…and RoundMound34’s take is a good one. In 16u,. I think Del Mar will steamroll everyone. Through the course of the season, they played the core up in 18u. Now at JOs, they are dual rostering 5 18u players onto their 16u team. They are so loaded on 16u, they didn’t even bother with dual rostering Jett Taylor, who is 16u eligible, and was working out with the US Men’s Senior team.
In 14u, I think it comes down to Patriot versus Channel Islands, and I think CIU takes it.
Rosters show a few teams have kids rostered for 16u and 18u. Looking at Del Mar and Newport and many are double rostered but looks like mission doesn’t have any of its younger kids playing on 16u. Results should vary widely based on who actually plays in the 16u games.
designateddriver,
When you start calling opinions of others stupid, you probably cannot defend yours 
Let us keep it respectful, shall we? The second team from Vegas is not even a combo team:
P.S. I am done with this discussion. Good luck to everybody!
Agree that Patriot and CIU are the favorites heading into the tournament. That being said, there is more parity this year at the 14u level than I have seen in several years, which makes for an exciting tournament and is undoubtedly great for the sport. There are sleepers out there who are peaking at the right time and could put a wrench in some plans. The sheer number of shootouts that took place at Futures SuperFinals (eight!) in this division was staggering. Should be a very fun 4 days to follow this age group with a lot of close games determining who moves on and who does not. Every possession will matter.
Agree Patriot and CIU are definitely the frontrunners, and Del Mar too. Upsets feel inevitable though. Should be exciting four days.
Here are my predictions, often wrong, for the 18u age group:
Newport Beach. Newport Beach is Newport Harbor’s 2025 high school team, less Connor Ohl who is playing for the United States in the World Championships. Two Newport Harbor Class-of-2025 graduates are playing for the Beast Boys: goalie Luke Harris (USC) and center defender/attacker Santino Rossi (UCLA). If my memory serves me correctly, Newport Harbor’s graduating seniors usually play for Newport Beach in the Junior Olympics. Newport Beach will have to beat a good Vanguard team to finish first in Group “A” play on Saturday. I’m picking Newport Beach to win the gold medal because they have 2 of the top 4 or 5 Class-of-2026 players, a third Class-of-2026 “Big 4” recruit, good depth, excellent coaching, and a lot of experience playing together.
Beast Boys. A solid team with good depth. Center defender Reed Hanna (Tamalpais Class of 2025, USC) has returned to the San Francisco Water Polo Club after playing for the Beast Boys in the spring. Unlike many previous Junior Olympics “all-star teams,” the Beast Boys have played together a good deal during the spring and summer club seasons. To avoid playing extra games, the Beast Boys need to finish first in Group “P” play on Sunday. Group “P,” which will likely be comprised of the Beast Boys, LA Premier, and SOCAL or CIU, will probably be the strongest of the Day 2 groups. If the games go as I predict on Saturday and Sunday, the Beast Boys will face Newport Beach on Monday. I give Newport a slight edge in that game. If Newport wins, the Beast Boys will need to win an extra game on Monday to reach the semifinals.
CCU. CCU has been inconsistent during the spring and summer club seasons but I think they have the talent and depth to finish third. CCU will have to beat a good Stanford team to finish first in Group “J” play on Saturday. If CCU finishes first in Group “J,” it will probably face Mission and Atherton or Del Mar in Group “N” play on Sunday. On a good day, each of these teams is capable of beating CCU (if Del Mar plays its top 16u players on its 18u team) but I give the slight edge to CCU.
LA Premier. LA Premier is Harvard-Westlake’s 2024 high school team. If the Beast Boys finish ahead of LA Premier in Group “P” play on Sunday, LA Premier will need to win extra games to reach the semifinals. To finish in the top 6, LA Premier needs to receive solid play from its goalies.
Mission. Mission is JSerra’s 2025 high school team, plus Taylor Bell, a Princeton recruit and one of the top players in the Class of 2025. In addition to Bell, Mission may have the top Class-of-2026 goalie (Jonas Ransford, Harvard). Mission’s top 16u players will play for its 18u team. Mission is very well coached.
Lamorinda. Lamo doesn’t have great depth but it is strong up the middle with underrated goalie Jack Elder (Las Lomas Class of 2026, a likely high D1 player), center defender Patrick Stice (Miramonte Class of 2025, Cal), and center Tristan Tucker (Miramonte Class of 2026, UCLA). Lamo also has a very good LH attacker (Griff Tunney. Miramonte Class of 2025, Brown). Lamo needs to beat Diablo to finish first in Group “C” play on Saturday. That should be a good game. If Lamo beats Diablo, it will probably face CdM and Greenwich in Group “O” play on Sunday. Miramonte, CdM, and Greenwich are capable of finishing first in Group “O.” I predict that the winner of Group “O” play will finish 5th or 6th in the tournament.
what are your predictions for 16u?
