It’s that time of year when we get emails and phone messages in which displeasure is communicated about the Orange County football rankings.
Specifically, folks are aghast that teams like Servite, 3-5 overall, and JSerra, in last place in its league, are in the county top 10, while several 8-0 and 7-1and first-place teams are not.
Take a look at your favorite 8-0 and 7-1 non-top 10 team’s schedule and look at the opponents. Any teams in the state top 25 in there? Any nationally ranked teams?
No. And no.
There is a large difference in quality between teams in CIF-Southern Section football’s top division, the Pac-5 Division, and the section’s middle and lower divisions.
It’s similar to college football.
Washington & Lee, which plays in the NCAA Division 3 Old Dominion Conference, is 7-0. Washington, which plays in the NCAA Division 1-A Pac-12 Conference, is 3-4. Washington would beat Washington & Lee, no matter what Lee does to help his Washington.
Servite, like Mission Viejo and Orange Lutheran and other upper-division programs, would rather play Orange County teams than travel, as Servite has, to the Bay Area or Nevada for nonleague games. Ask your favorite non-top 10 team’s coach to give Servite a travel break and schedule a nonleague game against Servite in 2016 or ’17.
Before you ask, though, be prepared to answer the coach’s reply. Which will be: “Are you crazy?”
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• With next week being the final week of the football regular season, keep in mind that teams do not have to be .500 or better to be eligible for at-large berths. In divisions that will have O.C. playoff teams, the Pac-5, West Valley, Southern and East Valley division will have two at-large berths each, and the Southwest Division will have three at-large berths. Playoff brackets will be released and available at ocvarsity.com on Nov. 8.
• Also, four-team leagues like the Academy, Crestview and North Hills leagues are guaranteed two playoff entries, as are five-team leagues like the Sea View and South Coast leagues. Six-team leagues, of which there are the most in county football, have three guaranteed playoff entries.
• La Habra’s football team has a 43-game Freeway League winning streak. The county football record for longest league winning streak is 44, established by Mission Viejo (200-07).
• The National Football Foundation’s Orange County Chapter will soon accept nominations for its Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet, March 14 at Anaheim Convention Center. Honorees must be first-team all-league or all-conference while maintaining a grade-point average of 3.5 or better (or, for Chapman University players, a 3.3 grade-point average). In some years, deserving players are not part of this excellent event because nominations were not sent to the NFF’s O.C. Chapter (nationalfootballfoundation-occhapter.com).
• Mission Viejo plays its final regular-season game Friday night against El Toro. The Diablos have a bye week next week. It did not hurt Mission Viejo last year, when it had a week off before the playoffs began – the Diablos won the CIF-SS West Valley Division championship.
• Mater Dei football players Frank Martin and Curtis Robinson on Thursday were selected to the U.S. Army All-American Game, which is Jan. 9 in San Antonio and will be televised by NBC. Earlier in the week, KJ Costello and Dylan Crawford of Santa Margarita were named to the game.
• A Celebration of Life for Dan Wiley, Edison girls basketball coach who died Monday at age 61, is Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Edison High gym.
• On Tuesday, Olive Garden restaurants will donate a portion of their evening income to high schools in their area. The following cities’ Olive Gardens have partnered with the following high schools in this “Spirit Night” program: Brea-Brea Olinda; Irvine-Century; Santa Ana-Orange; Laguna Hills-Tesoro; Orange-Katella; Westminster-Westminster; Industry-La Habra; and Buena Park-Servite.
• Saddleback Valley Christian won the Orange County Boys Sand Volleyball League Championship at Laguna Beach, beating Laguna Beach in the finals.
• The national letter-of-intent, one-week, early-signing period begins Nov. 11 for all sports except for football, boys water polo and soccer. The signing period for football, boys water polo and soccer begins Feb. 3.
• Among the signees will be Orange outfielder Jimmy Endersby, who committed to Cal State Fullerton. He hit .488 with 33 RBI in 26 games last season.
• Rich Boyce of Edison and Michelle Spencer of Marina will be honored as county athletic directors of the year in April at the California Athletic Directors Association conference in San Diego.
• The CIF-SS recently honored its Hall of Fame inductees. County honorees were Marijon Ancich (Tustin football, and of course well known as the coach at St. Paul); Earl Engman (Santa Ana track coach and more); Frank Gonzales (El Dorado wrestling); Larry James (La Quinta volleyball); Joanne Kellogg (Huntington Beach girls basketball and a women’s sports pioneer); and Ron La Ruffa (Fountain Valley and Edison baseball). That’s a heck of a group.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
