It was easy to predict some of what happened during the 2026 high school football regular season in Orange County.
Santa Margarita being the best team in the county. Mission Viejo winning the Alpha League championship. Crean Lutheran winning the Bravo League title.
Those things were anticipated.
The unexpected: El Modena being oh-so-close to going undefeated … Orange going 10-0 … Fountain Valley’s rapid improvement.
The CIF Southern Section football playoffs, which begin this week, will bring more of the expected and the unexpected
Here we go with predictions for each of the playoff divisions with an emphasis on the Orange County teams:
Santa Margarita wide receiver Kiyan Callis, left, pushes St. John Bosco linebacker Josiah Poyer away as he runs with the ball in a Trinity League football game in Bellflower on Friday, October 16, 2026. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
DIVISION 1
Overview: Santa Margarita won this division last season and looks ready to do it again. The Eagles defense is sensational. It feels wrong that Mission Viejo is in this division with the high-powered private schools. Orange Lutheran upset St. John Bosco in the first round a year ago, but a repeat of that seems unlikely. This division begins the playoffs Nov. 13.
Semifinals: Santa Margarita vs. St. John Bosco; Mater Dei vs. Sierra Canyon
Champion: Santa Margarita. There is a reason why you’ve heard “defense wins championships” so often.
Corona del Mar’s Will Ingham, left, attempts the tackle against Crean Lutheran’s Damari Hall as he runs the ball down the field for a touchdown during a varsity football game played at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach on Friday, October 23, 2026.
(Photo by Karen Tapia / Orange County Register, SCNG)
DIVISION 2
Overview: Orange would be a solid contender in Division 3 or Division 4, but the Panthers were placed in this group. They have to play at No. 1-seeded Chaparral of Temecula in the first round. Crean Lutheran is Orange County’s best team in the division. It’s very unfortunate that Capistrano Valley senior quarterback Talon Spencer, who plays better when the stakes are higher, is out because of a spleen injury.
Semifinals: Chaparral vs. Crean Lutheran; Inglewood vs. Bishop Amat
Champion: Crean Lutheran. The Caden Jones-to-Braylen Ross combination is very difficult to stop and the Saints have a productive running game, too.
DIVISION 3
Overview: El Modena vs. Newport Harbor in the first round is a beautiful matchup. Those teams are similar in the tough-and-grit category. Villa Park can score a ton of points. Edison has had a rough season, but the playoffs offer a restart for a team that might be hungry and ready to prove something.
Semifinals: La Serna vs. El Modena; Murrieta Valley vs. Norco
Champion: La Serna. The Lancers won the championship of a good league, the Gateway League.
DIVISION 4
Overview: Dana Hills is averaging 42 points a game, although that average was higher before the Dolphins ran into the defenses of El Modena and Huntington Beach. Cypress went 5-0 in the Iota League and goes into the playoffs sizzling. La Habra was 5-0 in nonleague games, 0-5 in the excellent Bravo League. With DJ Mitchell at quarterback, the Highlanders could make a run at their second consecutive CIF-SS title.
Semifinals: Dana Hills vs. Downey; La Habra vs. Quartz Hill
Champion: Quartz Hill. This team has put together some one-sided wins lately.
DIVISION 5
Overview: Two good Orange County teams are in this division, El Dorado and Trabuco Hills. Both had very good regular seasons, but sometimes have trouble scoring against the better defensive teams.
Semifinals: Mary Star vs. Salesian; Charter Oak vs. Temecula Valley
Champion: Mary Star. The Stars’ 45-42 loss to Carson last week was their only loss of the season. That could be good for the Stars.
Fullerton players celebrate a touchdown by tight end Isaac Garza (13) during the 4th quarter of a Kappa League game against Canyon in Fullerton on Thursday, October 8, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
DIVISION 6
Overview: Fullerton might be the Orange County team to watch in this group. The Red Hawks carry a seven-game winning streak into the playoffs, including a 5-0 run in the Kappa League. Foothill is the only team to beat Cypress in the regular season. A healthy Laguna Beach team could be a factor.
Semifinals: St. Francis vs. Laguna Beach; Beaumont vs. Fullerton
Champion: Fullerton. Running back Cyrus Aviles is a yards-chomping machine.