I just checked Jeff’s 2024 18u and 16u predictions vs actual
18u 4/6
16u 7/8
Not bad.
LB shore was missing 4 key players that will make a big impact. In QS LB only had around 9 players
What about Mission? Early in the year I had seen they were the #1 seed for futures superfinals. Does anyone know where they came in in the 16s age group?
Mission has their best 16s playing in 18s. They also lost a couple of their best 18s to Newport. I don’t expect their 16s to medal (or even top 20) as a result.
Jeff- thank you for posting your always thoughtful and detailed analysis. They are always interesting and have alot of good information as well. I respect the courage to put predictions in black and white, and take ownership of them. So, inspired by that, for what its worth, here is mine:
I mostly agree with the list. I feel the top three teams are (in no order) Newport, BBoys, LA Premier. It is unfortunate they are all on the same side of the bracket. I think whichever sucessfully runs that gauntlet will win the tournament. Often, and this year especially, the teams are moving targets with changing or short rosters that make some of the past results less revealing of expected performance. As to how each of those teams looks in that regard:
Newport- On paper, they may have the most compelling story to first place. They won CIF, they won SoPac QS. However for JOs they wont have all their CIF winning team (Lucca van DerWoude, Luke Harris, notably) but they did add Tyler Anderson at center. But the big loss since SoPac QS is Connor Ohl (US Mens National Team/ Stanford). The loss of Ohl is not replaceable, and is a difference maker.
BBoys- The recent Futures Superfinal win over Newport was impressive, but they took 3rd in SoPac QS behind Newport and Mission. While they do have the “super team” type roster, especially on the wings, the loss of Reed Hanna (USC/ probably their best center defender) is a big loss. This could have a significant impact vs these other two teams who perhaps have two of the best centers in the tournament with Otto Stothart (Princeton) and Anderson.
LA Premier- This is the same core group that won the 2023 JOs 16U Championship. But, they clearly are the least deep of the three and have underperformed when missing key players. For example, they crashed out of Future Superfinals into 17th place. They were then missing their arguably two best players, Stothard and center defender Collin Caras (1st Team All-CIF SS/ Stanford). However, they cruised through to win CST QS with I think only 1 or 2 subs, and one of the missing was Connor Kim (US Youth National Team/ Harvard), and beat CIU in their home pool. Also they took a full strength BBoys to shootout in the Futures crossover, while missing Kim, and Caras. I hear they will be at full strength for JOs.
So finally my prediction: LAP over BBoys in the P Platinum group on Sunday to face a Ohl-less Newport in a coin flip. Winner of that to win it all. Feel free to roast me after the results are in!
Not sure about LA Premier as they did not seem to be that relevant this year especially with the futures.
I predict the JO FINAL, it will be a rematch of the Futures Final ( Beast Boy vs Newport) unless there are some suprise NorCal teams with booster transfers. Newport will be missing Ohl but they are too deep, looking at their roster, they do not have a single senior! They almost won the FUTURES with Ohl, Kaneko and their new transfer center lefty Anderson missing. Beast boys are stacked, playing much more cohesive together with most or all SENIORS committed playing D1 polo. Should be a fun couple days of polo.
Unless LA Premier’s graduated seniors show up (I didn’t see them at all during Future’s league play), I don’t see them finishing top 10. I think CCU, Stanford, Atherton and SF are all solid, and if any of them have a favorable draw, and have any roster additions not seen at Futures, they could fight for a podium spot along with Beast Boys and Newport. Still can’t figure out LAMO’s Future’s performance.
Factoid: to emphasize what CAWP said about Newport’s depth…Newport 18u has won gold the last two years and their 16’s won it last year.
If the rosters shown on the JO website are accurate, LA Premier is Harvard-Westlake’s 2024 high school team, which included Class-of-2025 players center Otto Stothart (Princeton), center defender Collin Caras (Stanford), Connor Kim (Harvard), and underrated Taj Draper. Center/attacker Harry Siafaris is a top Class-of-2027 player.
Lamorinda is in the weaker half of the draw. They could finish as high as fifth and as low as outside of the top 12. I don’t read too much into Lamo’s performance at the Futures Super Finals. They were missing two members of the youth national team.
Don’t sleep on LAP squad
You forgot Charlie Johnson and Jake Lee, 2 of the best players on Loyola this past year.
I predict LA Premier will beat Channel Islands and Greenwich. That’s a doable path to the top 8.
It’s a departure from LA Premier’s strategy in the past relying on graduating seniors, but they are talented and well prepared.
Where can I find the roosters for 18u
I don’t believe either Ohare is playing for 18u ccu. How does that change things