Just wanted to come on here and get your guys feedback on who you think will be at the top of the high school ranking this upcoming season. With Newport loosing a big senior class who is going be a top contender?
JSerra had a young squad last year. They might be strong.
Cathedral and it won’t be close. Unless the rumor is true about Jett and Grayson.
2 Likes
Jeff and I will put together a more detailed preview of the 2026 HS season later in the summer, but here are some tidbits. Not sure on the order, but Cathedral Catholic, La Jolla, and The Bishops will all be very strong (Top 5ish nationally). Yes, a lot will have to do with what the Taylors will do.
Miramonte should be the best team in the North and Top 5 nationally. Menlo will be right there as well with a terrific junior class led by Hunter Coleman–a goalie needs to step up, though. Campolindo will probably be battling for second (unproven goalie), but has a trio of senior studs. De La Salle should be solid (lost a lot to graduation), and Sacred Heart will have a solid starting line-up (two studs and a good goalie), but no depth. Redwood should be very solid as well.
JSerra has a terrific junior class, and it got stronger with the addition of Christian Yonker from San Marcos HS–he’s a strong attacker. They will be very good in the cage as well.
Newport will be very young (senior goalie), but will be dominated by a strong junior and sophomore class.
Both JSerra and Newport have outstanding freshman classes coming in as well.
Santa Margarita has one of the best senior classes (solid goalie play) and a lot of depth. They’ll be strong in the middle with senior Logan McGann.
Oaks Christian lost a trio of scorers, but has a talented underclassmen class of attackers, a strong center, and solid goalie play.
Harvard-Westlake will be much improved from a year ago with a very good senior class, led by Harry Siafaris. A few underclass studs are coming up, and their 14u group is among the nation’s best.
Mira Costa lost a lot to graduation, but still has a lot of talent in the program.
Long Beach Wilson should have its best team in the last 5 years and will be senior-laden.
Corona Del Mar lost a lot of talent, but should be in the mix as well, as they have a great senior tandem in Will Weir and Koosha Mirrafati. Not to mention, they have a very solid group of underclassmen coming up.
Dos Pueblos has an excellent group of attackers and a solid goalie.
Loyola, the defending D1 Champs, will have a very solid starting line-up of seniors and underclassmen.
Beckman will still be young, but they have a stud junior, a stellar sophomore class, and another good group of freshmen coming in.
A sleeper Orange County team should be San Juan Hills, as they have a group of very good players in Massa, Clark, Friedman, and Lawkun in the cage.
10 Likes
More to come? That’s already a lot!
What’s the rumor with the Taylors?
rumors of them playing internationally, strictly a rumor at this point
Elsewhere on the forum someone said they were going to play in Europe, which according to unrelated posts also on this site is the only way to reach the top as a waterpolo player.
Seems like they are planning on reaching the top.
Will be interesting to see if Jett will play at UCLA and if Grayson does the same?
Got some NorCal predictions for you all!
CCS
Preseason top 3: SHP, Menlo, and Soquel
SHP has 4 returning starters and strong goalkeeping. They will have 2 freshmen playing key minutes. This squad will be strong but not as deep as they have been in the past. Gamble and Eiref are 2 of the best players in the country this year.
Menlo only has one senior this fall who is not expected to play a significant role in key games. This team will have the same core of players for this and next fall. Coleman is one of the best 2028 players in the nation. CCS in 2027 is very likely theirs to lose.
Soquel returns 5 starters including one of the best goalies in the nation. This team has been significantly strengthened by the transfers they added. I believe this squad is also getting an invite to the North South challenge this year.
NCS
Preseason top 3: Miramonte, Campolindo, and Redwood
Miramonte is the best Northern California team this year on paper. They are deep, fast, and already have D1 commits. Will be interesting to see how they do this weekend in the high school tournament as they didn’t play as well back in January at College Park.
Campolindo is a senior heavy squad that has a Cal, UCLA, and Stanford commit. The biggest question for this team is who steps up in the goal, but they will be very strong other than that. Campo played well at College Park back in January, but will they snag 1st again this weekend?