Division 7
Overview: Laguna Hills and Pacifica of the Iota League are the Orange County representatives here. Laguna Hills looked good in a comeback win over Pacifica a couple of weeks ago.
Semifinals: San Dimas vs. Laguna Hills; Pacifica vs. Citrus Valley
Champion: San Dimas. The Saints have rolled to one-sided wins of late.
DIVISION 8
Overview: Of the four Orange County teams in this division – Segerstrom, Irvine, Canyon and Portola – Segerstrom looks like the best of the lot. The Jaguars have wins over El Toro and Irvine.
Semifinals: Segerstrom vs. Rio Hondo Prep; Corona Santiago vs. Bellflower
Champion: Bellflower. The Buccaneers outscored their opponents 97-6 over the final two weeks of the regular season.
DIVISION 9
Overview: League champions Fountain Valley and Ocean View are in this division. Ocean View finished hot, with a 33-0 win over Rancho Alamitos to win the Sigma League championship.
Semifinals: Lawndale vs. Marina; Moreno Valley vs. Colton
Champion: Lawndale. The Cardinals went 9-1 in the regular season.
DIVISION 10
Overview: Sonora is the only county team in this division. The Raiders take a 9-1 record into the playoffs, with that lone loss to Lambda League champion Fountain Valley by six points.
Semifinals: Nogales vs. Sonora; West Torrance vs. Granite Hills
Champion: Nogales. The Nobles have running back Gatsbee Gumban, who is averaging 197 rushing yards a game.
DIVISION 11
Overview: Los Amigos and Westminster are the O.C. representatives here. Los Amigos went 5-0 to win the Omicron League championship.
Semifinals: Riverside Notre Dame vs. Schurr; Dominguez vs. Banning
Champion: Notre Dame. The Titans were 5-0, with with mostly one-sided wins, in the Cottonwood League.
LOS ANGELES — JJ Redick is one to self-assess, self-reflect, self-critique.
“Especially in this role, which I understood when I took the job, but understanding it even more now is, your team is always going to reflect your mood, your body language, your words,” the Lakers’ head coach told the Southern California News Group in October. “You want your team to ultimately reflect you.”
Redick has been open, since becoming the head coach of the Lakers in June 2024, that he meets with a performance coach – constantly rethinking how best to communicate with his players as he enters his third season calling X’s and O’s from the bench. Midway through the 2025-26 season, Redick came to a realization: some of the tools that helped Redick as a player had become “deterrents” for him as a coach.
When he played in the NBA, Redick said as he recalled summer conversations with longtime friend and former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, he took to the court with anger. Inner anger drove his competitiveness, the 42-year-old coach said in September, adding that the anger isn’t always a good thing when you’re the head honcho.
“In coaching, you constantly have to be aware of the players and how they respond to you,” Redick told SCNG. “I do believe there’s opportunities throughout the season to be a little bit demonstrative. That’s fine, and they’re going to respond to that. But if your only way to get on them or hold them accountable is through anger, they’re going to tune that out. Or they’re going to react negatively to it.”
“Coaching is all about trying to get your players in the best possible headspace. I can function with anger, that’s fine, I’ve done it my whole life. But not everybody can function with anger. And so, as a group, getting clear-minded, getting clarity, understanding the assignment, that’s more important than trying to get them riled up. And that took – that was a process to understand.”
Who better to understand Redick’s coaching conundrum than Krzyzewski himself – who first coached Redick from 2002-2006 en route to a pair of National Player of the Year honors before Duke retired his No. 4 jersey in 2007 and made him a Duke Athletics Hall of Famer in 2024.
“JJ is really smart and he functions under the theory that he’s always becoming,” Krzyzewski, affectionately called “Coach K,” told SCNG in a phone interview. “Who he is, who he was last year, is not necessarily the exact person, player, or coach that he’s going to be the next year. And so you’re always becoming. When you’re always becoming, that means you’re always willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to adapt to something new.”
