SM Crowned California's Top Athletic Program

Santa Margarita Catholic High School had a standout year in athletics, earning the prestigious designation of CalHi Sports State School of the Year for 2024-25 and claiming No. 1 in California in the MaxPreps.com Cup standings, ranking among the top 50 athletic programs nationally.

Athletic Highlights from the 2024-25 school year included:

• 1 CIF State Title:
  Girls Swimming and Diving
   
• 1 CIF Regional Championship:
  Girls Golf
   
• 4 CIF-SS Championships:
  Boys Swimming and Diving, Girls Swimming and Diving, Cheer and Girls Soccer
   
• 9 Trinity League Titles:
  Boys Basketball, Boys Golf, Girls Golf, Girls Soccer, Boys Swimming and Diving, Girls Swimming and Diving, Girls Lacrosse, Girls Tennis and Boys Track and Field
   
• 2 National Titles:
  Girls Soccer (Soccer Wire) and Girls Swimming and Diving (NISCA)
   
• 76 Class of 2025 Collegiate Student-Athletes
   
• 6 CIF Individual State Championships

SMCHS Selected State School of the Year for Outstanding Overall Athletic Excellence 

By Mark Tennis, Cal-Hi Sports

Another CIF state title in girls swimming and two second-place showings in boys and girls golf helped Santa Margarita Catholic (SMC) of Rancho Santa Margarita compile very high finishes in many CIF sports during the 2024-25 school year. That is enough to get the athletic program to the top of the mountain in California for overall athletic excellence. This is the second time in three years that the Eagles have gained State School of the Year honors. Their other top No. 1 overall finish came in 1998.

Read the full story on Cal-Hi Sports.

SM Athletic Programs Claim No. 1 in MaxPreps.com California Standings, No. 49 Nationally

By Chuck Nan, Santa Margarita Catholic High School

The MaxPreps Cup is an effort to identify the top high school athletic program in the country. Points are awarded for state championships, state runner-up finishes and national rankings. 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.

Just one week 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 (SMCHS) collected another prestigious honor with the top spot in the MaxPreps.com Cup standings for California as well. The dual success matches what Eagle Nation accomplished in the 2022-23 school-year when they swept both crowns after a very successful spring season.

SMCHS finished at No. 49 overall nationally. Overall, MaxPreps.com noted the contributions from several athletic teams from the entire year, including: girls golf, girls swimming, girls soccer and boys golf among others.

The premise of the MaxPreps.com Cup is athletic achievement on a national landscape, while Cal-Hi Sports is state focused only. Cherry Creek of Greenwood Village, Colorado was the country’s number one overall school from wire to wire, having steady success throughout the whole year.

SMCHS finished well ahead of the two other California schools that ranked in the top 100. Trinity League rival Mater Dei was a distant second with 1,074 points, while San Jose’s Archbishop Mitty was just behind in third with 1,052 points. Mater Dei tied for No. 91 nationally and Archbishop Mitty tied for No. 99. Both of those schools were in the top 70 after the completion of two of the three athletic “seasons” but couldn’t hold off SMCHS’s surge.