Redwood will have their strongest team since 2022 when Charlie Mills was in the cage. I believe this is another squad that’s getting an invite to the North South challenge this year. This isn’t the deepest team, but personnel wise they are very solid and even snagged 2nd at College Park back in January.
SJS
Preseason top 3: Davis, Jesuit, and Merced
Davis returns most of their team from 2025 and are very well coached. They have a center that’s committed to Navy and a solid squad around him. They will be young in the goal but this year will be their best shot at a D1 title.
Jesuit only graduated 1 key player from last years squad. They are strong in the goal with some solid contributors that have another year of development under their belts. This will be Jesuits best chance at a D1 title since 2022.
Merced had emerged as a D2 powerhouse that is ready to make the jump to D1. They had the best goalie in the section last fall who was only a sophomore. Hoping it’s true that they got to move to D1 since they are 20 goals better than most if not all D2 teams.
Central
Preseason top 3: Buchanan, Clovis, and Clovis East
Buchanan is not going anywhere even after graduating a deep 2026 class. They return the #1 player in the section who’s about 6’7 and lefty. The Bears will have a mix of veteran and young talent putting in key minutes this fall.
Clovis is a team that has redemption on the mind after coming up short in the D1 title match last fall. They return the #1 goalie in the section and have some senior leaders ready to step up. Clovis will also look to get back to the NorCal tournament after being runner-ups in D2 the past 2 seasons.
Clovis East returns most of their D2 championship squad from last fall. They also played strong in D3 NorCal’s in 2025 finishing as runner-ups. This will be the year for Clovis East to make some waves in the Central section.
8 Likes
Good stuff Gumby–like the insight.
miramonte top 5 in the north… what about carondelet? interested to hear your thoughts on their talent. TY
Topping, so far, this thread has focused on the 2026 boys’ high school season. Carondolet, De La Salle’s sister school, had the best girls’ team in Northern California last year, winning the North Coast Section, Northern California Regional Tournament, and finishing 28-1. Carondolet returns two UCLA recruits. They are the pre-season favorites.
understood. thought that was odd:) Thank you for the redirection-LG COUGS!
My thoughts from the HS tournament this weekend
Definitely fair to say that a lot of teams are still learning to play with each other and playing a little sloppy right now.
Miramonte is deep and talented, they were down 8-4 to Redwood at half in the 1st place game and came back to win 16-11. They are the preseason #1 team in NorCal.
Redwood is very strong this year, but like a lot of HS polo teams they are top heavy. Goalie Yummy Mills had three penalty saves in the Miramonte game. They beat SHP in sudden victory in the semifinal which is a great result for them.
SHP is still at the top of NorCal this year after graduating a big senior class. They still do a good job of sticking to their system, but the big question is if they’ll be able to after this fall with the players they have left.
Campolindo looked off today, especially against SHP. They certainly have the talent to surprise anyone in NorCal this year. I also think it’s fair to say that they have better water polo ahead of them.
SRV is essentially in the same place they were last year. They have two solid goalies and a strong junior class. They’ll likely have to contend with teams like DLS and Northgate for that fourth open spot.
Menlo had a solid weekend, they were only down by about three goals going into the fourth quarter against Miramonte. Definitely not as big as last year but have a lot of young talent. Goalkeeping needs to continue to improve.
Archie Williams took a developmental approach this weekend and still ended up finishing seventh. They were clearly a different team when Greenberg was in. They are also pretty young this year with only 2 or so seniors.
Soquel was missing a key bench player and their goalie who just committed to Stanford. They definitely have solid personnel and some younger guys putting in good minutes. They will be a different team with their starting goalie back.
Valley Christian has a solid starting six but not deep after that. The two transfers they got last year are definitely keeping this team competitive. Could definitely see them getting at least third in WCAL this fall.
Los Gatos certainly is a different team after graduating their 2026 class, but still had a good weekend. Their center, lefty, and goalie really make this team go. This team should still contend for the SCVAL title this year.
St. Francis was missing their starting goalie and two key players this weekend. They got two transfers which definitely helped them out this weekend. They will be competitive in WCAL/CCS when they get their goalie back.
5 Likes