Seven from state in FAB 50

Folsom finished No. 18 in the final FAB 50 national rankings in 2010 when quarterback Dano Graves (above) was leading the way. Due to the CIF Open Division format, the Bulldogs have a chance to finish much higher in 2013. Photo: Scott Kurtz.

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At the conclusion of the 2012 football team, it only took a quick glance through the list of returning players to see that California’s leading contenders for the 2013 season would be De La Salle of Concord, Centennial of Corona, St. John Bosco of Bellflower, Serra of Gardena and Folsom.

All five of those teams have been placed in the Student Sports FAB 50 preseason national rankings, which were released Friday. Two other California teams – Long Beach Poly and Vista Murrieta of Murrieta – also gained a preseason national ranking.

De La Salle’s No. 1 position in the state is as obvious as ever with four straight CIF Open Division state bowl game wins. The Spartans will have a new head coach with Justin Alumbaugh replacing Bob Ladouceur, but Ladouceur is still on the varsity staff and it should be a seamless transition.

For De La Salle’s FAB 50 writeup, CLICK HERE.

Centennial was the team that De La Salle defeated in last year’s Open Division final and will have its top quarterback, top receiver, top running back and several highly recruited linemen all on hand.

For Centennial’s FAB 50 writeup, CLICK HERE.

St. John Bosco and Serra, meanwhile, will be without doubt the state’s leaders in February for having the most college signers. Both should reach double-digits and are coming off of 12-1 and 14-2 seasons, respectively.

For St. John Bosco’s FAB 50 writeup, CLICK HERE.
For Serra’s FAB 50 writeup, CLICK HERE.

Folsom was the team that De La Salle defeated in last year’s Northern California Open Division bowl game. Fourteen starters are back there, including 5,000-yard quarterback Jake Browning.

For Folsom’s FAB 50 writeup, CLICK HERE.

What stood out about Long Beach Poly’s returning group of players was its twosome of WR/DB John “JuJu” Smith and junior DB Iman Marshall. Both are among the best in the nation at their positions and give the Jackrabbits a chance of defending their CIF Southern Section Pac-Five Division title.

For Long Beach Poly’s FAB 50 writeup, CLICK HERE.

Vista Murrieta returns a wealth of talent on defense from last year’s team that lost its only game to Corona Centennial in the CIF Inland Division championship while the offense should be strengthened with the arrival of transfers Coltin Gerhart (quarterback) and Artie Vasquez (offensive line) from Norco.

For Vista Murrieta’s FAB 50 writeup, CLICK HERE.

About the FAB 50

The FAB 50 rankings will be compiled each week and presented on the StudentSports.com website.

In addition to its longevity, another unique aspect of the FAB 50 compared to other national rankings from other media sources is the number of sports in which those rankings are offered.

In addition to fall boys and girls soccer, weekly rankings also will be produced during the upcoming school year for football, girls volleyball, winter boys and girls soccer, boys basketball, girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys volleyball, boys and girls lacrosse and spring boys and girls soccer. Final rankings and some seasonal updates also will be compiled for boys cross country, girls cross country, boys track and girls track.

For the 2012-13 school year, the FAB 50 was unavailable due to the discontinuation of high school sports on ESPN.com.

Since the FAB 50, however, has had continuous rankings posted as part of ESPN, Fox Sports and Rivals.com going back to 1999, final rankings for each FAB 50 sport have been completed over the last several months.

California teams that are now showing as FAB 50 national champions from 2012-13 include Archbishop Mitty of San Jose for girls volleyball, Huntington Beach for boys volleyball, Arcadia for boys cross country and Maria Carrillo of Santa Rosa for fall girls soccer. Jesuit of Carmichael is currently No. 1 in the Student Sports preseason FAB 50 for fall boys soccer.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @CalHiSports