Who are the best boys high school teams in Texas for the Fall 2026 season? Are any of them playing tournaments in SoCal this upcoming season to see how good they are compared to the nations best teams?
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SteveDfw,
I don’t follow Texas high school water polo closely enough to answer your first question. Jesuit (Dallas) will play in this year’s Villa Park Classic. St. Mark’s (Dallas), usually one of the best schools in Texas, will play in the South Coast Tournament and the Steve Pal Memorial Tournament. St. Mark’s is coached by Trent Calder, a 2x NCAA champion at Cal and former assistant coach at Brown and U.C. Davis. St. Mark’s finished 6th in last year’s Villa Park Classic, losing to Santana in the 5th place game. They finished 2nd in the Buckner Division of last year’s Steve Pal Memorial Tournament, losing to Garces in the finals. The Buckner Division is not the strongest of the four Divisions in the Steve Pal Memorial Tournament. The South Coast Tournament is a 32-school, 5-game tournament. Almost all of the top California schools will participate in this year’s South Coast Tournament. I think a good showing for St. Mark’s would be to finish in the top 24.
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Jeff, This is great info. I am familiar with the SoCal and Villa Park Tournaments. Not so much with the Steve Pal Memorial. This is great to see that St. Mark’s has committed to these tourneys. I will make it a point to go to some of their games this season. I need to get the schedules for Jesuit and St. Mark’s. Do these schools have open borders for kids around DFW metroplex to attend their schools? What is your best guess for the top 5 teams in DFW for the 2026 season?
South Coast Tournament will be held Sept 17th thru 19th in Orange County pools
St Mark’s doesn’t compete in the UIL (which is the Texas version of CIF) so that is why they travel. Jesuit will have a strong team as well as Marcus, Westlake (Luke Welton- Santa Clara committ) and Foster. I’m not sure how St Mark’s will be this year as their club team (Pegasus) finished in the bottom half of the gold division at JOs this year.
I looked up ST Mark’s schedule and they only show 4 games. Do I understand that none of the other top-tier Texas teams will play them (Jesuit, Marcus, Weslake, Foster)?
Do Jesuit, Marcos, Westlake and Foster schedule each other during the season? I’m looking to go see some of the best games to watch in DFW region.
No, they probably don’t play St. Mark’s. Most teams compete in a couple of tournaments at the beginning of the season and then will go into district play. Clear Creek has been the state champ the last two years (graduated athletes playing at Santa Clara and Biola) and just beat Westlake in a tournament this past weekend. I do feel that it’s still up in the air of who the top teams are as several schools lost many seniors. Going by last weekend’s tournament Clear Creek won with Westlake coming in second and Hebron in third.