St. John Bosco Opens First, and Friday Tells Us Whether We Are Right
Ranking St. John Bosco first in Southern California is the easy part. Explaining it takes longer, because the Braves ended last season losing to Orange Lutheran, 20-19, in the rain, in their first game of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. They finished 9-2. Before the playoff loss came a defeat to Mater Dei in the tenth week. A team that spent most of the autumn ranked first in America finished it by going home early.
Everybody has them back on top anyway. The LA Times, High School On SI, High School Football America, Cal-Hi Sports and Greg Biggins at On3 all open Bosco first, and so does SPIN. Jason Negro is still the coach. Koa Malau'ulu is a junior now, and he is already two full seasons into being the starter, having thrown for 2,361 yards and 33 touchdowns against five interceptions as a sophomore. Biggins likes Darren Tubbs to break out at receiver and sophomore Kuika Moaalii to break out at everything. The back seven is the part that should scare people: USC commit Josiah Poyer at linebacker, Washington commit Isala Wily-Ava and Vanderbilt commit Dillon Davis in the secondary.
Bosco opens at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas on Friday at 7 p.m. MaxPreps has that game as No. 1 against No. 2 and made it their Game of the Week. SPIN has it as No. 2 against No. 3. Biggins calls it a national championship elimination game in Week 0, which is about right, and it means the top line of this board gets audited three days after we publish it.
Santa Margarita Won Everything and Still Starts Second
The Eagles are the reigning CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion and the reigning CIF State Open Division champion. They beat Corona Centennial 42-7 at the Rose Bowl, then beat De La Salle 47-13 at Saddleback College in December, finishing 11-3 in Carson Palmer's first year running the program.
They start second here, which is as high as anyone has the Eagles. Biggins has them second too. Eric Sondheimer has them fourth for the Times, High School On SI third and describing a young roster that should improve as the year goes on, and On3's composite third.
The reason for the split is that SPIN weights what a program did last, and the last thing Santa Margarita did was win the state. The quarterback job is still open between Vanderbilt commit Matthew Smith and Fletch Palmer, the head coach's son. The defense is not in doubt, led by USC commit Isaia Vandermade on the line and junior corner Ca'ron Williams. Biggins reported on Aug. 12 that junior Grant Mosley will miss the start of the season with a shoulder injury.
Santa Margarita opens Friday against Jones of Orlando at Saddleback College.
Corona Centennial Third, Mater Dei Fourth, and This Is Where We Split From the Times
Centennial of Corona is third here and second on both Southern California boards. That makes it one of two places where SPIN sits below both of them, the other being Sierra Canyon at five. Matt Logan added quarterback Jaden Jefferson and USC commit Quentin Hale in the same offseason, both out of Cathedral High in Los Angeles. Cal commit Miles Schirmer anchors the line.
Greg Biggins reported on Aug. 12 that Washington commit Jaden Walk-Green, a safety he rates among the most impactful defenders in the country, is expected to miss much of the season. That landed six days after our board locked, so it is not the reason the Huskies are third rather than second. It does make third look better than it did when we set it.
Mater Dei is fourth, and here SPIN is well ahead of the LA Times, which has the Monarchs seventh. Mater Dei lost three games last season, two to Corona Centennial, one of them a 28-27 playoff defeat in November. High School On SI ranks them fifth and writes that the honeymoon is over for third-year coach Raul Lara. Biggins has them fifth and notes this is the lowest Mater Dei has opened a season in a decade. On3's composite goes the other way entirely and has the Monarchs second in California, two spots above where we have them. UCLA commit Montana Toilolo and USC corner commit Danny Lang give the defense a floor.
Worth stating plainly, because it cuts against the easy read of this board: SPIN's top five, Greg Biggins' top five and On3's composite top five contain the same five teams. Three boards built three different ways, one set of names, and only the order in dispute. Our disagreement with Sondheimer on Mater Dei is not SPIN being contrarian by itself.
