If all you want is a list of the Orange County football Top 10 without any frills, here you go:
1. Mission Viejo
2. Servite
3. Mater Dei
4. Los Alamitos
5. Edison
6. Orange Lutheran
7. Tesoro
8. San Clemente
9. Esperanza
10. Newport Harbor
RELATED:
- Fryer’s Top 10 slideshow
- Fryer’s teams 11-15
- Fryer’s teams 16-20
- Fryer’s teams 21-25
- Interactive: Compare team rankings
Steve Fryer,
answer me this question or anybody else that can? Why is it that….. the Top Ten always consist of Trinity League-Sunset League- Southcoast League??? I guess- if Dan Albano had his way he would most likely put a non-Pac 5 team in the top ten! everyweek he trys to slip La Habra in? what’s that all about.
The best teams right now are from the South Coast-Sunset-Trinity leagues. That’s all there is to it. The only way to truly prove otherwise is for teams from other leagues to beat one of those top 10 teams from those leagues. Maybe that will happen this week, when La Habra plays Los Alamitos and El Dorado plays Tesoro. El Dorado and La Habra won CIF championships last year, when Los Al did not make the playoffs and Tesoro was beaten in the first round.
Hey Steve,
When La Habra beats Los Alamitos this week do they take Los Alamitos spot of at least 4th in the polls or do you decide that Los Alamitos is overated? How much does La Habra win by? It depends how long it takes them to see through all the smoke and mirrors!
Make no mistake about it, if La Habra wins, they won’t take the Los Alamitos spot, they will drop a spot. I can’t figure out either.
I really don’t think La Habra should take over the 4th spot unless USC can get by Stanford….(joking….just joking).
Good luck to all the teams this weekend!
La Habra is definitely a good program, Fryer admit it, you just hate the Freeway Leauge, you always have.
comparing divisions is like comparing apples and oranges. There are a few (very few) teams not in the pac-5 that can compete (such as corona centennial). Most teams just dont have the man power to compete because they have too many two-way players. El Dorado won CIF last year, but they could never beat Sunset power Esperanza, so what does that say about the division they are in. La Habra plays weak-average teams all year long and unfortunately for them are in a very weak league. Thats not to say they couldnt beat a Pac-5 team, but they just don’t prove it.These teams create their own schedules, if they want more respect they need to sign up to some stiffer compeition in pre-season. Take a look at LAJordan who signed up to play St. Bonaventure, Esperanza, Mater Dei…they took a 3 loss hit on their record but they were closer games than many would think and will also prepare La Jordon to clean house in their own league. Im not a fan of Los Al by any means, but La Habra is in for a rude awakening if they think this team will be as easy as any freeway league opponent.
In the weekly comments Fryer pointed out that when teams from lower divisions step up to face the top level Pac-5 teams they usually get a beatdown laid on them. Look at what happened when CDM played Newport last week, a top 5 team from their division played an “others” team from the Pac-5 and got crushed. The level of physical play and speed is at a different level for the top teams in the Pac-5. I used to think there was not that great of a difference between what was Div 1 and the other divisions until my school got moved up to the Pac-5. There is a big difference in size and speed of the players in the Pac-5 compared to the other divisions, not to mention the depth of the teams.
Although I would never use the term “beatdown” — no 50-year-old should ever use such a word — greendog gets it.
What you guys fail to realize is that Orange Lutheran was a lower division program that was raised up to prominence! Mission Viejo was “nowhere” until Johnson took over the program! The most important aspect at the high school level is the degree of coaching or leadership! When you get kids to buy in and believe “David defeats Goliath” even though Goliath looks bigger and stronger. You don’t judge a man by the outward appearance but by the heart! Can you see a ‘David’ before he goes into battle or only after he has defeated Goliath? Go La Habra!!!
Steve it is OK for a 50 year old man to use the term “beatdown” if it is appropriate as it was in that case. I agree that coaching can make big difference in a program. But please don’t compare the emergence of any private school program to that of a public one. Mission Viejo has been a good program over the years, before Johnson got there. I have a very relevant question for Craig, What is the enrollment of La Habra and what are the demographics of the community? Those 2 factors are key for the success of any public school program!!
“What is the enrollment of La Habra and what are the demographics of the community? Those 2 factors are key for the success of any public school program!!”
