HS: State, region rankings, Dec. 19

by Sheldon Shealer

December 19, 2016

The teams largely remain the same, the order is vastly different among California high school girls as several holiday tournament surprises led to a complete overhaul of the rankings.

Just how crazy was the turnover?

Consider last week's Nos. 11 and 12 in California-South are now up to No. 2 and 3 -- without playing a match. Every other team between 2-10 last week either lost or tied in what is the deepest, most competitive area for high school soccer.

The big movers this week on the girls side include Carondelet (Concord, Calif.), which takes over the California-North No.1 ranking; California (San Ramon, Calif.), at 6-0 with a win over San Ramon Valley (Danville, Calif.) is now a legit EBAL title threat; Westlake (Westlake Village, Calif.), at 5-0 with favorable common opponent results with other ranked teams; and Santiago/Corona (Corona, Calif.), which topped former SIMA FAB 50 Top 25-ranked Corona del Mar (Newport Beach, Calif.) in PKs to win a holiday event.

Around the country last week, it was pretty quiet as most Texas schools have yet to start and several Florida programs are already in the holiday season break.

The current state No. 1s for boys are Corona del Sol (Tempe, Ariz.), Godinez (Anaheim, Calif.), Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.), Punahou (Honolulu, Hawaii), St. Paul's (Covington, La.), Northwest Rankin (Flowood, Miss.) and Coppell (Texas). On the girls side, the state No. 1s are Xavier College Prep (Phoenix, Ariz.), Santa Margarita (Rancho SM, Calif.), St. Johns Country Day (Orange Park, Fla.), Punahou (Honolulu, Hawaii), St. Scholastica (Covington, La.), Brandon (Miss.) and Marcus (Flower Mound, Texas).