NUMBER ONE It’s hard to imagine a Long Beach high school football season to go better than it did at the end of 2021 when Long Beach Poly, Jordan, Compton and St. Anthony all reached CIF championship games. Poly was moved down to Division 4 but its 20th CIF football championship didn’t mean any less […]
NUMBER TWO Against the odds, the small yet hungry group of Panthers made history with their CIF-SS Division 2 championship this year. The Panthers were led by super sophomore Jordan Washington and hurdler Darryll Stevens–who each scored in multiple events–but few would have imagined that J-Town would be able to knock off D2 favorite Mater […]
NUMBER THREE It had been a few years since the Long Beach Poly boys’ water polo team had claimed a CIF-SS championship–92 years, to be exact–but the Jackrabbits got it done under coach Ish Pluton with a 14-11 win over Crespi in the Division 4 championship. “This means so much to us, it means so […]
NUMBER FOUR The Saints showed impressive resiliency on their way to making school history, winning the school’s first ever CIF State SoCal Regional title with a 2-1 win at Temple City. St. Anthony suffered a tough 9-1 loss in the CIF-SS semifinals at Tesoro, but took full advantage of the state tournament that followed. After […]
NUMBER FIVE It’s not easy making history at Long Beach Poly, but the girls’ tennis program did just that with the program’s first ever CIF championship last fall. The Jackrabbits had to fight for it, barely holding off San Dimas with a 10-8 win at the Claremont Club, securing a Division 4 CIF crown. Julia […]
NUMBER SIX The Moore League boys’ and girls’ swimming finals in April at Cabrillo quickly turned into a party for the Wilson aquatics program. On the girls side, strong relay performances helped the Bruins roll to their first league title since 2015. “We have worked so endlessly hard this entire year and the last few […]
NUMBER SEVEN St. Anthony had a solid season under first-year head coach Alan Mitchell, and really continued to improve all the way through the postseason. After a third-place finish in the Del Rey League, the Saints weren’t expected to do much in the Division 1 bracket, opening up on the road at Dominguez. All the […]
NUMBER EIGHT There aren’t many high school rivalries like the softball games between Millikan and Lakewood at Lisa Fernandez Field. The Rams and Lancers play under the lights at Mayfair Park twice a year, and this season gave us two of the best games of the year. In March, the rivals traded the lead in […]
NUMBER NINE Long Beach Poly came up 10 points short of the program’s 21st CIF-SS championship in a 78-69 defeat at Village Christian in the Division 2AA final, but it was still a memorable season for the state’s all-time wins leader. The Jackrabbits’ thrilling 50-45 win over Foothill on the road–behind 25 points from senior […]
Sometimes it’s difficult to get all of the Long Beach schools into our annual Top 10 moments countdown of the best high school sports we saw over the last 12 months, but this athletic year was full of top performances from all over the city. NUMBER TEN As Long Beach Poly boys’ athletic director Rob […]