# 2025 Elite 8 Tournament **URL:** \ **Category:** High School - Boys\ **Created:** [September 26, 2025, 5:25am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816 "2025-09-26T05:25:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@jeff](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/jeff)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 5:25am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/1 "2025-09-26T05:25:48Z")
Here is a link to the website for this year’s Elite 8 Tournament, which will be held at Harvard-Westlake from October 2 to 4. [Elite 8 Schedule](https://www.hw.com/athletics/elite8/Schedule) ---
**Author:** ![cbarrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@cbarrot](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/cbarrot)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 6:03am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/2 "2025-09-26T06:03:51Z")
I’m going to go, way out on a limb, and predict that Newport will win this. You guys heard it here first!!! ---
**Author:** ![swilliamson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@swilliamson](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/swilliamson)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 8:53am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/3 "2025-09-26T08:53:50Z")
League Representation 1. Newport - Sunset 2. CC - SD Western 3. SHP- Norcal WCAL 4. Miramonte - ACAL 5. Jserra - Trinity 6. Bishops - SD Section 7. CDM - Sunset 8. HW - Mission Please explain to me how the Sunset League gets two spots in this tournament? I understand that the tournament director and school can do what they want since they are hosting, but it’s not a good look having two program from the same league. So many more competitive programs out there in different leagues that could get the invite for a spot that represents 8 leagues; not 7. Why did Oaks Christian not get the invite this year to represent the Miramonte League who has been in the tournament for years? Just would have like see the balance of 8 league representatives in this tournament. It doesn’t feel or look the same. ---
**Author:** ![Rbpolo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Rbpolo](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/Rbpolo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/4 "2025-09-26T12:47:49Z")
It has nothing to do with leagues. They try and pick the best teams representing Norcal, Socal, and San Diego. CDM belongs. Maybe Oaks didn’t want to do it this year? They’ve played in it a bunch of times, so can’t imagine they wouldn’t be invited, but you never know. Edit: Looking at Jeff’s pre season rankings, Oaks might of missed the cut as he had CDM just above them. There was only room for 4 LA/OC teams. ---
**Author:** ![H20Polo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/67e7ee/32.png) [@H20Polo](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/H20Polo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/5 "2025-09-26T15:03:49Z")
For the record Cathedral Catholic and Bishop’s are both in the Western League of the San Diego City Conference. ---
**Author:** ![Marco](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/waterpoloexchange.com/marco/32/290_2.png) [@Marco](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/Marco)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/6 "2025-09-26T15:20:55Z")
> [@H20Polo](#): > > Cathedral Catholic and Bishop’s are both in the Western League of the San Diego City Conference. …and Bishop’s isn’t even the second best team in SDC Western League. If there were a team included on Elite Eight’s list that I’d look sideways at, it wouldn’t be 13-2 CDM. It would be 6-6 Bishop’s who just lost to La Jolla, and who finished behind La Jolla at CIF last year. ---
**Author:** ![swilliamson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@swilliamson](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/swilliamson)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 3:55pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/7 "2025-09-26T15:55:34Z")
Thanks for the clarification on this. This makes sense now. ---
**Author:** ![OCPoloDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c89c15/32.png) [@OCPoloDad](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/OCPoloDad)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/8 "2025-09-26T16:19:31Z")
Plus, teams only have three tournaments in a season. There are a lot of good tournaments out there to participate in at the highest level. Newport Harbor didn’t play in the North South Challenge until recent years because they were at the Memorial Cup. ---
**Author:** ![polo86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@polo86](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/polo86)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/9 "2025-09-26T17:18:00Z")
They actually removed the limit on tournaments. Teams can now participate in as many tournaments as possible so long as they stay under the maximum amount of games allowed (28). ---
**Author:** ![WPolo9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@WPolo9](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/WPolo9)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/10 "2025-09-26T17:24:17Z")
I agree Oaks C. should have been here over Bishops for sure but I can only assume they were invited but were not able to participate. ---
