2025-2026 14u Boys Club Season

Club - Boys
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It is a watch list and a head start.

There are different coaches and different heads with different views, but most I’m familiar with view ODP as a pipeline. The evaluation event, at least for SPA and PSW, is four hours of team scrimmages halfway to the format they’ll see at ODP Zone Championships.

For those who receive invites to the evaluation but aren’t quite ready, it is not only an opportunity for coaches to see them versus bigger, stronger kids, but also an opportunity for those kids to see how ODP Championships will work for when they are ready.

Of those at the SPA evaluation who did not get selected to SPA Red or Blue, Brenner Dawson, Ethan Lee, Kyson Carrera, and Van Johnston were selected to represent SPA at ODP the following year.

PSW leans even harder into the idea of ODP being a pipeline. Of those not being selected out of the 2024 evaluation event, Grayson Legg, Jason Robinson, Noah Dammann, Simon Vasquez, Dylan and Wyatt Buckley made the zone team the following year, with Dylan and Wyatt receiving invites to NTSC.

I do think those ten SPA/PSW kids and their zones benefitted from them having a chance to get in the water a year early rather than being completely left out, which would have happened if zone coaches just selected the oldest, most developed kids in the zone to win a zone championship.

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144

If it’s used to pull in up year or down year Q3-Q4 I agree - but if I had to bet I’d guess it’s just a double down on the Q1-Q2 in their down years.

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145

Of the 10 non-selected-in-their-first-year players I mentioned, half of them are Q4 birthdays. One more has a terrible JO birthday.

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146

I heard a rumor that two best players from Trojan moved to PV. Also herd SCAR is not reforming but, if the Trojan kids moving is true PV will be a very talented superteam. Can anyone double check.

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147

I suspect the 14u landscape/distribution of athletes in San Diego may see some changes soon, as well.

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148

I see PV and Shore Aquatics are in D2 (14u) of Futures. Did they not merge?

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What are the best 14U matchups to watch this weekend at Kap 7? Other than Newport are there any top teams missing?

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Most significant team to watch is NorCal. The goalie was phenomenal at 2024 JOs. If it’s the same team as 2024 they might be better than Newport.

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I wish this weekend were looking to be the litmus test that Kap7 International has historically been, but with the PSW zone pulling several kids for an ill-timed ODP '“practice” and several other teams with half their rosters out all week with the flu, I’m not sure how much we are going to learn about the 14u landscape this weekend. Nonetheless, it’s a great opportunity to get eyes on some teams that aren’t in Orange County every weekend, for sure!

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152

The two best 14u teams at Kap7 are La Jolla and Mission. Not sure if they’ll have their full rosters due to ODP. NorCal did have a phenomenal 12u goalie in 2024. A definite game changer. NorCal did play in a tournament in Southern California a few months ago and were middle of the pack. If they were missing more than their goalie, they could be a team to watch.

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153

NORCAL appears to have a team entered in the 14u platinum division of Kap7 and another team entered in the 14u platinum division of the SoCal tournament this weekend. Do we know which one is their top team?

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Kap7 is their top team

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Kap7 14u platinum final placings:

  1. La Jolla
  2. Mission
  3. Patriot
  4. Vanguard
  5. Palos Verdes
  6. Channel Islands

7th-12th place were played as round robins in 2 groups of 3 so exact placing isn’t possible but it’s worth noting that NorCal was knocked out of the top 6 on a shootout loss to Palos Verdes and then went on to win their two Sunday games.

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156

There were some very competitive 14u games. Teams seem to be sharpening up. Here’s my top 5 from the weekend, in order (Newport would make the list but didn’t play) :

  • La Jolla
  • Mission
  • CIU
  • Patriot (Patriot did beat CIU in SO)
  • Palos Verdes

Looking forward to seeing Marcos’ list!

