Head coach Pete Lavorato and team at Sacred Heart Prep have won two straight CCS titles. This year’s team won in the Open Division. Last year’s (shown above) won in Division IV, then beat favored El Cerrito in NorCal D3 bowl game. Photo: Eddie Garcia/Prep2Prep.
For a look at every No. 1 team for all five divisions dating back to the 1920s, CLICK HERE.
For a look at every team that has been in the top 10 of the final Cal-Hi Sports division rankings since 1975, CLICK HERE.
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For more than 20 years before the CIF bowl games began in 2006, the only mythical state champions in California prep football were those who finished No. 1 in the Cal-Hi Sports five-division state rankings.
These divisions are based not on enrollment but on league strength as well as playoff divisions. With some exceptions, most teams from the same league are not split into different divisions like they can be in some CIF sections for the bowl games. We also use our vast experience in doing rankings to place teams in divisions where they fit best.
And without an open division, it also means that there is at least one team that will be listed at the top of one of our five divisions each year that did not win a CIF state bowl game. This year, there are actually two – Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton for Division IV and St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano for Division V.
Sophomore George Krantz led St. Margaret’s to wins against Grace Brethren and Christian of El Cajon. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Central Catholic of Modesto, which has won three straight CIF Division IV state bowl games, is Division IV under this format. And while the Raiders were No. 1 in D4 in our final Cal-Hi Sports division rankings last year, they are behind Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton this year.
Where to put the Gators, who have an enrollment of just over 600 and have never been in the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division until this year, was the most complicated part of this year’s five-division final rankings. SHP not only played well in that Open Division but won the title and finished unbeaten with a 14-0 victory over Bellarmine of San Jose. We could have put the Gators in Division I but they are a traditional D4 school so D4 it is.
With Central Catholic also in D4, that left the door open to rank a more traditional D5 school for the D5 final ranking and that choice fell to St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano, which is the team Central Catholic beat in the D4 bowl game. Before that loss, the Eagles did knock off Christian of El Cajon and Grace Brethren of Simi Valley (both unbeaten at the time). In the state bowl game, they basically lost to a team from a higher division according to our five-division system.
The other three final No. 1 teams correspond to the CIF bowl games with De La Salle of Concord on top in Division I, Redlands East Valley in Division II and Campolindo of Moraga in Division III.
Please note that next year when the CIF’s new 13-division bowl game system is likely passed and being implemented, we don’t plan on doing 26 separate CIF north and south bowl rankings. All teams that are eligible are basically going to be ranked from No. 1 down to No. 26 in the north and then the same for the south and then matched in various divisions. What we are tentatively planning to do is go back to our traditional five-divisions for the entire state every week, which still should give fans a pretty good idea of which teams may play each other in the bowl games.
Here are the final state football rankings for 2014 according to our traditional five divisions (*indicates forfeit wins or losses not included in final record):
Corona Centennial head coach Matt Logan raises CIFSS Pac-5 title plaque. Photo: Mark Tennis.
DIVISION I
1. De La Salle (Concord) 14-0
2. Folsom 16-0
3. Centennial (Corona) 12-3
4. St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 12-2
5. Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 11-2
6. Bishop Amat (La Puente) 9-4
7. JSerra (San Juan Capistrano) 10-2
8. Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 9-3
9. Serra (Gardena) 8-3
10. Oceanside 14-1
11. Mission Viejo 12-2
12. Grant (Sacramento) 14-1
13. Crespi (Encino) 9-2
14. Westlake (Westlake Village) 8-3
15. Alemany (Mission Hills) 7-3
DIVISION II
1. Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 15-1
2. Clayton Valley (Concord) 15-1
3. Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 10-2
4. Poly (Riverside) 13-1
5. Los Gatos 10-3
6. Ridgeview (Bakersfield) 12-2
7. Crescenta Valley (La Crescenta) 14-0
8. Heritage (Menifee) 12-1
9. Napa 9-3
10. Vacaville 10-3
11. St. Augustine (San Diego) 8-5
12. Trabuco Hills (Mission Viejo) 10-4
13. San Clemente 12-2
14. Concord 11-2*
15. Citrus Hill (Perris) 11-2
Nick Tomasin was a tackling machine for 2013 and 2014 teams at Enterprise of Redding that won back-to-back CIF Northern Section titles. Photo: Mark Tennis.
DIVISION III
1. Campolindo (Moraga) 16-0
2. El Capitan (Lakeside) 14-1
3. Oakdale 13-2
4. Enterprise (Redding) 11-1
5. Paso Robles 13-1
6. Newbury Park 11-3
7. Inderkum (Sacramento) 12-2
8. Aptos 12-1
9. Palm Springs 12-2
10. Serrano (Phelan) 12-2
11. Colony (Ontario) 12-2
12. Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 10-3
13. Hanford 12-1
14. Arroyo Grande 10-3
15. Sacramento 10-3
DIVISION IV
1. Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton) 13-0
2. Central Catholic (Modesto) 12-3
3. McClymonds (Oakland) 12-0*
4. Sutter 13-1
5. Bishop’s (La Jolla) 13-0
6. Liberty (Madera Ranchos) 13-0
7. Paraclete (Lancaster) 10-4
8. Sonora 11-2
9. Salesian (Richmond) 11-2*
10. Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 11-3
DIVISION V
1. St. Margaret’s (SJ Capistrano) 15-1
2. Grace Brethren (Simi Valley) 13-1
3. Christian (El Cajon) 13-1
4. Capital Christian (Sacramento) 13-1
5. Central Valley Christian (Visalia) 11-2
6. Winters 12-1
7. St. Helena 12-2
8. Arrowhead Christian (Redlands) 12-2
9. St. Anthony (Long Beach) 10-3*
10. Saddleback Valley Chr. (SJ Cap.) 12-1
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
6 Comments
Normally, you guys are spot on, but you missed the mark not having Atascadero in the Division 3 rankings. They beat the #5 team and missed a 2-pt conversion to lose to the #6 team 48-49. Their 3 losses were to two CIF finalists and one semi-finalist and they beat 2 CIF Champions. They should be in there somewhere.
Well, we basically had Arroyo Grande in there instead. The CIFSS Northern Division obviously had a lot of very good teams close together. But at the end of the day a NorCal team won the D3 bowl game and Paso lost big-time to El Cap. That hurts everyone in that division to some degree.
El Capitan lost that game in the worst way. In a healthy rematch, they win by 2 TD’s
Not sure how you came up with the Division V rankings. I can see St. Margaret’s as number 1 but from there it should be Capital Christian then Modesto Christian right behind. Capital Christian played Central Catholic nearly as closely as St. Margaret’s, who easily beat #2 and #3 on the list. Modesto Christian’s only two losses of the year were to Capital Christian by an average of 4 points each.
The Pac5 teams get shafted because all of the strongest leagues joined this year and there can be only 1 champion. That would be akin to De La Salle’s playoff bracket having Folsom, Grant, Clayton Valley and the next 6 strongest northern teams play in that one bracket. It would kill the north for state bowls just like it killed the south this year. It’s unfair that most of the south’s D-3 and D-2 state bowl participants all moved into one super bracket while the rest of the state refuses to do so. Especially, now that the Regional Open game is eliminated due to northern commissioners complaining.
El Capitan and Marin Catholic gave #1 ranked Campolindo the best games this year with Marin holding them to their season low. Marin Catholic should really be on the list, a little surprising.