History:
2021 NJO Session 1 Schedule
2022 NJO Session 1 Schedule
2023 NJO Session 1 Schedule
2024 NJO Session 1 Schedule
2026 Preliminary Allocations:
The official USAWP document is here: 2026 JO Preliminary Allocations (PDF) - USA Water Polo
The final zone allocations should be out June 8 plus or minus a week.
2026 JO Qualification Schedules:
The official USAWP document is here: 2026 JO Qualifier/Deadline Schedule - USA Water Polo
Brackets:
Great! Now, who will we play on day 2?
@Marco I am really confused by the CCA 12U Boys seedings. I was looking at the bracket. Did 908 and ORWP really get relegated to 4th and 5th in CCA?
Edit: I just looked at the schedule again. They did. That is really surprising to me.
Calling it now. Classic (Ag) finals will be Patriot vs Mission B.
Patriot doesn’t win by less than 6 for the entire tournament including the final
Patriot would have a good shot at gold in gold division. I count 20+ teams in other zones they would beat. Hopefully prompts USAWP to think seriously about a different algo than purely membership based.
Here’s one suggestion - bottom 4 placements in Championship get relegated and top 4 in Classic get promoted. Modest adjustments to membership-based starting point that has error-correcting built in.
@Marco thanks for posting so quickly. some interesting potential day two groupings for 14U.
Yes, very interesting day two groupings. There are also some very good teams I think may lose on day one and have to win their way back into Upper Platinum.
Here is the full day two map:
10u Boys is a 35-team bracket, and luckily we have a recent example. The bracket below is based off the 14U_F_Classic_35 bracket from Session 2 last year.
Big shout out to Marco and his work on these
Dons vs 908 on day 2 is a big game.
Thank you for putting this together, Marco. 10U SPA quals, Newport B is 2nd and CDM is 3rd.
Thank you for the double check. Fixed.
I’ll throw a stake in the ground. This year’s 18UBs is wide open. My top 16 will come from these groups, in some order:
| 1-8 | 9-16 |
|---|---|
| CCU | ATHERTON |
| CIU A | DIABLO |
| LA JOLLA | GREENWICH |
| LAMORINDA | IMPERIAL |
| NEWPORT | MISSION |
| SD DONS | NORCAL |
| STANFORD | SD SHORES |
| TROJAN | SHAQ |
This year could also see some roster shakeups between quals and JOs. Not accounting for any international imports, these teams could lose (note this is subject to scrutiny as I don’t know if these cadet players play 18U or will make the travel team):
| Name | Reason | Team |
|---|---|---|
| John Burns | Cadet | American River |
| Jack Pointner | Naval Academy | CIU A |
| Channing Wigo | Cadet | CIU B |
| Cord McCall | Cadet | Diablo |
| Tanner Lustig | Naval Academy | Diablo |
| Brandon Hansen | Air Force | Foothill |
| William Gorsche | Cadet | LA Premier |
| Harry Siafaris | Cadet | LA Premier |
| Wyatt Sturgeon | Air Force | Lake Oswego |
| Sam Storrs | Air Force | Lamo |
| Brock Bliss | Naval Academy | Lamo |
| Grant Stevens | Cadet | Lamo |
| Andrew Schneider | Cadet | Mission |
| Ronan Keane | Cadet | Mission |
| Christopher Koo | Cadet | Mission |
| Owen Marks | Cadet | Newport |
| Declan Bartlett | Naval Academy | Newport |
| Hudsen Parks | Naval Academy | Newport |
| Alistair Sterrett | Cadet | Northwest |
| Owen Clark | Cadet | Patriot |
| Hunter Loo | Cadet | Pride |
| Levi Huggins | Cadet | San Jose Express |
| Cortez Chavez | Cadet | SD Dons |
| Jack Davis | Cadet | SD Dons |
| Grayson Taylor | Cadet | SD Dons |
| Maximus Arnold | Naval Academy | SD Dons |
| Colin McPhail | Naval Academy | SD Dons |
| Oren Penning | Naval Academy | SD Dons |
| Mark Minasian | Cadet | SD Shores |
| Aden Shin | Cadet | SD Shores |
| Liam Zarcu | Cadet | SD Shores |
| Declan Murphy | Naval Academy | SF WPC |
| Brandon Walton | Air Force | SOCAL |
| John Bergstedt | Naval Academy | SOCAL |
| Hunter Coleman | Cadet | Stanford |
| Tobin Hunt | Air Force | Trojan |
| John Cowles | Air Force | Trojan |
| Francesco Pintaric | Cadet | Trojan |
| Arda DeMiryurek | Cadet | Trojan |
| Pierce Bateman | Air Force | CT Premier |
| Team | Players |
|---|---|
| American River | 1 |
| CIU A | 1 |
| CIU B | 1 |
| Diablo | 2 |
| Foothill | 1 |
| LA Premier | 2 |
| Lake Oswego | 1 |
| Lamo | 3 |
| Mission | 3 |
| Newport | 3 |
| Northwest | 1 |
| Patriot | 1 |
| Pride | 1 |
| San Jose Express | 1 |
| SD Dons | 6 |
| SD Shores | 3 |
| SF WPC | 1 |
| SOCAL | 2 |
| Stanford | 1 |
| Trojan | 4 |
| CT Premier | 1 |
| Total | 40 |
Thats a great callout @Gibson . That is at a minimum as the other 18U graduating seniors that may be reporting to college and potentially skipping JO may happen, but at a smaller scale than you list here. Superfinals will be a good leading indicator.
curious to see how this impacts 16U for JOs - could mean some higher seeds losing early if missing some of their best players. when will final cadet roster be selected?
This makes Futures v JOs all the more interesting
