Eagles Claim MaxPreps California Cup

Chuck Nan

Just three weeks after earning the Cal-Hi Sports (calhisports.com) “State School of the Year” award for outstanding overall athletic excellence in the state, Santa Margarita Catholic High School collected the second of the two coveted prestigious honors with the top spot in the MaxPreps.com Cup standings for California. The Eagles captured both honors last year as well, and now have three titles in the last four school years (2022-23 also).

Strength for the triumph came from three state championships during the year -- football, girls golf and boys swimming & diving. MaxPreps.com also noted contributions from other SMCHS athletic teams, including: boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse and girls soccer.

The road down the stretch wasn’t easy as SMCHS trailed Trinity League rival Mater Dei by 316 points when the winter season results were released on May 21. With 364 points notched during the spring season, the Eagles dashed past the Monarchs to win by 48 points. The race was also aided by the fact Mater Dei did not earn a single point from any of their boys or girls athletic teams in the spring.

The final tally was 1,549 points to 1,501. Proving the depth and competition of the Trinity League, no other California school finished in the top 100 nationwide.

The MaxPreps.com Cup recognizes the best all-around high school sports programs in the country and each state. The competition uses an algorithm that awards points for state championships, runner-up finishes and national rankings based on size of state, popularity of the sport, size of school and number of teams in each playoff division. Additional points are weighted based on popularity of the sport based on participation numbers within that sport, the size of the state, the enrollment of schools in a playoff divisions and the number of teams participating in that playoff division. A sport must be contested in at least 10 states in order for it to be a scoring sport in the standings.