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Newport, Mission, La Jolla, and CIU will face off in 3 weeks in Futures League now that the new 14u format has the 4 undefeated teams playing each other in week 2. According to the spreadsheet, Newport should play CIU and Mission should play La Jolla. Winner will play winner and loser will play loser for their second games on the day.

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159

Caught several 14u games at Futures Division 1. The top teams are separating themselves. The top two teams: La Jolla and Newport. 3-5: mission, CIU, premier. The third tier is wide open: vanguard, 908, shores. These results align with how these teams have been in other tournaments this winter.

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160

@Marco will you be doing an updated ranking for any age groups? Especially curious about this group.

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162

I very much look forward to your rankings (mostly because of the depth of your analysis and experience).

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163

Top 20 14u Boys Water Polo Teams
week #28 – twenty weeks to JOs

#1 La Jolla United – Winning everything in 2026. I do not think they’ve lost a single game since last November. LJU is playing the best water polo in 14u right now.

#2 Newport – Finished second at Patriot Games and their only loss at Futures has been to top ranked LJU. That includes shootout wins over Mission and Vanguard.

#3 Mission – Looked dominant to start the season, but since has looked mortal. First came a loss to SD Dons at Bob Nealy and a loss to LJU in week #1 of Futures. Crossover week has not been good to Mission, with a shootout loss to Newport and falling victim to LA Premier.

#4 Greenwich – Came in to Patriot Games and beat everyone. That was the weekend of California Zone ODP Evaluations, leading to many teams missing key players, but none of these teams were toothless and Greenwich came out on top of every contest.

#5 LA Premier – Beat #2 Mission and #7 Vanguard on day2 of Futures crossover. They had a very, very good day. They may be better than the #6 ranking and have absolutely proven how dangerous this team is to the top of the 14u field.

#6 San Diego Shores – The team consistently looks better every time I see them play. Their only loss this past weekend was to #1 ranked LJU by a single point.

#7 Vanguard – Had a no good very bad weekend at Futures crossover where their sole win was in a shootout versus Patriot.

#8 Palos Verdes – Beat CIU and NORCAL at Kap7 Intl. Went undefeated at Futures crossover, including an emphatic victory over North Irvine to win promotion to D1.

#9 SD Dons – Struggling with consistency. When they’re good they’re really good, but occasionally they drop games they should not. Their loss to North Irvine after beating North Irvine 12-5 the week before is a fresh example.

#10 Channel Islands United – CIU has been hard to pin down this season. They lost to PV at Kap7 International, but have looked great at times. I get the feeling their roster hasn’t been locked down.

#11 NORCAL– The team is solid and is the top Northern California squad, but they no longer enjoy the reliable size advantage over their competition the 2024 12u team had.

#12 Commerce – Steadily improving if you use SD Shores as a measuring stick. Lost to SD Shores by 8 points on Jan 25, by 4 points on Jan 31, and by 1 point this past weekend.

#13 908 WPC – Did not have a great Futures crossover but did thump Patriot in their third game.

#14 Patriot – Three of their four games at Futures crossover went to a shootout including a win over #6 LA Premier. Patriot seems to be getting more competitive as the season progresses.

#15 Lamorinda – At NorCal Futures, they are the second-best team which is a marked improvement from where they started. It will be interesting to watch this team continue to improve over the next 20 weeks.

#16 Pride – Started crossover weekend strong with victories over Shore Aquatics and SOCAL, but Sunday wasn’t as kind. The bracket put them in consecutive games versus PV and SD Dons who are now D1 teams.

#17 CDM – Was winless at Futures this season until getting a 1-point victory over North Irvine on Saturday.

#18 North Irvine – Had a great run and appeared to be poised for promotion to D1 before running into the ascendant PV.

#19 Diablo Alliance – Finished 2nd to NORCAL at Frozen Cup, and 3rd at NorCal Futures crossover.

#20 Stanford – Has losses in 2026 to NORCAL, CCU, Diablo, and Lamorinda, but a better finish at Kap7 International. Seems to play better in Southern California than they do in the Bay Area.

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