Coach Mark Walsh, shown hoisting last year’s championship plaque for boys water polo in the CIF-Southern Section’s Division 3, had his Dons listed on the Watch List for this year’s Division 1 and 2.
Santa Barbara High, champion of last year’s CIF-Southern Section Division 3 boys water polo playoffs, is one of 24 schools named to the combined Division 1 and 2 Watch Lists on Monday.
The teams will be split into two divisions by both power rankings and committee input during the last CIF seeding meeting.
The Watch Lists serve as a starting point for the section rankings. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the CIF State office to delay the start of competition, it plans to re-evaluate the situation next month.
The Dons return several starters from last year’s boys water polo team, which defeated Schurr, 9-7 in the title game. They include two players who made the All-Channel League team as sophomores: goalkeeper Wyatt Pieretti, who was also picked to the All-CIF team, as well as field player Bronson Blix.
Only two other county schools made the CIF-SS Watch List in boys water polo: Carpinteria in Division 6 and Lompoc in Division 7.
All three of the South Coast’s Channel League schools — Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Santa Barbara — made the Division 1 and 2 Watch Lists for girls water polo. League rival Santa Ynez was picked to the Division 5 list.
Six county schools made the CIF-SS Watch Lists for girls volleyball: Dos Pueblos in Division 4, Santa Barbara in Division 5, both Cate and Laguna Blanca in Division 6, Bishop Diego in Division 7 and Garden Street Academy in Division 9.
San Marcos, which shared the 2019 Channel League girls volleyball championship with DP, was left off the Division 3 Watch List despite having advanced to last year’s playoff quarterfinals.
The CIF-SS Executive Council changed the procedure for football, delaying the selection of playoff divisions until after the regular season. The 14 playoff divisions will be determined by the season’s results and seeded by the Cal Preps.com power rankings, regardless of league affiliation and finish.
Teams were previously placed in their CIF divisions before the season started by virtue of the results from the past two years.
email: mpatton@newspress.com
