Six QBs = six of the Top 10 teams.

Funny how that always happens!

Charter Oak was the No. 1 team in my preliminary rankings throughout the offseason. But when push came to shove, I sided with West Covina because the Dawgs have that one (possibly two or three) home run threat that can dominate a high school game. William Wallace is going to be awesome this year. I know most people haven’t seen him because his last bit of healthy playing time came toward the end of his soph season two years ago, but this guy is one of those players who can score every time he touches the ball. I don’t see that type of player on Charter Oak’s roster, but he could emerge. Having said that, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Lou’s boys end up back at No. 1 at some point this season. It also wouldn’t surprise me to see them beat West Covina. Yes, Michael Johnson is a major weapon. He’s going to be impossible for normal high school kids to match up against. Impossible! But I need to see a secondary weapon emerge for CO. By the way, everything you’ve heard about CO’s offensive line is true. I am a pretty big guy myself, and the Chargers have three guys bigger than me. Awesome looking line. No real surprises elsewhere in the Top 10. Los Altos is the No. 3 team in the area and I think the Conqs could be No. 1 at some point. LA is fully capable of playing with either of the two teams ahead of them. That’s kind of the theme to this year’s Top 10 – I honestly believe that most of the teams on the list, exception Amat, could play with and beat each other. Arroyo would be my only concern if a game were to take place early in the season as opposed to later. Amat would be favored over any of the teams in the Top 10, but that’s not how we judge an Amat season. And I think an Amat game vs. LA, WestCo or CO would be closer than it might have been in recent years. I go back and forth on this year’s Amat team – I’ve watched them practice a couple of times, and it looks like they have a handful of good players but not enough throughout the roster to be a great, D-1 team. Then, I think that they could ride those good players and just be good enough in those other positions to compete at the highest level. It just seems like this team will have its moments and be inconsistent otherwise. That’s something Amat fans have seen too often from their team. Case in point, in practice (and it’s only practice, AI), Amat’s QB would make a great throw to a receiver only to have it be dropped. Then, some of the other throws weren’t so great when the receivers were open. The RBs look fantastic, though. Very fast and very able to break runs, especially if they get outside.

Here’s the opening Top 10, in case you’ve been living in a cave.

1. West Covina

2. Charter Oak

3. Los Altos

4. Bishop Amat

5. Rowland

6. South Hills

7. Covina

8. Damien

9. Wilson

10. Arroyo