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?