**Author:** ![OCPoloDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c89c15/32.png) [@OCPoloDad](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/OCPoloDad)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/11 "2025-09-26T19:02:55Z")
Thank you, did not know that ---
**Author:** ![polosurfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc79bd/32.png) [@polosurfer](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/polosurfer)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2025, 5:01am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/12 "2025-09-27T05:01:35Z")
We cant assume who got invited and turned them down and other conversations that coaches may have had. Newp and CDM are solid and I dont have an issue with them being in. I mean who would you cut out? ---
**Author:** ![H20Polo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/67e7ee/32.png) [@H20Polo](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/H20Polo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2025, 6:07am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/13 "2025-09-27T06:07:16Z")
My understanding is that the team finishing 8th each year is dropped. Which means SHP should have been dropped. Sounds like its political. ---
**Author:** ![Rbpolo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Rbpolo](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/Rbpolo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/14 "2025-09-27T15:14:25Z")
You guys are reading way too much into this. It’s an invite tournament run by HW. Schedules are made before the season starts. It doesn’t mean it’s the best 8 teams and there have been years where it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@jeff](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/jeff)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/15 "2025-09-27T15:41:34Z")
Rb is correct. There are no fixed rules for choosing the 8 schools participating in the Elite 8 Tournament. The schools are selected months before the season starts. The Elite 8 Tournament was established in 2016 during Brian Flacks’ tenure as Harvard-Westlake’s head coach. Flacks attempted and current head coach Jack Grover attempts to choose 8 of the better schools in the country while giving some thought to geographic diversity. Count me as someone who appreciates the mix of Northern California, San Diego, and Central Section schools. How about a well-deserved shoutout to Harvard-Westlake for attempting to live stream every game. If only the major college tournaments would do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@jeff](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 4:37am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/16 "2025-10-02T04:37:37Z")
Here are my predictions, often wrong, for this year’s Elite 8 Tournament: 1. Newport 2. Cathedral Catholic 3. Miramonte. Thursday’s game between Miramonte and JSerra could go either way. I believe the winner of that game will finish 3rd or 4th. 4. Sacred Heart. If Sacred Heart plays in the 3rd place game on Saturday, it will be their 6th game in four days. I don’t think they have the depth to win the 3rd pace game under those conditions. 5. JSerra 6. Corona del Mar 7. Bishop’s 8. Harvard-Westlake ---
**Author:** ![Sunscreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Sunscreen](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/Sunscreen)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/17 "2025-10-02T16:44:25Z")
Thank you to Harvard Westlake for live streaming these games. You guys were doing it long before others and it’s appreciated by many. Looking forward to some good games. ---
**Author:** ![anon39560856](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce73a5/32.png) [@anon39560856](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/anon39560856)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/18 "2025-10-02T23:22:32Z")
14-8 Newport over Harvard Westlake. Caught a majority of the game on the live feed. Newport went deep into their bench quite early, but I was very impressed with a lot of the younger players on HW. Grover has them playing smart and disciplined and I’m excited to see how they develop. ---
**Author:** ![anon39560856](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce73a5/32.png) [@anon39560856](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/anon39560856)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/19 "2025-10-03T00:34:29Z")
SHP & Bishop’s tied at 12 going into OT. SHP tied it at the end. If I saw correctly on the live stream, the SHP starting goalie was benched in the 4th quarter. ---
**Author:** ![anon39560856](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce73a5/32.png) [@anon39560856](https://waterpoloexchange.com/u/anon39560856)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816/20 "2025-10-03T01:15:14Z")
SHP beats Bishop’s in sudden death OT courtesy of a goal from Princeton commit Oliver Marcin. Marcin played great for SHP, backup goalie also had a couple solid saves during the sudden death period. I thought the difference in this game for SHP was having 2 elite centers constantly in the game. That’s hard to find in the HS game and they are lucky to have Marcin and Eiref always in the water and both are well conditioned too. For Bishop’s, JT Moss looked solid and Shin is a great sophomore, but needs to slow it down sometimes and read the pool. [Next page](https://waterpoloexchange.com/t/2025-elite-8-tournament/1816.md?page=2)