Santa Barbara High School boys water polo coach Mark Walsh said the quality of players and teams in this weekend’s Santa Barbara Invitational is like “college men playing in high school.”
A 24-team field that includes many of the top programs in the state and a high-level program from the East Coast will be in action Thursday through Saturday at the Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos pools.
JSerra, Mater Dei, Loyola and Santa Margarita lead the tournament’s four groups of six teams. JSerra, Mater Dei and Santa Margarita are from the powerful Trinity League in Orange County. JSerra, which finished second to Mater Dei in league and went 28-9 last year, picked up a couple of transfers that were All-CIF-SS honorees last season. Loyola is the defending Division 1 champion.
Brunswick, a prep school from Greenwich, Conn., returns to the tournament. It won four games last year, including a 12-8 win over Santa Barbara.
Strong teams from three other CIF sections are in the field.
From the North Coast Section, Ramon Valley was the section’s Open Division runner-up last year, Archie Williams of San Anselmo reached the Open semifinals and Monte Vista of Danville was ranked eighth in the section.
The Central Coast Section will be represented by San Jose’s Bellarmine Prep, the Open Division runner-up.
Bakersfield’s Garces Memorial reached the Central Section Division 1 semifinals last season after going undefeated in the East Yosemite League.
Also entered from the Central Section is Arroyo Grande.
In addition to the Trinity League teams, the tournament includes perennial Southern Section powers Huntington Beach (the 2021 Open Division runner-up), Laguna Beach, Palos Verdes, Corona del Mar, Alta Loma (Division 3 champion), La Serna, Redlands East Valley, San Clemente, Dana Hills and Mira Costa.
“It’s the best of the best in California. It’s an extremely difficult tournament,” Walsh said.
Local teams Santa Barbara, San Marcos and Dos Pueblos will be in action on the first day of competition.
Dos Pueblos opens against Arroyo Grande at 3 p.m. at the Elings Aquatic Center. At Santa Barbara’s pool, the host Dons take on San Clemente at 3:30 p.m. followed by San Marcos against Dana Hills at 4:30 p.m.
A DP victory puts it against Brunswick on Friday at 3 p.m. If Santa Barbara gets past San Clemente, it draws Mater Dei at 3:30 p.m. Friday. A win by San Marcos sets up a match-up against Mater Dei at 4:30 p.m. at the Santa Barbara pool.
On Saturday, the first- through seventh-place games will be played at DP’s Elings Aquatic Center. The semifinals are scheduled at 10:10 a.m. and 11 a.m., and the championship game at 1:25 p.m.
Santa Barbara will hold the ninth- through 15th-place games.