It’s time for a review of the 2025-26 high school sports year in Orange County.
As with every sports year, there were too many stellar achievements to include all of them, but here is a season-by-season look back at some of those top moments:
Read more Missile alert goes off in Dubai but authorities quickly tell the public to disregard the warning
FALL
The biggest story in Orange County during the football season happened at Santa Margarita. It was Carson Palmer’s first season as the Eagles’ head coach, and it yielded CIF Southern Section Division 1 and CIF State Open Division championships. Santa Margarita linebacker Dash Fifita was the Orange County defensive player of the year and receiver Trent Mosley was a touchdown-making machine. …
Los Alamitos won the CIF-SS Division 2 football championship. After the season, Griffins coach Ray Fenton left to become the head coach at Orange Lutheran, which fired Rod Sherman. …
In other football coaching news: Jeff Bailey left Yorba Linda to go to Beverly Hills High, which about doubled his salary; ex-NFL linebacker Hardy Nickerson replaced Victor Santa Cruz at JSerra; and Rick Garretson returned to Servite to replace Chris Reinert. …
La Habra won the CIF-SS Division 4 title. Frank Mazzotta has coached the Highlanders to eight CIF-SS football championships, more than any other county coach. Beckman won the Division 8 championship; Woodbridge captured the Division 11 title. …
Irvine senior Summer Wilson and Woodbridge junior Aidan Antonio were the best of a solid group of cross country athletes. …
Layli Ostovar and Wesley Matavao led Mater Dei’s girls volleyball team to a CIF State title. Santa Margarita and Cypress won CIF-SS girls volleyball championships. …
Corona del Mar vs. Newport Harbor in anything is grand. Newport Harbor beat CdM in the CIF-SS boys water polo Open Division final. Capistrano Valley was the Division 2 champ…
Santa Margarita was the girls golf CIF-SCGA Southern California Regional champ. …
JSerra beat Orange Lutheran in the CIF-SS Division 1 girls flag football championship game. JSerra’s Ava Irwin and Orange Lutheran’s Makenna Cook, who were the Orange County player of the year in 2025 and 2024, respectively, will be playing for Sierra Canyon in 2026.
WINTER
Crean Lutheran beat JSerra in the CIF-SS Division 1 boys basketball championship game. In the spring, All-County guard Hunter Caplan transferred from Crean Lutheran to Orange Lutheran. Laguna Hills won the boys basketball Division 6 title. …
The San Juan Hills boys basketball team lost in a CIF State championship game by two points when a Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton player made two free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining. …
Mater Dei boys basketball coach Gary McKnight finished the season with 1,315 career wins. Nationally he trails only Robert Hughes, who amassed 1,333 boys basketball wins during his coaching tenure in Texas. …
El Dorado won CIF-SS and CIF State girls basketball championships. …
Marina sophomore Aubree Gutierrez was a CIF State wrestling champion for the second year in a row. …
Read more Supreme Court’s ruling to end protections for Haitian, Syrian immigrants could have broader impact
Orange County boys soccer player of the year James Obleda led Mater Dei to CIF Southern Section and CIF State championships. Los Alamitos won CIF-SS and CIF State boys soccer championships. University and Santa Ana Valley also were CIF-SS boys soccer champions. …
Foothill won the Division 2 girls water polo championship. County player of the year Sienna Sorenson of Mater Dei led the Monarchs to a CIF Southern California Regional championship. …
Orange County player of the year Felicity Nguyen scored 29 goals to lead Santa Margarita girls soccer to a second straight CIF-SS Division 1 championship. …
Mater Dei won the CIF State Division I girls soccer championship.
SPRING
The Huntington Beach and Newport Harbor baseball teams won CIF Southern California Regional championships. Next year will be the first year for CIF State championships in baseball and softball. …
Liliana Escobar’s clutch pitching guided JSerra to the CIF-SS Division 1 softball championship. Irvine, Northwood and Whittier Christian also won CIF-SS softball championships. …
Orange Lutheran’s boys volleyball team, led by 6-4, 340-pound football offensive lineman Sam Utu, won the CIF-SS Division 2 title. Sunny Hills also won a CIF-SS boys volleyball championship. …
Sunny Hills senior golfer Cole Kim won the CIF-SCGA Southern California Regional. …
Mater Dei’s Matteo Huarte won championships at The Ojai Invitational and at the CIF-SS finals. His grandfather, John Huarte, won the Heisman Trophy in 1964. …
Northwood’s Andrew Maksymowski won the 200 and 500 freestyles in the CIF-SS Division 1 finals for the third year in a row. Fountain Valley’s versatile swimmer Alyssa Ton earned All-County status in five events. …
Servite track’s 4×100 relay team became the first in California high school history to go under 40 seconds in the event — the Friars did it twice. Aliso Niguel’s Jaslene Massey was a CIF State champion in the shot put and discus, and she set the girls high school national outdoors record in the discus with her throw of 196 feet and 4 inches at the state meet. .. .
San Clemente won another National Scholastic Surfing Association championship. …
Fullerton lost to Charter Oak by one point in the first CIF-SS stunt team championships. …
Bob Johnson, who coached El Toro and Mission Viejo to CIF-SS football championships, died in March. Asked who has been the best coach of any sport during my tenure, among the first names spoken is “Bob Johnson.” …
The high school sports year ended with Santa Margarita winning the CIF-SS Commissioner’s Cup for girls sports for the second year in a row and for the third time over the past four school years. The Commissioner’s Cup goes to the Southern Section’s top school athletics program for boys sports and for girls sports.
Read more Neighbors dig through Venezuela rubble to search for loved ones as death toll climbs