The Greenwich player was only with SC for Club Championships, will not be with them for JOs. Not sure about CHAWP but can confirm no new players added or lost for SD Shores.
So, you’re missing some detail here. LJU 18’s just returned from an Italy trip Friday night. Not all the girls played this weekend for obvious reasons and those that did were probably not well rested after a transcontinental flight.
Last Year PSW 16’s Girls at JO’s finished #3 SD Shores, #9 LJU, #12 Del Mar and #17 Odin. So, 4 spots in Platinum all 3rd-17th.
Since Del Mar and Odin don’t have an 18’s team you really only have SD Shores and LJU competing in Platinum. SD Shores is virtually all 1st year 18’s. Last year that 16’s team won Super Finals, won US Club Championships and finished 3rd in JO’s.
Both SD Shores and LJU 18’s are primarily 1st year 18’s and Del Mar and Odin 18’s don’t exist. So yeah, they won’t repeat last year’s results.
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Both La Jolla and SD Shores have strong 18u teams. You are correct as to the 16u girls in the PSW zone, however. After finishing with 3 teams in the top 12 last year at JO’s, the PSW zone is very weak in the 16u Girls age group this year. They will benefit from their seeds early, but it will likely catch up to them at some point, even with some teams taking a hit due to Worlds athletes missing.
SD Shores finished 12th and La Jolla finished 18th at US Club Championships.
SD Shores finished 17th, Daygo finished 18th, and La Jolla was in D2 for Futures Superfinals.
The question is whether this is a down year in the zone or a downward trend. SD Shores 14u and Dons 14u are consistently in the top 8 in major tournaments and the Del Mar 12u girls are in the hunt for a podium finish, so it may just be an off year in San Diego.
Okay, I’ll bite.
I know the CHAWP team pretty well. They beat 680 by roughly 12–2 earlier this year. Even if 680 adds one more player, I’d still be surprised if they win.
CHAWP 14s came in as Red team in the 16s at John Hale tournament this weekend. They played 4 games Sat and were also entered into an 18u bracket. They beat one 18u team and almost beat an 18U San Diego Shores team this weekend. They have added no new players since the beginning (some have speculated that CHAWP added some new 14s and that’s incorrect; if anything they lost a good player). The club has done a great job just developing. They only play with 9 which is amazing IMHO. They do a lot with little. CHAWPS little14u team also beat their own 16U White squad (whom of which did well at JO quals) at the John Hale Tournament earlier today to take 1st place.
There is only one 14u girls team that can’t be beat and that’s Newport and most likely Patriot. 3rd-10th is anyone’s grab at JO’s.
The SD Shores team that finished 2nd in 18’s is the Shores B team.
Junior Olympics is going to be exciting ! Lots of good teams. 18 and 16’s will have some heavy competition. This will make it really exciting.
Lots of polo this past weekend going on with the Quicksilver and Newport Invite as the high level events. HS Champs on the girls side was strong as well.
Overall , Lots of young kids impacting 18’s trying to prove a point and earn that playing time on their varsity squad . I was at Newps and the Comp was good . MD was looking good .
H20polo- From a coach’s perspective, context matters.
When you’re talking about a team made up primarily of 13- and 14-year-old athletes competing against an 18U roster, the expectation is that the older team will have the advantage in size, strength, speed, and physical maturity. That’s not an excuse, it’s simply the reality of the developmental differences between those age groups.
What impressed me wasn’t the final score. It was the way these younger players competed. They executed their game plan, played with confidence, and built a three-goal lead into the third quarter against an older, more physically mature team. They put themselves in a position to win.
As the game wore on, the physical demands of playing against older athletes began to show, which is to be expected. But that doesn’t take away from the performance. If anything, it reinforces how much potential this group has. They demonstrated composure, resilience, and the ability to compete with athletes several years older than they are.
As a coach, that’s the kind of performance you build on. The scoreboard tells part of the story, but growth, execution, and proving you can compete at that level tell the rest
pmj93 I can’t agree more. I was simply defining the competition but yes 4 years of difference is huge. I’m super excited to watch the CHAWP 14’s girls at JO’s.
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Pmj93 what event was this at ?
I thought you had a kid @ SoCal ? Is this valid info ? Did the 14’s really beat an 18’s team ? I can’t find any scores from the John Hale invite ? Who was at this event?
