cal hi sports rankings 1.21

We really don't like polls. You already know how we feel about the SCIBCA (Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Poll). To the extent people take this stuff seriously, they're missing the real point of the game, which is not to get high "poll" rankings, but to win games and have fun. Having said that, there are evidently just a ton of people who want to see the Cal-Hi Sports rankings. Why? We don't know.

But in the last two days weve received more than 50 separate e-mail requests asking about the CIF and Cal-Hi Sports rankings. First, let us say, we'd really like to answer each e-mail individually on this subject, but we don't have time. Second, as for "CIF" polls, there really aren't any until the end of the season. In Southern Section there's the SCIBCA (pronounced "Skibka") Poll and then there's Cal Hi Sports, which is really a private organization which evaluates teams and then ranks them, selling these rankings to the local papers. In order to obtain the rankings, you've got to get them from a newspaper. Or subscribe. However, we contacted Cal-Hi at the beginning of the season, and they told us, "We only make the rankings available to our subscribers. However, once they are published in a newspaper, as far as we're concerned, they are available to anyone who wants to put them out."

Ok. So we found a site that publishes the Cal-Hi Rankings, and here's the ranking as of Thursday, January 21, 1999, which is evidently the last one issued:

Southern California Top 10	Northern California Top 10
1. Compton-Dominguez 2. Lakewood-Artesia 3. Santa Ana-Mater Dei 4. Simi Valley 5. Glendora 6. Inglewood 7. Mission Viejo-Capistrano Valley 8. San Diego-Horizon 9. Los Angeles-Verbum Dei 10. L.A.-Crenshaw.	1. San Francisco-St. Ignatius 2. Concord-De La Salle 3. Fresno-Clovis West 4. Easton-Washington 5. Oakland-Fremont 6. El Cerrito 7. Bakersfield 8. San Jose-Bellarmine 9. Richmond 10. Bakersfield-East.

So what's wrong with this picture. How about the fact that Bakersfield and Bakersfield-East are in the Central Section, which not coincidentally plays in the Southern California Regional in the State Championship playoffs.

Cal Hi Sports also puts out a "Statewide Overall Top 20" which tries to pick the best teams regardless of Division in the entire state. Not surprisingly, most of these are Division I teams, but occasionally, some D-II's (Inglewood) and even a D-IV (Verbum Dei) can sneak in. Here's the poll:

Statewide Overall Top 20

1. San Francisco-St. Ignatius
2. Compton-Dominguez
3. Lakewood-Artesia
4. Santa Ana-Mater Dei
5. Simi Valley
6. Concord-De La Salle
7. Glendora
8. Fresno-Clovis West
9. Inglewood
10. Mission Viejo-Capistrano Valley
11. Easton-Washington
12. San Diego-Horizon,
13. Los Angeles-Verbum Dei
14. Los Angeles-Crenshaw
15. Long Beach-Jordan
16. Long Beach-Poly
17. Upland
18. Oakland-Fremont
19. Compton
20. El Cerrito.

Now Cal Hi also breaks things down by Division. Not the "xx- AA" and and "xx-A" subdivisions which Southern Section employs (apparently they are alone, because, to quote Dean Crowley, "We have more than 500 schools in the Section. That's more than almost all of Northern California; we need the separate divisions to insure that more of our teams get rewarded by being able to participate in the State Tournament." A laudatory goal. Here are the "Division" Cal Hi rankings.

Division I	Division II
1. San Francisco-St. Ignatius 2. Lakewood-Artesia 2. Santa Ana-Mater Dei 4. Simi Valley 5. Concord-De La Salle 6. Glendora 7. Fresno-Clovis West 8. Mission Viejo-Capistrano Valley 9. Los Angeles-Crenshaw 10. Long Beach-Jordan	1. Compton-Dominguez 2. Inglewood 3. Compton 4. Rancho Santa Margarita-Santa Margarita 5. Pasadena-Muir 6. Richmond 7. Bakersfield-East 8. El Dorado Hills-Oak Ridge 9. Redondo Beach-Redondo 10. Fresno-Edison.
Division III	Division IV
1. Easton-Washington 2. El Cerrito 3. Torrance-Bishop Montgomery 4. Santa Cruz 5. Santa Rosa-Piner 6. San Diego-St. Augustine 7. San Mateo 8. Newport Beach-Corona Del Mar 9. San Diego-University 10.Chaminade.	1. Los Angeles-Verbum Dei 2. Gardena-Serra 3. Encino-Crespi 4. Santa Monica-Crossroads 5. Moraga-Campolindo 6. Laguna Beach 7. Bakersfield-Garces 8. San Diego-Lincoln 9. Cerritos-Valley Christian 10. Pacific Grove.
Division V
1. San Diego-Horizon 2. Oxnard-Santa Clara 3. Los Angeles-Pacific Hills 4. Modesto Christian 5. Pasadena-Poly 6. Modesto-Calvary Temple 7. Eureka-St. Bernard 8. Oakland-St. Elizabeth 9. Long Beach-St. Anthony 10. Redding-Liberty.