HS: Winter region, state rankings, Feb. 9

by Sheldon Shealer

February 9, 2015

Cecil Hinds made history in Mississippi and most of the girls favorites won state titles Florida to highlight the storylines from this past weekend.

Hinds, the fourth-year coach at Madison Central (Madison, Miss.), guided BOTH the boys and girls teams to Class 6A state titles in Mississippi on Saturday. The boys went 22-1-1 and the girls finished 18-2-1 as Hinds, one of a handful in Mississippi coaching the boys and girls during the same season, compiled a winter coaching record of 40-3-2. The "history" comes in the form that Hinds becomes the first Mississippi high school coach to guide both boys and girls teams to state titles in back-to-back seasons.

In Florida, the girls wrapped up play with favorites St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and American Heritage-Plantation (Plantation, Fla.) winning the Class 5A and 3A state titles, respectively. The title marked a record 14th crown for St. Thomas Aquinas, while American Heritage won its third straight. This week's big mover in Florida was [Viera fl-w] (Melbourne, Fla.), which kept the 4A crown in Melbourne for the third straight year, just now at Viera as opposed to rival Melbourne, which won the previous two 4A crowns. The Florida boys state champions will be crowned this week.

Here are a few ranking-related highlights from last week:

BOYS

No. 2 in the Florida-North rankings will be on the line at this week's state tournament, and it kicks off with a clash between current No. 2 [Choctawhatchee fl-m] (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) and No. 4 Sunlake (Land O'Lakes, Fla.) in the Class 3A semifinals. Meanwhile, Florida-North No. 3 [Wiregrass Ranch fl-m] (Wesley Chapel, Fla.), which has a win over Sunlake, will be competing against Florida-North No. 7 Chiles (Tallahassee, Fla.) in the Class 4A semifinals. On an interesting sidenote, Florida-North No. 5 [West Orange fl-m] (Winter Garden, Fla.) carries a 13-1-4 record into its Class 5A state semifinal match. West Orange's only loss was a mercy rule-ended 8-0 setback to top-ranked Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.). ... This week there were no changes at No. 1 in any of the seven state or eight regional rankings.

GIRLS

Oaks Christian (Westlake Village, Calif.) inherits the No. 1 ranking in the California-South rankings following a loss by former No. 1 Cathedral Catholic (San Diego, Calif.) and a draw by Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo, Calif.). The swap at the top marks fourth straight week with a new No. 1 in California-South.

See the entire winter high school region and state rankings:

REGION RANKINGS: BOYS (Feb. 9) | GIRLS (Feb. 9)

STATE RANKINGS: BOYS (Feb. 9) | GIRLS (Feb. 9)

Related Topics: HS State/Region Rankings