I believe La Habra’s enrollment is about 2200, just about like Fullerton. 2200 is misleading given the types of kids to draw from. That said, the socioeconomic make up of these schools pales in comparison to ALL of the schools in the Top 10. The types of kids that these schools can draw from aren’t always prototypical football players, so these programs aren’t always stocked with D1 talent. But they are good teams nonetheless. It’d be nice if there was a 2nd “top 10″ for the rest of us. Because absent a major upset by La Habra, there will be those who said “we told you so”.
Never thought I’d ever say this….but…go La Habra!….ouch that hurt!
Best of luck, La Habra. Los Alamitos is a fine program. You’ve got to make the most of your opportunities. You must regularly play and beat the best to be considered amongst the same. Schools like Servite, Edison, and Jordan are in this pursuit as evidenced by their respective schedules. However, DON’T do like Esperanza, for example, and duck playing the big boys in pre-league for fear of losing the game, respect, players, etc… Don’t be afraid!
There is a reason why a team like Edison is always reanked in the top 10. They lose games each year. Sometimes up to 4 games such as last year and are still ranked in the top 10. It is because those losses are to Servite, Mater Dei, Los Al, and O’LU (2007). When you schedule tough games in the preseason and compete with those teams (except for MD last year) you will be ranked high because the level of competition. Edison doesn’t produce a ton of D-1 players (maybe 1-2 each year) but they aren’t afraid to play anyone and will compete with the toughest around. That is why schools like Edison will be ranked in the top 10 even with a few losses at the end of the year. Strength of schedule DOES play a big factor in the top 10 poll. I am still a firm believer that it doesn’t matter where your ranked in the begining of the season, its where you are ranked at the end of the Season.
Why is mostly everyone in here bagging La Habra. La Habra deserves a spot in the top 10. Fryer is right that we have a great program at la habra, but still everyone doesn’t think so.
I go to La Habra, and don’t get me wrong, I love our school and support our football team, but honestly I do not think we will beat Los Al. I mean we do have a fine program, but it is just not up to the calibur of Los Al’s program. I think it will be close, but Los Al will get the W.
Everyone is talking about La Habra; what about Mission Viejo being #1? Who have they played to earn that spot? I guarantee you it hasn’t been teams like St. Paul (CIF Champs), Clovis West (State Ranked Team), Crespi (should I even comment), and Edison (strong every year)- oh, I’m sorry. Looks like I just gave you the first 4 weeks of Servite’s football season. Mark my words, Servite is the team to beat this year and they will prove it when they are in the CIF championships. Also, you will see how week Mission is when they get knocked off first round CIF (if they are lucky, 2nd round).
Thank you for the simple version!!!
Thank you Matt for your honesty about La Habra and your unbias. Thanks for taking a step back and seeing things realistically. A lot of folks can’t do that about their own programs. I wish I could tell you that La Habra will win, but I don’t know much about La Habra. You guys might have won last year or the year before, because Los Alamitos wasn’t that strong. I am basing this on what they did in the playoffs. And that’s another thing, everything really is based on the playoffs and how far a team goes. But it is fun to look at matchups during the regular season. And for Pete’s sake, let’s hope that Servite doesn’t have to play Crespi in the playoffs.
Be careful about predicting Servite as the Pac-5 CIF Champion now. It is a long season and it could easily be argued that the division is as deep as it has ever been. Every league except the Moore league has at least 3 or 4 contenders for the league title this year. What is so great is that there will be great league matchups all season, then we get the playoffs to sort it all out!! I honestly believe the Pac-5 is the best football conference in the country!!! I think it much to early in the season to pick a real favorite, that’s what league play is for.
I agree with you, it’s to early. I said Servite will be in the CIF Championships, will they win? There are some awesome teams this year and I believe if you look at who Servite is playing this whole year, wow, that’s all I can say. By the way Joe C., Servite won that Crespi game, but I know, all that matters is who walked away with the “W”. The stats proved Servite should of won and the darn coach couldn’t find the darn “T”, what the heck is that all about? Believe me, if Servite were to play Mission, they would win by at least 3 touchdowns. I have watched Mater Dei, Mission Viejo, Crespi, Edison, and OLU this year and none of them has impressed me like Servite. Rankings are rankings, bottom line is; “ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY” (or “FRIDAY” in our case)…
Mission Viejo will definately be in the Pac 5 final. Will they win? Who knows, but they do have the best shot at the title.
La Habra is a fine team, they have a lot of talent and I believe they do belong in the top ten. Los Al is a top team, and they gave them a run for their money, La Habra’s defense is fantastic, but over the length of the game they got tired, because Clark Evans is freaking amazing, so I mean, yeah they lost, but the played a team that could probably beat, or have a good game with any team around, so thats that.