Will Archbishop Riordan girls teams be admitted in the WCAL for the 2023-24 season?
Will Riordan girls team be admitted to WCAL
- Thread starter bingobob
- Start date
Pres does have a new coach that seems pretty committed. They were very competitive when Wade was there - perhaps they can turn it around.
It's not like the WBAL would be much easier. MaxPreps final CCS rankings have WCAL reps at 1 (mitty), 2 (shc) and 8 (si). The WBAL boasts #3 (pinewood), #5 (crystal springs) and #10 (menlo), plus a Priory team that is going to be very strong for several years.
Wonder which transfers and will they end up sitting like many of the PW players last season.
The PW situation last year was pretty unique. I know the sentiment there is that no one expects the CCS to bring the hammer down like that again.
you mean the CCS? clearly it is not the CIF holding the reigns. Look at the "transfer portal" down south. Its not the CIF.
Why was it unique? Transfers happen all the time and the SOP is clearly spelled out is it not?
I will say this much. For one of the players, I believe the one year SOP was at least partly because she was not eligible to play at the school she was transferring from, which came to light during the transfer process. So not PW’s fault but PW took the hit for it. If not for that, I believe the SOP would have been the standard 60 days.
Not sure everyone knows how international transfers work. Not just any kid from another country can just transfer to a school in CA and be automatically eligible. They have to get a visa and more importantly, they have to be from one of the international governing agencies that's approved by CIF, and not all of them are. Second, it's hard to imagine that they haven't been doing this for the boys but are going to start for the girls. Lastly, it takes time to establish a program but given the last two years (out of three), the program hasn't improved much, and doesn't show well for the current staff. I'm not saying he should get canned, but given he has an AAU program behind him and only getting 12 wins a season isn't saying much.
There is a sit out period for Int'l students. Case in point: Riordan boys basketball player Kaia Berridge transferred from New Zealand last summer. He had to sit out until January. As another poster noted, his sister is starting at Riordan this fall.
everything is circumstantial and it's not just case and point. I know of international transfers that were automatically eligible for varsity competition. I have also seen some that are only eligible for JV/Frosh. If it's an incoming freshman, then there is NO SOP, case and point.
It's also true that if a player played club he/she are ONLY allowed to play sub-varsity (JV/Frosh) competition for one year or they could have a 1 year SOP,. if they played high school/club in their home country. Again, it's case by case. NCS also has a provisional for students impacted by the war in Ukraine. They are automatically eligible unless they had bad grades or deemed ineligible by their former school. Lastly, if you're not approved by a CIF approved exchange program you are not eligible to participate.
Last Season the Riordan girls team beat Pinewood, Valley Christian (SJ), Crystal Springs, and Woodside Priory.
Riordan played 7 teams who won 20 or more games last season.
Riordan played 7 teams who won 16 to 18 games last season.
Riordan played 4 teams who won 12 to 14 games last season.
Riordan played 22 games last season with no playoff games, since they were not eligible for playoffs.
Riordan lost to Cardinal Newman, Moreau Catholic, Heritage, University, Saint Ignatius, Sacred Heart Cath., Menlo School, and Marin Catholic (twice to Marin Cath.).
Riordan played 4 CCS OPEN Division teams last season, winning 2 games and losing 2 games.
So the last 2 seasons, Riordan has finished with a winning record each season. The Pandemic Season is the only season the team finished with a losing record. (2-6 in the April - May Schedule in 2021). The first regular season schedule in 2022 had some not highly rated teams on the schedule, but in 2023 season Riordan scheduled some better teams, some that were highly ranked. So Riordan lost a few more games in 2023 than in 2022, but played a better schedule.
I thought when I saw Pinewood on the schedule for the first round of the St. Francis tournament, that Pinewood would beat Riordan by 20 or 30 points, but Riordan won that game. Riordan did lose 4 games by 30 or more points.
The Riordan Girls Team may not be ready to play in the CCS OPEN Division yet, but they do play competitive basketball.
And playing Mitty and the rest of the WCAL (each team twice) should get them ready to play in the CCS OPEN Division playoffs in a few seasons.
Riordan ended up ranked as the #14 team in the CCS last season by MaxPreps computerized rankings.
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They’re clearly ready to make the move. They won’t challenge Mitty yet, but not many other teams will do that either.
Thanks for the stats. But let's be realistic...the pinewood team they played wasn't the pinewood team that was in the open championships. They were missing something like 3-4 starters. On paper, that's a great win no doubt. Hey if they think they're ready them go for it. I'm nobody in the grand scheme of things. just don't think they've gotten much better in the two years that they've been around (not counting covid year)
Pinewood and Riordan both played Cardinal Newman at Cardinal Newman. Both lost the game. Scores were very similar.
On November 23rd, 2022, Riordan lost 74 to 27.
On February 4th, 2023, Pinewood lost 71 to 31.
I do know Pinewood got some transfers eligible in January.
And I am sure Doc Scheppler had his team prepared to play Riordan. Pinewood had 11 days to prepare for the game. Riordan had 7 days to prepare for the game. Riordan had played 9 games and Pinewood had played 3 games prior to the Riordan vs. Pinewood game.
Pinewood had already beat Los Gatos team that won 21 games on the season and was the 16th seed in Division 2 (lost in the first round). The Pinewood losses were to San Ramon Valley (won 28 games and Division 1 Semi Finalist) and University (won 25 games and Division 3 Quarter Finalist) which were very good teams last year.
In addition to that, let's be realistic about the fact that the wins against Valley Christian, Crystal Springs, and Woodside Priory aren't indicative of performance against the higher caliber teams in the WCAL. Riordan is a great team, so they'll definitely come ahead of Valley Christian and probably St. Francis next year but without some new firepower I see it being a struggle to make significant strides against Mitty and Sacred Heart Cathedral, both of whom are IMHO significantly ahead of the rest of the league.
VC has an amazing facility. Why haven't they been able to really have a breakout season to set themselves apart in the WCAL?
Because they are just really a baseball school. No one wants to run the wing-T offense because its boring. Lastly if youre a serious basketball player, why would you go to VC when you can go to Mitty?
because programs have to start somewhere. I get that some schools are knows as "this" or "that" kind of school. Again, they have the facilities but haven't really made an impact in the WCAL in a long time. I'm sure Mitty, pinewood, SHC were not always top dogs. they had to start somewhere.
Look at Priory and this year, Crystal Springs...they were doormats of their leagues until last few years. Did they get a coach that built the program, was it the administration?
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