The 2014-15 interscholastic term marks the second season for sports such as football, girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, and boys and girls lacrosse, and the third season for such sports as baseball and softball, that have employed a new competition-based scheme for post-season competition within the San Diego Section.
Section commissioner Jerry Schniepp said the idea for the format switch was to produce a more balanced playoff structure, with parity ruling the outcome of games from the opening round onward.
Certainly the new playoff format greatly benefitted South County teams during this past winter sports season.
Eleven — count ’em — South County basketball, soccer and girls water polo teams advanced to the championship round this season, with six winning division titles.
Top-seeded Lutheran (24-2) defeated third-seeded Palo Verde Valley, 77-73, in overtime to win this year’s Division V boys basketball championship, while two girls basketball teams each recorded runner-up finishes: Montgomery (Division II) and San Ysidro (Division IV).
A total of seven Metro Conference soccer teams advanced to the championship round, with a pair of finals featuring all-Metro match-ups. In all, four local soccer teams won division championships.
Second-seeded Montgomery shaded top-seeded Bonita Vista, 4-3, in a wild scoringfest to settle the Division IV boys title, while fourth-seeded Chula Vista upset top-seeded Olympian, 1-0, to capture the Division IV girls title.
Fifth-seeded Castle Park shut out sixth-seeded Hoover, 2-0, to claim the Division V girls crown, while top-seeded San Ysidro nipped second-seeded La Jolla Country Day, 1-0, on a goal in the final minute of regulation play to win the Division III boys championship.
In the Division II boys championship game, fourth-seeded Mater Dei Catholic was upset by seventh-seeded Oceanside, 1-0, in overtime.
Additionally, five Metro squads advanced to the quarterfinal-round in the girls water polo championship playoffs, with top-seeded Eastlake winning the Division III championship title.
That adds up to 11 South County CIF division finalists — and six champions — during the winter sports season. That’s an impressive number.
“I see it,” Schniepp said succinctly. “We’ve had some great competitive games starting in round one. We’ve had some upsets. It’s created a competitive playing field where everyone has a chance regardless of where they’re seeded.
“I compare it to the NCAA — you see it in their playoff statistics.”
Fans definitely saw it in this year’s winter sports playoffs at the local level.
Of the 10 top-seeded teams in boys and girls basketball, four advanced to win division titles. Of the 10 top-seeded teams in boys and girls soccer, only two advanced to win division titles.
How about a seventh-seeded team winning the Division II girls hoops title (Carlsbad) — and a sixth-seeded team winning the Open Division boys hoops title (St. Augustine)?
Then there was ninth-seeded El Capitan bursting the playoff bubbles of three higher-seeded teams, including top-seeded Bonita Vista and fourth-seeded Hilltop, before eventually taking a back seat to second-seeded Pacific Ridge by a 58-55 score in the Division IV boys basketball title game.
Heady stuff.
There’s more.
In boys soccer, two division finals featured match-ups between fourth- and seventh-seeded teams, with the seventh-seeded teams (St. Augustine in Division I and Oceanside in Division II) winning both championship titles.
In girls soccer, eighth-seeded Rancho Buena Vista captured the Division I title while No. 5 Serra won the Division III championship.
Castle Park (No. 5) battled Hoover (No. 6) for the Division V girls title.
You get the picture. It’s been anyone’s game in most of the competition-based playoff divisions.
The trend has continued in the recent Southern California regionals. Sixth-seeded Chula Vista captured the Division I boys championship with a 4-2 victory at top-seeded El Camino Real while Coronado, eliminated in the section’s Open Division boys quarterfinals, blasted McFarland, 5-1, to claim the Division IV SoCal regional championship.
Moreover, sixth-seeded Foothills Christian (24-8) was a basket away from pulling off one of the bigger upsets in the Open Division boys basketball SoCal regionals in the Knights’ 56-55 loss to third-seeded Etiwanda.
Schniepp said he would like to see all San Diego Section champions entered into the regional playoffs. Currently, the SoCal regionals, which are based on school enrollment level, include an application process and a vote by section commissioners.
Chula Vista, for instance, was eliminated in the Open Division semifinals, yet scored a berth in the SoCal Division I regionals — and eliminated three higher-seeded opponents.
South County regional qualifiers in basketball included Eastlake (Division I girls), San Ysidro (Division IV girls), and Lutheran (Division V boys).
South County regionals qualifiers in soccer included Chula Vista (Division I boys and Division IV girls) and Montgomery (Division IV boys).
“Each section does its playoff divisions differently from the state,” Schniepp. “We don’t get all our division champions to the state playoffs and I would like to be able to do that. Our Open Division teams are our best teams, but I think our division champions should go as well.”
One proposal includes an expanded state football playoff bracket with multiple division championship games played throughout the state rather than at one central location.
While the new system appears to be showing promise, Schniepp said a few tweaks still need to be done.
One proposal is to include all Open/Division I teams in the playoffs. “Those teams are our best teams (based on the competition-tied division structure) and it reasons they should make the playoffs,” Schniepp said.
Of note: Hilltop battled Chula Vista, ranked second in the section, to a pair of stalemates on the pitch this season in league play but did not make the Division I playoffs despite posting a non-losing record.
