This is not the final ranking of the season, as there are games still to be played, but it's highly unlikely we'll see any changes in the Top 10.

Of course, then, this ranking following the National Championships is highly-anticipated and we think you deserve some explanations.

Who is #1? And Why ...

First off: #1. Now, there is a case to be made for De La Salle to be #1 because they won All-California, and beat #1-ranked club team Granite Bay to win NorCal. However, De La Salle did not play outside the state and did not attend the National Championships (graduation weekend). That's their decision and all we can do is judge what we see. Their proxies then were Jesuit of Sacramento, which finished a very, very competitive 8th (more on that in a minute), and Granite Bay, which won the HS Club Championship, albeit not in the most dominant fashion.

Meanwhile, we have two teams that not only performed exceptionally well all season, they did it again high-level competition from all over. De La Salle played against 10 ranked teams (all in California), beating them all by an average score of 37-18. Gonzaga played a whopping 16 ranked teams (and we're only counting Gonzaga Purple here, not Gonzaga Black). They won 14 of those games by an average score of 42-8. The two losses were, of course, to St. Ignatius of Cleveland. SIHS played nine ranked teams, beating them all by an average score of 44-7.

Gonzaga and St. Ignatius also played outside the USA. Gonzaga went 2-0 on a trip to British Columbia; St. Ignatius went 2-1 on a tour of France, with their lone loss against a professional academy team.

So in the end it's pretty clear. You know we place value on the National Championships. You know we place value on playing a diverse group of opponents. St. Ignatius is objectively better than Gonzaga (although, really, not by a lot), and Gonzaga's breadth of competition and their success has to, in our minds, put them ahead of De La Salle. 

RUG: Within a minute of Georges’ try, Nate Polinko fights his way in for a try! The Wildcats lead Gonzaga (DC) 14-0 in the National Championship! #GoCats pic.twitter.com/x7oI5GidNs

— SIHS Sports (@SIHSSports) May 21, 2022

Diversity of Opponents

That diversity of opponents thing has us dealing with some teams we know are strong, but, really, how strong? Highland, Jesuit of New Orleans, Cardinal Gibbons, LaSalle, St. Joe's Prep, Gregory the Great, and Regis Jesuit all lack much in the way of play outside their region. Some have done it a bit, but while we're pretty sure they are good teams, it's really tough to keep them in the Top 10 when other teams are putting themselves out there more, and competing.

The exceptions are De La Salle and Torrey Pines. We have left Torrey Pines in the Top 10 partly because no single team in the bottom half of the Nationals bracket really took hold and said, yes, we should be ranked #6. Xavier took 5th at Nationals, but this is the same Xavier program that lost to Gonzaga by a lot, and to Greenwich, Jesuit, and Staples. So Torrey Pines hangs on. The rest didn't play a large top-ranked teams (Highland did) and stayed in a bit of a bubble. It makes it hard to move them past teams that played outside their bubble.

The Rest of the Top 10

Herriman did enough to stay at #4 by pushing Gonzaga and beating Aquinas and Staples. Yes they lost the Utah final to Highland, but that one two-point blip isn't, in our opinion, enough to drop them out of the Top 10 and Highland needed more consistency in their results to move higher. Aquinas did superbly, and they are a perfect example of how a team that actively seeks competition from all over the country can punch above their weight. Athletically and in terms of size they had no business hanging with Herriman, and yet they did—so much so that the Herriman players presented a Haka to STA to thank them for all the teeth-rattling hits.

Another Haka. @HerrimanRFC did this one to thank @stasaintsrugby after a really, really physical national semifinal. Herriman won, but much, much respect between these teams and this is how they expressed it. pic.twitter.com/9jyhOKQEbN

— Alex Goff (@goffrugbyreport) May 23, 2022

If Dan Arbeznik of St. Ignatius isn't Coach of the Year, then Tim Kluempers of St. Thomas Aquinas is.

Staples-Xavier-Greenwich-Jesuit Sacramento was much more difficult to figure out. Here's how we did it:

 a) Jesuit did go 0-3 but lost their games by a total of eight points. They deserve to be in that cluster. 
b) Yes Xavier lost to Greenwich earlier in the season, but by only a single point; yes they lost to Jesuit in California, but a championship game counts for more. They also lost to Staples and Staples finished lower in the Championship but ...
c) So we have to throw out something. Xavier's Championship win over Greenwich we think erases their 23-22 loss to Greenwich a couple of weeks before. Should Xavier's loss to Staples on March 12 erase Friday's Greenwich defeat of that same Staples team? Seems unfair to do that. We know Staples, Xavier, and Greenwich are very close and they are lucky to have each other. In the end Staples did really well on Thursday and Saturday, but Friday's 30-12 loss to Greenwich has to bump them behind Greenwich and, by extension, Xavier.

There are really not too many other major moves. A somewhat recovered Moeller team beat St. Edward over the weekend and moves up. Regis Jesuit's isolation, more than anything else, has us move a bunch of teams up past them.