South O.C. Has Some of the Best Football in America

By Martin Henderson

High school football fans in Orange County have known something for a long time, and a prep sports website has confirmed it. 

The football here is among the best in the nation. 

That's particularly true in south Orange County, where schools that are part of the Trinity and South Coast leagues play. 

Maxpreps has named the Trinity League the second-toughest league in the nation, and has ranked the South Coast League 18th.

• Check out the full list here.
• Check out the OC Top 10

The site used its computer ranking formula that creates an average score for each school, and used that get an average of each league's collective strength. 

The toughest league was the from New Jersey, the Big North United, which includes Ramsey (NJ) Don Bosco Tech, a school that was beaten by South Coast League favorite Mission Viejo earlier this season. 

Big North United, with Montvale St. Joseph leading the way with a rating of 82, and Oradell Bergen Catholic the lowest at 53.4, averaged 66.4. 

The Trinity League, which includes Santa Margarita Catholic (51.0) and JSerra (55.5), along with St. John Bosco (78.6), Mater Dei (67.9), Servite (55.7) and Orange Lutheran (52.0) came in at No. 2 with an overall rating of 60.1. 

The top six leagues were all private school leagues, including the fourth-place Serra League (53.4) from the Southern Section which includes Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Mission Hills Alemany, La Puente Bishop  Amat, Los Angeles Loyola and Encino Crespi. 

The Serra League, like the Trinity and South Coast leagues, compete in the Southern Section's Pac-5 Division. 

South Coast League teams, heading into the first week of league play, were rated 18th overall with a rating of 41.6 and included Mission Viejo, Tesoro, Trabuco Hills, El Toro and San Clemente. 

The strength is reflected in the Orange County Top 10 poll; seven of the 10 teams are from the Trinity or South Coast leagues, and an eighth, Corona del Mar, is from south Orange County.