Hi. It was at John Hale Tournament. No I don’t have a kid at SoCal. It’s very valid. Yes the 14s did beat an 18s team (almost 2).
Good wins Pmj93. Couldn’t find the tournament bracket but probably some good top ten teams in that event. Getting ready for Junior Olympics is what it is all about.
Curious were the 16s missing any kids? Also, seems like the development is missing if this is happening with 14’s beating older generations from the same organization.
Anyhow get rested , drink fluids, eat proteins and make sure to apply sun block, OC is great weather right now but those clouds will fool you in the morning causing sun burn.
My daughter had been having double workouts for the past three weeks and it’s become quite a task to keep her hydrated and coated up with sun block with sun still winning even though it’s cloudy . Be prepared for JO’s.
pmj93,
All I meant was that, with the Greenwich addition, most likely, 680 are getting a little bit closer to the better PAC 14u zone teams (Diablo, Stanford, Lamo, and Santa Cruz), at least based on what one could see watching the 680 vs Santa Cruz game at the PAC JO Quals. Since CHAWP lost by 3 and 4 to Diablo and Stanford at their home tournament (USCC) just two weeks ago, playing at full strength afaik, it seems like a logical conjecture. I am not claiming that CHAWP will loose, probably they will not. But at the 12u and, typically, 14u girls level, all you need is two very good players and a good goalie, accompanied by competent supporting staff to end up in the top 12 at the JOs. CHAWP is one such likely example, by the way. I have no idea if 680 have other difference makers on their roster, and I do not know much about their goalies, so it could easily be that one addition will not be enough.
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Just a heads up that this has a couple of very common AI writing fingerprints. It repeatedly uses the “it’s not X, it’s Y” formula, relies heavily on hyphenated modifiers, and has the polished, textbook cadence that’s becoming increasingly recognizable. None of that proves it was written by ChatGPT, but those patterns have become pretty obvious.
Can we at least consider posting more of our own writing instead of leaning so heavily on AI? It’s becoming so common that it’s starting to distract from the actual content. Even in the workplace and schools (and even coaches), these writing patterns are immediately recognizable because they’re so overused.
Now, regarding JO’s, lots of teams do the shallow bench and even teams that have the appearance of depth often do not use it unless up by a lot. This is a down year for water polo enrollment at the 12-14u age for sure. You mentioned they would only lose to Newport and Patriot, but you’re leaving off Stanford and 908 and a few others in that list who have all proven themselves directly and indirectly. Yes, anything can happen and 3rd place would be amazing I agree, it can certainly be done. But just like San Clemente can beat anyone, actually don’t it are two different things. Neither San Clemente or chawp or SD Shores earned a podium at the major tourneys with the other clubs mentioned for a reason. Would be great to breakthrough and dominate the one big tourney. Let’s see what happens.
I think San Clemente, Santa Cruz, Chawp easily win day 1. I think 908, Stanford, Shores Black easily win their day 1. Then the fun begins. They really need to beat San Clemente and Santa Cruz on day 2. I think it can be done as they matchup better there than 908, Stanford, Shores Black.
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I honestly can’t say anything for 908. There were no games set up with CHAWP this year and they never met. As far as Stanford, Diablo those games were much closer than appeared on the ending score. Multiple goals were left out there for CHAWP. I thought the Diablo goalie was better than the Stanford goalie from a stand perspective. Both teams have really good players and are well coached. Honestly, I’m glad JO’s are almost here. All these young ladies have worked so hard and it will be fun for them. I’m just along for the ride. I’m sure moms and dads are ready for a break lol. In the spirit of good sportsmanship good luck to all
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908 is the real deal. I beleive they only lost 3 games all year. As long as they stick with feeding their center; they will have a chance to win JO’s. Only weak spot is in the cage. Best way to beat them is score a lot of goals. 
I have Chawp at #4 or #5 at JO’s but could sneak in higher if they can upset 908, San Clemente, and likely one more.
I think they easily beat Santa Cruz, Lamo, 680 and have a shot to win day 1 and day 2 brackets.
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I might be wrong but I think 908 will not have their center for JOs.
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Yes they have their center. It’s one of their attackers that got taken to cadet worlds.
