Prep Rally: One more week before high school football playoff divisions are announced

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. Time flies by fast. This is the final week of the regular season in high school football. Southern Section playoff pairings will be announced Sunday based on CalPreps power rankings. City Section pairings will come out Saturday using CalPreps as a guide.

Playoff primer

As of today in the Southern Section, teams are not assigned to divisions, and they won’t be until Oct. 29, the day after the end of the regular season. There will be 14 divisions. Calpreps.com rankings will determine both the divisional breakdown and seeding within each of those divisions,

Automatic berths will be earned as in the past, with two berths from leagues of four or five teams, three from leagues of six to eight teams, and four from the nine-team Channel League. There are projected to be 176 automatic berths in total. In years prior to 2021, some third-place teams that would otherwise have earned automatic playoff berths were “bumped” if there were more than 16 automatic qualifiers in a division. That does not occur under the new system because the division lines are flexible.

The Division 1 field is expected to include eight teams. These will be the top eight teams in the Calpreps.com power ratings after the final week of the regular season. The top three seeds haven’t changed all season: 1. Mater Dei, No. 2 St. John Bosco, No. 3 Corona Centennial. Teams will be matched up by ranking regardless of league finish or affiliation. This division may have more than eight teams if the team finishing ninth in the rankings is not an automatic qualifier.

In Divisions 2 through 14, the exact breakdown will depend on the final ratings. It appears likely that all eight Division 1 teams will have automatic berths, which would leave 168 remaining teams with automatic berths. The remaining automatic qualifiers will be distributed evenly across the other 13 divisions,

If there are eight teams in Division 1, Division 2 would start with the next automatic qualifier below that, nominally the No. 9 team in the Calpreps rankings if they have earned an automatic berth. They would then go down the rankings from that point noting automatic qualifiers. The first 13 automatic qualifiers would be in Division 2, and a line would be drawn immediately above the next automatic qualifier after that.

With 13 automatic berths in the division, the three highest-rated teams in the division that have not earned automatic berths will be at-large teams in that division. If there are not at least three at-large teams in the division and thus there are fewer than 16 teams, the line that was drawn in the previous step would be moved down to include enough teams to put 16 in Division 2.

The 16 teams in Division 2 will be seeded 1-16 according to the Calpreps rankings. First-round bracketing is standard with the higher seed hosting. Home teams in subsequent rounds will be determined by the usual method (whoever has had fewer home playoff games gets to host; there is a coin flip if each have hosted the same number of games).

Remember that line they drew to designate the “end” of Division 2? That’s the “start” of Division 3. The first team below the line, which will by definition be an automatic qualifier, will be the No. 1 seed, and they’ll count down the next 13 automatic qualifiers inclusive of that team, and draw a line above the next automatic qualifier below that. Those 13 automatic qualifiers along with the three best at-large teams in the division will constitute the Division 3 field. The line will be moved down if necessary to ensure there are at least 16 teams in the division.

With the projected 176 automatic qualifiers and Division 1 projecting to include eight of those, it appears that this year Divisions 2-13 will each include 13 automatic qualifiers, and Division 14 will include the remaining 12 automatic qualifiers. Again, this may differ slightly if, for example, Division 2 or 3 include more than 13 automatic qualifiers, so this should be considered a guideline rather than a certainty.

The City Section uses CalPreps rankings as a guide but can move around teams based on other factors, such as head to head matchups and league finish. The only certainty is that unbeaten San Pedro will be No. 1 for the eight-team Open Division if it gets past rival Banning in its final league game on Friday.

Football rewind

Week 9 of the high school football season featured a halftime concert by the Black Eyed Peas at the Coliseum.

(Craig Weston)

The Garfield-Roosevelt game lived up to the hype, the game and halftime show. Garfield prevailed 16-8 before a crowd of more than 30,000. Here’s the report on the game and activities. Here’s commentary on what made the event one of the best in recent years.

In the high desert, it was a battle of two top teams and unbeaten Oak Hills improved to 9-0 with a 41-27 victory over Apple Valley. Here’s the report.

There are 15 unbeaten teams left with one week to go in the regular season. Here’s a report.

Corona del Mar knocked off Newport Harbor in the annual Battle of the Bay. Here’s a report.

There are two huge games on Thursday night this week, with 9-0 Cypress playing at 9-0 Crean Lutheran and the Marmonte League title decider matching Oaks Christian against St. Bonaventure at Ventura College.

On Friday in the City Section, the Marine League title will be decided when San Pedro plays at Banning. In the Western League, Venice is playing at Palisades for the league title.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

Here’s the complete week 10 schedule.

Female officials

It will be quite a night for the all-female officiating crew on Friday for the Maywood vs. Marquez football game in honor of breast cancer awareness month.

The Los Angeles officials’ unit has assigned Crystal Nichols to be the referee, joined by LaQuica Hawkins, Zina Jones, Kim Bly and Connie Wells.

Call it woman power.

Alex Singleton returns

Former Thousand Oaks linebacker Alex Singleton had 19 solo tackles for the Denver Broncos on Monday night.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

During the summer, Denver Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton was helping coach at his alma mater, Thousand Oaks High.

So it was no surprise that players from the Lancers decided to come out en force to support Singleton last Monday night when he came to town to face the Chargers at SoFi Stadium. The entire Lancers team, coaching staff and several parents attended the game.

All Singleton did was record an astounding 19 solo tackles in a loss to the Chargers. That ties for the second-most solo tackles in a single NFL game in history. Singleton had 21 combined tackles. The only player to have registered more solo tackles was New York Jets linebacker David Harris, who made 20 tackles against Washington in 2007.

