HS: Winter FAB 50, Dec. 12

by Sheldon Shealer

December 12, 2017

Early season rankings can be quite volitale as results replace the hype.

This week, Torrey Pines (San Diego, Calif.) learned that in both boys and girls soccer. The Falcons boys posted a 3-1 win over Cathedral (Los Angeles, Calif.) to vault all the way to FAB 50 No. 9 this week. On the girls side, the Falcons, a former FAB 50 Top 10 team that fell following an early tie, jumped right back into the Top 25 after winning the Butch Lee Memorial on Saturday.

The December rankings always follow a similar path. The California powers jockey for position, while many of the Florida teams pump up their record against inferior competition and the Texas teams get a bit artifically inflated in their ranking while waiting for the season to start. But, a month from now, everything will fall into place. The run of December and early January tournaments quickly will sort of the contenders from pretendors, and teams in all three power states will start to go head-to-head with other regionally and nationally ranked teams.

While there has been a taste of the higher level competition in the past two weeks for California schools, it goes national this week with the Lotto-Sport Western Showcase, which features boys teams from four states. Similar events follow in the weeks to come, capped by the National Elite Prep Showcase and North Texas Elite Showcase the first weekend in January where teams from coast-to-coast will compete in Texas.

BIG MOVERS: BOYS: Loyola (Los Angeles, Calif.). Loyola moved up five spots after reaching the adidas West Coast Showcase final, where it fell to No. 10 [Paramouth ca-m] (Calif.) in penalty kicks. The five-spot move matched the high for the week by teams previously in the rankings. ... GIRLS: Torrey Pines (San Diego, Calif.). Torrey Pines has been on a yo-yo ride and ends up back at No. 21 this week after winning the Butch Lee Memorial.

NEWCOMERS: BOYS: No. 9 Torrey Pines (San Diego, Calif.), No. 36 El Toro (Lake Forest, Calif.), No. 45 Miami Beach (Fla.), No. 48 Century (Santa Ana, Calif.) and No. 49 Tolleson Union (Tolleson, Ariz.). ... GIRLS: No. 35 Trabuco Hills (Mission Viejo, Calif.), No. 37 Upland (Calif.), No. 49 Westlake (Westlake Village, Calif.), No. 50 West Lauderdale (Collinsville, Miss.).