For relative convenience of forecasting 16u Girls added Futures Super, USCC game scores to 2026 16U Girls JO Qual, Futures Super, US Club Champ Games Scores - Google Sheets (which started as JO Quals game scores).
In totality 16u Futures, USCC scores are very untrustworthy as many teams played up first lines in 18th. But if you benchmark Santa Barbara games vs the world, it’s a good metrics for some other zones.
Example:
Central:
Arroyo Grande (1st in central) would narrowly lose (Futures) to both top 1 and 2 PSW (San Diego) zone seeds, and substantially lose (Futures) to South Coast (2nd in Coastal) which does not look outlandish. (Wonder if material power on Arroyo was missing in Futures. Anyone?). If This is the bench for Central, and it’s at disadvantage to PSW (which is, again, per earlier post, is likely at disadvantage to SPA), this looks like top ~6 in 16u will be between SPA, Coastal, Pacific.
Pacific:
Lamorinda (1st in Pacific, by barely a 1 goal diff vs 680 per JO Qual, so both Lamo and 680 are equally dangerous this year in 16u), had miserable performance in Futures and USCC. Very likely held their fist line up in 18th or elsewhere. However, 680 (per JO Quals a Lamo twin), had gimpy team at Futures, but brought most of power to USCC: lost by one vs Mission on shootout, proportional beating applied to Patriots, Meridian (my new favorite up-and-comer from Pacific 
). So, 680 games are a better benchmark for both 680 and Lamo vs other zones. And… it’s that barely-lost-to-Mission on shootouts (7.3-7.2 notice how good goalies are, or bad shooters are? ) that tells me both Lamo (if they did not lose too much with departure of 1 girl to Worlds) and 680 are neck-neck with top of SPA 16u this year. I love Meridian close 3rd there! Only very-slightly behind 680+Lamo. Meridian lost only 6-8 to SB who trashed everyone else at USCC. Man, what a cool strong newcomer?!) These 3 will gobble up slots in top 10-12.
SPA
What a bore it is this year. 3 teams neck-in-neck: Mission won by 1 over Newport who won by 1 over Legacy in JO Quals. Then there is a chasm. None of the 3 really played their first lines in non-JO events; so comps are weird. However, Mission fielded enough of their power in USCC - enough to compare: Mission vs SB: 9-12 loss in USCC, and consistent 7-11 loss in Futures. That kinda places rest of SPA in comparison to SB
Coastal (ahem, Santa Barbara)
Spread between SB and runner up in Coastal - South Coast is unfortunately large. In between them entirety of Pacific and SPA top 3 in each managed to squeeze themselves in non-JO games. However, SB vs Coastal was 8-7 in JO Quals. Had South Coast been holding out on us? Judging by destruction sb B team caused to A teams, what a bench this year for SB! They lost noone to Worlds and even if they did 1 or 2, they would still be most dangerous.
If reads and comps are ~correct, 16u Girls 2026 JO should look like:
- sb (likely by large safe margin away from rest)
- mission (a tiny hair of separation from next group. a sneeze and they slide down)
- newport,lamo,legacy (680 has a great misfortune of running into Mission on day 2 and likely falling off the track)
- then should be Daygo or something, but through magic of group play here comes Arroyo and South Coast (recovering from group of death prior day
) - Then Daygo (and maybe Patriots mostly due to scheduling)
- 680 (on paper 680 does not deserve this treatment ), Stanford
- Diablo, Tsunami?
I always want to stick Greenwich somewhere in there, but comps are so spotty, so don’t know.
South Coast has the misfortune of being in a day-2 group of death with SB + Legacy. It will be super tough for them to keep even 2nd-out-of-the-group. What a misfortune! Not deserved.
Weirdly, Newport has easiest ride to top 4 due to the schedule. (If they don’t mess up with Santa Cruz earlier in groups, which they can, as they are not consistent.) A bump into SB on day 3 will still keep them in top-4 contention regardless of outcome with SB.
I really look forward to days 3, 4 of this! So much blur still in outcomes. We will be surprised in 2-6 slots.
Surprised Stanford got left off PAC. They won first ant Cal Cup and then came in 3rd at Futures, got some great shooters and field defense, but losing their goalie to World team.
Should add thanks for putting together
Stanford didn’t have their Worlds goalie at Futures Superfinals and still found the podium.