No high school in California has won more championships on the field than Long Beach Poly, which boasts record-high totals of 134 CIF Southern Section and 38 CIF State team titles; just last school year they were named the second-best girls’ sports program in the CIF-SS in the Commissioner’s Cup race. Those marks are in addition to countless individual championships, and more professional athlete alums across all sports than any other high school in America, according to MaxPreps. But the Jackrabbits’ motto is the Home of Scholars and Champions, and this year the school’s students proved that the “Scholars” part of that slogan is as true as the “Champions.”
The CIF-SS recently announced its winners this year for the 38th annual CIF-SS Academic Awards, and the Jackrabbits had four teams win CIF-SS academic team championships, meaning they had the highest team GPA in the Southern Section. The four top teams from Poly were: girls’ golf (4.0 GPA), boys’ tennis (3.86 GPA), boys’ wrestling (3.87 GPA), and girls’ wrestling (3.89 GPA).
Additionally, the Jackrabbits had the second-place finisher for girls’ cross country, as well as 22 teams receive “Honorable Mention” recognition from the CIF-SS: Baseball, boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, beach volleyball, boys’ cross country, flag football, boys’ golf, boys’ lacrosse, girls’ lacrosse, boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer, softball, boys’ swimming, girls’ swimming, girls’ tennis, boys’ track and field, girls’ track and field, cheer, boys’ volleyball, girls’ volleyball, boys’ water polo, and girls’ water polo.
Remarkably, of the 29 sports in the CIF-SS Academic Honors program, Poly had 27 teams honored.
No other Long Beach schools won a top academic honor, but several were podium finishers or honorable mentions. Wilson’s girls’ water polo team was second place, and their beach volleyball team took third place. The Bruins also had 14 honorable mention teams: baseball, boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, boys’ cross country, girls’ cross country, flag football, boys’ lacrosse, girls’ lacrosse, boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer, softball, boys’ volleyball, girls’ volleyball, and boys’ water polo.
Lakewood had 21 honorable mention teams: baseball, girls’ basketball, boys’ cross country, girls’ cross country, boys’ golf, girls’ golf, boys’ lacrosse, girls’ lacrosse, boys’ soccer, softball, boys’ swimming, girls’ swimming, boys’ tennis, girls’ tennis, boys’ track and field, girls’ track and field, cheer, boys’ volleyball, girls’ volleyball, boys’ water polo, and girls’ water polo.
St. Anthony had eight honorable mention programs: boys’ basketball, beach volleyball, girls’ golf, boys’ soccer, softball, girls’ swimming, girls’ track and field, and girls’ volleyball.
And Millikan had the second-place boys’ wrestling program and third-place girls’ wrestling program, as well as three honorable mentions: boys’ soccer, softball, and girls’ water polo.
The CIF-SS said that entries came in from more than 2,600 teams this year. The winning teams, including the four from Poly, will be honored at the Angels Blue Jays game on April 20th.
In addition, schools who chose to submit individual “Student-Athletes of the Year” had their selections honored. From Long Beach those athletes were:
Long Beach Poly: Jonas Oware (4.0), Sophie Nishikawa (3.98)
Wilson: Keegan Abing (4.0), Kalin Badgley (4.0)
Lakewood: Patrick Pascual (4.0), Allison Honeycutt (4.0)
St. Anthony: Trystan Butardo (4.0), Isabella Mays (4.0)
Millikan: Davis Outten (4.0), Kayla Cisneros (4.0)
