsunami 16-8 at Holiday Cup ten weeks ago, and played CCU tough if ultimately coming up a bit shy this past weekend at Futures.
#7 Tsunami – Have quietly been building through the season. Posted a 8-4 beatdown of Newport and a 10-9 win over Stanford at Vanguard Showcase.
#8 Stanford – Finished 2nd at Kap7 International four weeks ago, including a 12-9 win over CCU.
#9 Newport – This team is improving so rapidly that it makes gauging them difficult. Film of Newport from 6 weeks ago is worthless.
#10 ORWP – The balance to the way ORWP plays makes them dangerous to teams with an over-reliance on a star player as demonstrated by their near takedown of Vanguard this past weekend.
#11 San Clemente – Still playing to the level of their competition but managed a weekend with no shootouts and posted a revenge victory over SD Shores.
#12 SOCAL – Lost some of their swagger and aren’t playing up to the level of early this season. I am a big believer in coach Paden Mitchell and think he will get this ship turned around.
#13 San Diego Shores – Wildly inconsistent. At times they look formidable. In Futures week #2 they beat ORWP and Tsunami. They didn’t look like the same team this past week. Started the season strong, then had a lull for several weeks and came back to finish 4th at Holiday Cup.
#14 North Irvine – Vanquished CDM 9-6 in Futures week #2 but have lost every game since.
#15 SD Dons B – Slaughtering everyone they play at Futures. Their combined score at Futures this season is 116 to 17.
#16 908 WPC – Avenged their loss to CDM at SOCAL International by beating CDM in Futures week #3 to win their D1 standing.
#17 CDM – Not able to defend their D1 standing but are looking to be among the leaders in D2.
#18 Patriot – This Futures D1 team is in a rough patch right now, but they are still Patriot.
#19 Santa Barbara – Fought their way into D1/D2 promotion game before running to the buzzsaw that is the underseeded SD Dons A team.
#20 680 Drivers – They fight hard but have consistently come up short in their high profile contests lately.
Marco,
That’s a good list. I would still keep SoCal much higher on the list than 12. They have admittedly had a rough couple weekends but I still think they compete with everyone except Mission.
Also the Tsunami ORWP game was great.
ORWP is 2-0 vs Tsunami this year. Both times winning by a score of 9-8
The only one I would take exception to would be CCU over Dons. The Dons were short at least one (probably more) player(s) at the Vanguard Showcase. I would put Dons in the #2 spot, if not #1. It is exceedingly hard to get a true read on their progress when they are winning games at Futures by 20 points or more.
Perhaps we will see them match up with Mission this weekend at OC Cup. It looks like Mission, Dons, and Socal are all signed up for 14U Gold. Will be interesting to see how starting another field player effects the different squads. Seems like it might expose lack of depth if that 6th field player is not as strong?
I also think it is likely that squads will be short players due to ODP or other reasons. So maybe wins or losses dont carry as much weight as they would 5v5 or normal tournament play?
I too like the Dons, and they will move up, but I am not going to snub CCU like that. They traveled several hundred miles to jump in a pool and beat the team that was in front of them. Those warriors earned that spot.
Fair argument regarding traveling and playing the teams present. CCU has certainly demonstrated that they are currently the top dog from northern california (Futures).
Question… do you create a spreadsheet of all compiled results? When I raced there was a website that took all race results (public data) and built out national rankings complete with rivals (example would be if you lost by really small margins or had faced a particular opponent more often than typical). It was fun to discuss results and learn more about competitor results or even look at relative movement up/down through any given year (perhaps this is more fun with individual sports as team losses/gains would be influenced by individuals but not directly proportional). I guess this is like 6-8 but for teams and not individuals. Does this already exist? Could be a somewhat subjective measure of relative coaching ability, the delta each year is at least partially due to coaching.
The short version is that I keep a variety of data in spreadsheets and databases, some quite large, but no single comprehensive source. Some analysis relies more heavily on that data but much of it is picking through schedules, notes, and observations.
There’s some seriously high-level play happening across the board, and it’s exciting to see teams pushing each other week after week. I hope these rankings are grounded in actual results and stats rather than just opinions—but let’s be honest, in youth water polo, things can flip in a heartbeat.
Expect some shake-ups as the season goes on—teams are improving fast, and even the top squads will be tested. Parents, get your popcorn ready, because this spring and summer is shaping up to be one of the most competitive and fun 12U seasons we’ve seen in a while. With Futures now set and teams placed in their proper divisions, every weekend will count.
I would guess that stats are not broadly available, and if they were they are likely not highly accurate (as evidenced by the National League discussion). W/L and observations (however subjective they might be) are all i use for the rankings I post. Admittedly I have bias, as we all do. My rankings are meaningless, just trying to promote discussion and am glad to be wrong.
I do think the level of play of the top few teams is very high. Will be interesting to see how they fare in 14U Gold this weekend. Any predictions on relative finish in this tournament? I am willing to bet that SD Dons places higher than Mission. Numbers change but the big guy on Dons is most likely to score against 14U goalies given his cannon of an arm.
Rankings are one thing, which for 12U is kind of wild. But I wonder if stats at this age group is more harmful than good even if good intentions. I don’t think you want 10-12 year olds looking at stats. Additionally, most stats would be kept by parents. Unless said parent played polo or had kids far older and they did it for them, the accuracy from a first time 12U parent would be very inaccurate IMO. There are always exceptions ofcourse. 12U should be focused on having a great time, building joy in the game, and fundamentals. I am not talking about Marco team level data here.
Great points for sure. “What is it you enjoyed?” is a question I ask all the time. Doesnt look like a lot of fun to me, but I really enjoyed having “plastic courage” in high school and collecting concussions on the field, so I guess it is all subjective.
This past weekend in OC Turbo Cup some of the top 12U teams were entered in 14U gold. Here is how it shook out: Mission 12A finished 7th, Socal 12A finished 11th, and SD Dons 12A finished 15th. Not sure if teams had 12U players filling in for ODP absences or just playing up, some of the teams looked like they had some 12Us playing. SD Dons had 4 players at ODP so they were significantly less than full strength. Not sure if Socal was 100%, Mission was missing one field player.
Notable games would be SD Dons losing to Mission 14B by 4, Mission 12A losing to SD Dons 14B by 5, and Socal beating Mission 14B by 3.
It looked likea lot of the 12U kids had issues with a size 4 ball and goalies struggled to cover the bigger cage. I think ball size was more impactful than rule differences or 6v6 play.
Futures games today went about like everyone might expect.
SD Dons looked to be full strength. Tsunami was a bit tougher than Newport for them, but in the end they closed out with pretty high point differentials locking down their bracket.
First half of the Vanguard vs San Clemente game was really good. Tied 4 - 4 at the half. Vanguard definitely figured things out in the second half though. Their game against North Irvine was probably closer than they would have liked. Luckily their coach left the clipboard at home or one would surely have perished.
Mission handled their bracket despite losing one of their starters. A new player was not in the water but was on deck.
Socal handled their bracket handily despite losing a starter. Their game against 908 was very close but the bracket belongs to Socal.
The last weekend of the series Vanguard, Socal, SD Dons, and Mission will face off. Should make for a great bunch of games and perhaps an early preview of the JOs final.
The surprise of the day for me was North Irvine. They got a new kid on the team and he really helped. I didn’t see their game against Vanguard, but my guess is that they could probably beat anyone not named mission.
They looked pretty darn good against San Clemente