Assistant commissioner John LaBeta will be up into the early morning hours Saturday and, hopefully after a few hours sleep, at it again when the sun rises.
Basketball’s most important weekend is at hand.
LaBeta is the ratings maven for the San Diego Section.
The regular season ends Friday night and teams will have until midnight to get their results to the CIF office, where LaBeta will make the final ratings computation for the first of three tiers of postseason play: San Diego Section, Southern California Regional, and State championships.
Seedings, brackets, and divisional placements probably will be announced by early afternoon Saturday.
From the Apollo to the Valley, there are 123 boys teams in 23 leagues and 120 girls squads in 22 circuits. The only difference in boys’ and girls’ competition is that ten boys teams play in the Frontier North and Frontier South leagues, while seven girls squads comprise one Frontier League.
LaBeta, commissioner Jerry Schniepp, and other members of the CIF staff are sporting bloodshot eyes and the beginnings of cauliflower ears from all the time they’re spending in front of their computers and on the telephones this week.
The universal basketball participation demonstrates the game’s popularity. By comparison, in 2015 a total of 83 schools fielded football teams, a sport not favored by all of the section’s institutions.
The ratings system, now an accepted fixture in California prep sports, was altered again this year, hopefully ensuring no repeat of 2015, when girls champion Horizon and boys titlist Escondido were not allowed to proceed beyond the San Diego Section tournament.
Meanwhile, Foothills Christian continues to dominate the Union-Tribune poll and is fifth in the state top 20 as ranked by Cal-Hi Sports. Mission Hills is seventh, La Jolla Country Day eighth, and The Bishop’s 17th in the girls’ top 20.
Boys poll and records through Monday, Feb. 15:
| Rank | Team | Record | Points | Last Week |
| 1 | Foothills Christian (11) | 19-4 | 110 | 1 |
| 2 | Torrey Pines | 21-4* | 86 | 4 |
| 3 | St. Augustine | 19-5 | 84 | 3 |
| 4 | Cathedral | 17-5 | 85 | 2 |
| 5 | El Camino | 22-5 | 62 | 5 |
| 6 | Army-Navy | 19-7 | 59 | 6 |
| 7 | Kearny | 24-3** | 38 | 7 |
| 8 | Grossmont | 21-3 | 22 | 9 |
| 9 | La Jolla Country Day | 23-4 | 18 | 10 |
| 10 | Poway | 22-5 | 15 | 8 |
*Forfeited 57-37 victory Dec. 5 over Horizon. **Forfeited 73-64 victory over Manhattan Beach Mira Costa Dec. 26.                   Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.
Others receiving votes, including record:  Mission Bay (18-6, 11), San  Marcos (18-6, 9), West Hills (19-5, 4).
Eleven media representatives vote, including John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Jim Lindgren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Lisa Lane, San Diego Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.
