It's Three and Out
The Whittier area had three divisional soccer champions and yet none were selected to the SoCal Boys and Girls Regional Soccer Championships that starts Tuesday.
La Serna (26-3), the Division IV champion coming off a 4-0 pasting of Granite Hills, was not selected in favor of Division I co-champions Long Beach Poly (27-1-4) and San Clemente (24-3-7), Division II champion Thousand Oaks (20-4-2) and Division III co-champion Mayfair (26-2-4).
Granite Hills (20-6-2) and Bishop Montgomery (12-6-2), two teams that La Serna beat en route to its title, qualified in Division II.
La Mirada (18-7-6), which is coming off a titanic upset of Mayfair in Saturday's Division III title game, tying the Monsoons 1-1, was also left out.
The tournament had both La Serna and La Mirada in Division I, since both school's student enrollment was over the 2300 student threshold.
I spoke to Matadores Coach Dennis Guerra, who didn't seem too upset over the snubbing.
"Those are four pretty strong teams," Guerra said. "Our girls are proud of their accomplishment this season and didn't want it spoiled by having to play in another tournament."
La Serna coach Amanda Broussard wasn't pleased at all and described her initial reaction to the released brackets as "apalling."
On the boys side, Division III champion La Habra (26-4-1) also won't be competing in the tournament.
However, coach Steve Aanderud said shortly after Saturday's championship game that it was unlikely the Highlanders would have accepted an invitation since several players on the team had other commitments. The fact that the tournament did not include every section in California was also a major factor.
Is this surprising and why? Who was most deserving?
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About this blog
Roger Murray is the prep sports editor for the Whittier Daily News.
La Mirada's coach is not upset because he realizes that the process is what it is and knew that these teams would probably get snubbed.
If La Serna or La Mirada fit into the DII brackets then perhaps he would have felt the same way, but he understands where his team is and how (on paper) the four selected look better.
Did he and his girls want to play, yes. They also knew what to expect and perhaps that is why it doesn't bother them as much. Perhaps the La Serna crowd should stop and realize how special their season was and let it go.
Per the CIF SoCal Soccer Handbook, Division 1 (D1) schools have an enrollment of 2300 and above.
Granite Hills (enrollment of 2266) and Bishop Mont. (enrollment approx. 1200) would both be considered D2 schools. Granite Hills and Bishop Mont. were 2 of the best D2 schools and that's why they were invited to the CIF D2 playoffs.
Unfortunately for La Serna, their enrollment (2410) makes them a D1 school and that requires that they be compared to the best of the D1 schools the likes of which include LB Wilson (CIFSS D1 co-champ, ranked #2 in the nation), San Clemente (CIFSS D1 co-champ, ranked #3 in the nation), Thousand Oaks (CIFSS Div 2 champs), and Mayfair (CIFSS Div 3 co-champs, ranked #3 in CIFSS). Those are 4 very strong teams.
Serrano High (enrollment 2729) is in the same boat as LSHS. They are classified as a D1 school.
My hope in the future is that CIF expand the playoffs to a 16 team, 2 week playoff. Then deserving teams such as La Serna, La Mirada and Serrano would get their chance at the big schools.
Viva La Rouge!
Fairness? Why should CIF be any different that anything else? Fairness doesn't exist.
Very suprised and disapointed that La Serna was not invited to regionals. These girls won the CIF title while giving probably all of CIF's most impressive performance by shutting out all five opponents in route to the title.
Yet Bishop Mont. and Granite Hills get an invitation? Ridiculous. CIF screwed up by not putting in a really good team through the playoffs, but they decided to put in teams that were out played by LS?
The two teams that deserved invites were La Serna and Serrano (who was #1 the entire year and lost to Granite Hills).
I feel bad for the girls, there are some special players that missed out on regionals this year, such as Nicole Reed and Jordan Dolbin. They will be special players at the College level and its very disapointed that they will not be able to show their skills at regionals, and its sad the best La Serna soccer team in school history will not be able to show off their skills either.
why is the La Mirada girls soccer coach not upset?
if I was a player or parent I would be ticked off just like La Serna. You went thru and were named co-champions.
why not validate it?
and go for the W.
It is amazing that after La Serna makes a perfect run through CIF; not allowing a single goal, that they do not get an invitation to the girls regional soccer championships. Yet 2 of the teams they defeated do, not a very equitable system.
Of course few people are giving the Lady Lancers the respect they deserve. The So Cal HS Soccer Coaches association division 4 page does not even reflect that La Serna won the finals. But it does reflect that GHHS and BMHS got the invitation.
Wining the CIF-SS title is tough enough, not allowing a single goal all the way through the playoffs is togher yet. Totally dominating the finals with a 4 - 0 victory should be taken as a statement of an excellent team, yet CIF decided to turn it into an insult when they invite the team that obviously did not even deserve to be in the finals (Granite Hills), to be in the regional championships over La Serna.