Five of our top eight are Trinity League teams. So is the reigning state champion, and it is not the one wearing the crown.
Servite at Eight Is the Number We Will Be Asked About
The market has no idea what Servite is, and the spread is enormous.
The LA Times has the Friars 15th. High School On SI has them 11th. High School Football America has them 10th in California. And On3's composite, which folds together Massey, MaxPreps, ESPN and Sports Illustrated, had them 10th in the state in its Aug. 18 update, with De La Salle and Folsom the only teams above them from Northern California. Take those two out and On3 has Servite eighth in Southern California.
Which is exactly where we have them.
So this is not SPIN alone on a limb. It is SPIN and the most comprehensive composite in California on one side, Sondheimer seven spots away on the other, and everyone else scattered in between. One of those two positions is going to look silly by November.
Ours is a bet on a coach. Rick Garretson took over at Servite this offseason after building Chandler into an Arizona power. High School On SI describes the Friars as young and fast and asks whether Garretson can handle Trinity League football. Sondheimer notes his history of building teams around speed. SPIN's position is that a hire of that quality inside that roster is worth more than a young roster costs.
If it is wrong, it will be visible by Labor Day. Centennial of Peoria, Arizona is scheduled to travel to Anaheim to face Garretson on Sept. 4, which is strange and excellent scheduling for a coach who spent his career in the Phoenix suburbs.
Cathedral Catholic Is Ninth, and Two of These Boards Cannot See It
Cathedral Catholic sits ninth, and the Dons will not appear on either Southern California board this article keeps citing. The LA Times does not cover the San Diego Section. The High School On SI list is a Southern Section list and the Dons are not in that section. That is a footprint rather than a slight, and it is the reason SPIN publishes a SoCal board instead of a Southern Section board. On3's composite, which does cover the whole state, lands on ninth in Southern California too.
The Dons won the San Diego Section Open Division in November, and they won it the hard way, trailing Carlsbad by 16 before taking it 20-16 on a touchdown Honor Fa'alave-Johnson scored with 21 seconds left. He is rated the No. 36 senior in the country by Rivals, and Biggins calls him the best running back in the state and a genuine two-way difference maker at safety. San Diego State commit Isaac Cook is one of the state's better receivers. Koa Smith takes over at quarterback.
Ninth is where the one board that can see the whole state has them, and it is where we have them. That is either agreement or a shared blind spot, and San Diego gets four months to tell us which.
San Clemente Already Has a Win, and It Went to Hawaii to Get It
The Tritons are tenth and the only team on this board with a record.
San Clemente beat Kapa'a 23-8 in Hawaii on Thursday, Aug. 13, one of several Southern California programs that flew west for what Cal-Hi Sports calls Week 00 games, moved up a day because a storm was closing on the islands. San Clemente was the Division 2 runner-up last season and returns quarterback Preston Beck and receiver Jaxson Rex.
Sondheimer has San Clemente eighth. High School On SI has the Tritons twelfth. Tenth splits it.
Five Teams in Other Top Tens Are Not in the SPIN Ten
This is worth saying out loud rather than leaving for somebody to find.
Chaparral of Temecula is ninth on the LA Times board and ninth on the High School On SI board. Pacifica of Oxnard is eighth on High School On SI, and quarterback Taylor Lee threw for 4,059 yards and 53 touchdowns last season. Crean Lutheran is tenth on High School On SI and twelfth in the Times. Rancho Cucamonga is tenth in the Times. And On3's composite, once its Northern California teams come out, puts JSerra of San Juan Capistrano tenth in Southern California.
None of the five is on our board. It locked on Aug 6 and it does not get reordered because a newer list landed. That has to cut both ways, and it does: the same On3 update that backs our number on Servite has Mater Dei two spots higher than we do, and the Monarchs did not move either. A board you only hold when the outside agrees with you is not a board. What this gets is a paragraph, and a season.
Southern California opens Friday. There are four months to find out which of us was reading it wrong.