Here’s the report.

A free clinic for injuries

Compton Dominguez quarterback Aaron Cornett gets a cast on his fractured wrist at the West Coast Sports Medicine Foundation.

(Luca Evans / Los Angeles Times)

They come from Inglewood High. They come from Gardena Serra. They come from Redondo Union. They come from north, west and south — the Friday night brigade limping through the archway the next morning.

There’s a line of kids outside the West Coast Sports Medicine Foundation office in Manhattan Beach on Saturday mornings half an hour before the door’s open. The athletes squeeze like sardines into the waiting room as finely controlled chaos erupts in the hallway through the office door.

Here’s a report.

Neighborhood ballers

Avand Dorian, a 6-4 senior with a 4.7 GPA, is always smiling playing for Canoga Park AGBU.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

In a pristine gym off Vanowen Street in Canoga Park, there’s a group of Armenian high school basketball players practicing at 6:30 p.m. each night. Their story is so unique that their quest to win a championship this season might be worthy of a documentary.

Avand Dorian, Matthew Sahnazoglu and twins Ryan and Michael Martirossian have been attending Armenian General Benevolent Union since they were 3.

“It’s like a family and so welcoming,” Dorian said. “It feels like you get to play basketball with your brothers every day. You’re comfortable to give and take criticism to anybody.”

Add 6-foot-6 Arpiar Harmandian, who arrived as a freshman, and you have five seniors who can practically read each other’s minds. Last year they were 21-0 during the regular reason. This season, AGBU’s goal is to win a Southern Section Division 2A championship.

Here’s a profile on a neighborhood team to root for this season.

Cross country

San Clemente is making a push for best boys’ cross-country team in the Southern Section.

In their latest performance on Saturday, the Tritons won the Division 1 sweepstakes race at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

Parker Simmons of Crescenta Valley won the invitational race in 14:46.

In the girls’ sweepstakes, Rancho Cucamonga won the team title. Kelli Gaffney of Great Oak took the individual title in 17:33. Freshman Avery Peck of Long Beach Poly was second in 17:38.

Here’s the link to complete results.

Girls’ volleyball

Chaparral’s Bella Rittenberg (center) stands with her family, from left: sister Harley, brother Sebastian, mother Maria, father Paul, brother Nathaniel, sister Natalie and sister Naudia.

(Luca Evans / Los Angeles Times)

He’d wander out from his post behind Chaparral High’s snack bar, and Maria Rittenberg would see her son sitting down not in the home stands but in the visiting bleachers, striking up a conversation with anyone he could find.

“That’s my sister over there, number 16,” Sebastian Rittenberg would say, pointing out Chaparral standout Bella Rittenberg, who has committed to the University of Pennsylvania. “You gotta cheer for her!”

Why would they cheer for Bella Rittenberg? They were visiting fans. But there was no stopping Sebastian, Bella’s 22-year-old brother with autism who loves his sister more than anything and has never been afraid to show it.

When their grandmother died when they were younger, there was Bella, sitting with Sebastian and watching their favorite movie, “Sleeping Beauty.” When he fell, cutting his knee open, there was Bella, bringing him to Maria, their mother. When he was assaulted in a first-grade bathroom, Maria telling the story of a boy who punched and kicked and ripped Sebastian’s shirt off, there was a young Bella, asking, “But why?”

“My yin, my yang,” Sebastian said of Bella. “My guardian angel.”

As she’s shaped them, the Chaparral senior and girls’ volleyball outside hitter has been shaped by her family.

Here’s a profile.

Here’s an update on the Southern Section playoff pairings and results.

Notes . . .

Swimmer Rex Mauer of Loyola has committed to Stanford. . . .

Dennis Evans, a 7-foot-1 senior at Hillcrest, has committed to Minnesota. . . .

Junior pitcher Wylan Moss from Santa Ana Mater Dei has committed to UCLA. . . .

Chelsea Stocks has resigned as girls’ basketball coach at Brea Olinda to become an assistant at Cal State Fullerton. . . .

Etiwanda’s girls’ basketball team, expected to challenge Sierra Canyon for No. 1 in Southern California, has added junior Ryann Riddle from La Salle, which won the 3AA title last season. . . .

Pitcher Kassandra Gewecke from Temple City has committed to Ohio State for softball. . . .

Softball player Rachel Little from Burbank Burroughs has committed to Utica University. . . .

From the archives: Gerrit Cole

Gerrit Cole

(Getty Images)

Gerrit Cole is headed to Hall of Fame status with the New York Yankees, and his rise started as a dominant pitcher at Orange Lutheran, then UCLA before being the No. 1 pick of the 2011 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Here’s a story from 2008 about Cole’s rising velocity at Orange Lutheran and his draft options while still in high school. He ended up passing on an immediate pro career to learn from John Savage at UCLA. The other freshman pitcher who arrived at the same time as Cole was Trevor Bauer.

Here’s a story from 2019 about Cole’s pitching days at Orange Lutheran.

Recommendations

From the Washington Post, a story on billions being spent on youth sports, with some of it disappearing.

From SI.com, a story on a high school diver who experienced a school shooting and now must figure out how to go forward.

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Oaks Christian running back Zach Charbonnet of UCLA.

From Columbiatribune.com, a story on former Chaminade punter Jack Stonehouse.

From the New York Times, a story on trial in Hawaii that could change high school sports.

Tweets you might have missed