HS: Calm before the storm of tourneys

by Sheldon Shealer

December 30, 2019

Consider it the calm before the storm -- of tournaments.

Yes, there were a few very important tournaments with national rankings played last week -- some spilling over to Monday, but the action ramps up significantly this week with the start of the Texas high school season.

The North Texas Elite Showcase, a boys event that starts Thursday, features 10 SIMA FAB 50 teams, including four in the Top 10. The 24-team event has participants from California, Mississippi and Texas. Staying with the boys, St. Paul's (La.) travels to Tampa, Fla., this week for the Tampa Invitational, which has teams from Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

The staple event for winter girls, the National Elite Prep Showcase in Texas, also starts Thursday and features programs from California, Louisiana and Texas this year. This event usually has at least one Florida rep, but this year the tournament organizer also held a Florida-NEPS where a Texas team, Nolan Catholic made the trip to play the Florida powers. Nolan plays three more matches at the NEPS and its results will connect teams from Florida to California.

Enough of this week ... how about last week?

Los Alamitos (Calif.) won the prestigious Excalibur in California, topping Cathedral Catholic in the final in a clash of SIMA FAB 50 Top 25-ranked girls programs. Upland (Calif.) girls won all four of their matches at the North Orange County Classic to capture one of the NOCC division titles. In boys soccer, four nationally ranked teams gathered in Southern California for the College Showcase and the results showed how even these teams are as the games were 2-1, 3-1 and two 2-2 contests. Cathedral (Calif.) and De La Salle (Calif.) went 1-0-1, tying each other. Loyola (Calif.) and Servite (Calif.) went 0-1-1, tying each other. Two other major events from last week spill over to Monday -- the Arizona Showcase and SoCal High School Classic presented by Nike. Brophy Prep (Ariz.) and Carl Hayden (Ariz.) will meet for the Arizona Showcase final, while Mater Dei (Calif.) takes on upstart Los Alamitos (Calif.) for the top division title at the SoCal event.

The state No. 1s are Brophy Prep (Ariz.), Montgomery (Calif.), Doral Academy (Fla.), Punahou (Hawaii), St. Paul's (La.), Northwest Rankin (Miss.) and San Antonio LEE (Texas) for the boys; Chaparral (Ariz.), Monte Vista (Calif.), Montverde Academy (Fla.), Mililani (Hawaii), Mandeville (La.), Gulfport (Miss.) and Coppell (Texas) for the girls.