Krzyzewski watched as a teenage Redick faced the vitriol from opposing crowds – facing verbal combat in each road environment the Blue Devils entered – and used the anger as “fuel,” mental jet propulsion to become the all-time great college basketball player he eventually became, the 79-year-old Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer said.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick yells at a referee from the sideline during the second half of a game against the Clippers on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Anger is only bad if it destroys something good, Krzyzewski said. You can use anger as motivation, as a resource to inspire your team – an outlet that shows a level of care, he added.
“And so as he’s progressed, he still gets angry, which is good,” Krzyzewski said. “I was angry at different times my whole career. I think it’s a motivator. It’s an emotion. But then don’t let anger hurt a player or hurt a team. Make sure it helps a player and helps a team. And you get angry because it means a lot. You want to win, you want what you put out on the court to work. You want that guy, that player to function at the ability he’s capable of functioning at.”
That process of channeling anger is about maturing, Krzyzewski said, adding the caveat that maturing doesn’t mean that a human is immature. At 79, the former Team USA head coach who guided three Olympic gold medal-winning teams said he’s still maturing, learning how to communicate best for people in the present – not for people five years ago.
Krzyzewski and Redick agree that their friendship was near immediate, with Krzyzewski going on to say that he considered his star pupil a friend while coaching him at Duke.
“We trust one another,” Krzyzewski said. “We know we’re not going to BS one another, that we can tell each other the truth in a moment. And, I love that. I love JJ and I know he loves me and my family.”
Even if Redick wasn’t coaching, Krzyzewski added, their level of friendship would endure.
“He doesn’t call me and say, ‘How are we going to beat the Thunder?’” Krzyzewski said with a laugh. “We don’t talk about stuff like that. It’s more ‘How are you? What’s going on? What’s your mindset? Are you taking care of yourself?’ All that kind of stuff.”
Redick reiterated their bond beyond basketball – the link that forever intertwined their respective journeys through the Blue Devils.
“Coach and I, whether it was during the (head coach) interview process, when I got the job, a little bit my first year – we may talk randomly about coaching, but it’s not the extent of our relationship,” Redick told SCNG. “We’ve been friends for 20 years. So a lot of it is family-related, what he’s got going on. I love hearing about how he’s keeping himself busy, so it’s less about bouncing stuff off of him.”
Redick added that he gets a lot out of meeting and studying other coaches in one-off situations. For example, he said getting to spend time with Rams head coach Sean McVay was “insightful.”
Fifteen years as an NBA player and another handful of seasons analyzing the league as a broadcaster with ESPN is hardly the clearest route from post-playing career to a head coaching job in the league.
But so far, for Redick and the Lakers, it’s worked in spades.
Redick became the first Lakers head coach since Phil Jackson to reach the 50-win milestone in consecutive seasons – and he was the 16th coach in NBA history to record 50-win seasons in his first two years holding the proverbial whiteboard.
Only Pat Riley, Paul Westhead and Butch van Breda Kolff had attained the latter feat with the Lakers before Redick.
“I never thought of him as a coach – I always just thought of him as, well, he’s the best shooter we’ve ever had and one of the greatest players in college basketball history, and he’s a heck of a pro,” Krzyzewski said. “When he went into broadcasting, he knocked it out of the park right away. Like he wasn’t learning to do that. He had that. And his competitive drive was not fed. He wasn’t able to feed that hunger for competition through being a sports announcer or sports commentator or whatever. He craves competition. …”
Krzyzewski continued: “But he also craves the game. OK, competition at this level, how can I stay in the deep end with the game? ‘I want to coach.’ And so I was surprised when he said it to me, but then I wasn’t surprised, because I put those two things together. This guy will be competitive for his whole life, and he loves the game of basketball. And, you know what? He’s such a damn good competitor, and he understands the game. …”
“Once I got over the little bit of surprise of him doing it, and said ‘OK, that makes sense. I think you should go for it.’ And then obviously, he went for it, and he went for it in one of the most visible coaching assignments, the toughest ones you could have – the Los Angeles Lakers. Which, that doesn’t surprise me either.”
In the early days of the 2026-27 season with Game 10 arriving on Friday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, Redick is on track for a third season of regular-season success. Entering Thursday, the Lakers have a 7-2 record, rank second in points per game (121.8 ppg) and have the 17th-best defense to begin the season, holding foes to 113.9 ppg.
Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski, right, talks with player JJ Redick during a practice on July 19, 2006, at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. “This guy will be competitive for his whole life, and he loves the game of basketball,” Krzyzewski said of Redick, now in his third season as the Lakers' head coach. “And, you know what? He’s such a damn good competitor, and he understands the game. …” (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)
“I always say that the job of a coach and the leader of an organization is very simple: Can you maximize the group, and do people enjoy coming to work?” Redick said Monday before the Lakers handily beat the Miami Heat. “It’s that simple.”
Krzyzewski added that Redick has increased empathy for his players because of his relatively recent retirement (September 2021). He was teammates with Doncic on the Dallas Mavericks and played against five of his 16 fully-guaranteed contract players during his NBA career.
Feedback and adjustment, using his experiences in the NBA and beyond, goes back to what Krzyzewski said he enjoys about Redick’s internal philosophy.
Redick, more than 20 years after meeting and learning from Krzyzewski, is always “becoming.”
“JJ’s one of a kind and I always loved that about him,” Krzyzewski said. “And I love the fact that he works his butt off. He’s always trying to get better.”
TRAIL BLAZERS AT LAKERS
When: Friday, 7 p.m.
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet, Prime Video, 710 AM, 980 AM
As vote counting in the midterms continues, four Orange County legislative races with GOP incumbents or long-held Republican seats remain tight as of Thursday afternoon, Nov. 5.
Duncan’s lead widened, albeit slightly, on Thursday. Duncan has received 50.4% of the vote so far to Strickland’s 49.6%, a lead of 2,238 votes.
Democrat Chris Duncan, left, and Republican Tony Strickland, right, are vying for the Senate District 36 seat. (Courtesy photos)
In a statement Wednesday, Duncan said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the latest results, despite it being too close to call.
“This election is a complete and total repudiation of Donald Trump and Tony Strickland’s divisive politics that have pitted Californians against one another,” he said. “The future is bright, and I look forward to helping bring back the California Dream and returning our state to its rightful place as the greatest state in the Union.”
Strickland, who is seeking a full term after being tapped by voters in a 2025 special election to represent the district, did not respond to requests for comment.
The 36th Senate District — which spans Orange and Los Angeles counties and includes Cerritos, Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and San Clemente — has been represented by a Republican for over three uninterrupted decades.
According to the latest voter registration statistics from the secretary of state’s office, registered Republicans make up 36.77% (239,361), registered Democrats make up 33.51% (218,109), and no party preference voters account for 23.09% (150,327) of the electorate.
Assembly District 70
Over in Assembly District 70 — an Orange County district that includes Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Garden Grove, Westminster and Fountain Valley — Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, leads with 50.5% of the vote so far. The latest tally had Ta with 1,111 votes head of Democrat Paula Swift, who is sitting at 49.5%.
Ta, who is seeking a third term after first being elected in 2022, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Swift, a Seal Beach small business owner, said in a statement that while the race is still too close to call, the results so far show “a direct repudiation of the current administration’s policy of cruelty.”
Democrat Paula Swift, left, and Republican Assemblymember Tri Ta, right, are vying for the Assembly District 70 seat in the Nov. 3 general election. (Courtesy photos)
Before Ta won, Democrats held the seat from 2012 until 2022, beginning when Bonnie Lowenthal was elected, followed by Democrat Patrick O’Donnell from 2014 to 2022. Before Lowenthal’s term, however, Republicans held the seat for decades.
Registered Democrats account for 36.09% (99,896) of all voters in the district, while registered Republicans account for 32.98% (91,304). No party preference voters make up 24.9% (68,938) of the electorate, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Van Der Mark, as of Thursday afternoon, has received 50.8% of the vote — leading by 2,719 votes — to Kluwe’s 49.2%.
Democrat Chris Kluwe (left) and Republican Gracey Van Der Mark (right) are vying for the 72nd Assembly District seat in the Nov. 3 general election. (Courtesy photos)
Voters in the district — which includes Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods and Lake Forest — have consistently tapped Republicans over the years to represent them. The last Democrat elected to the post was Sen. Tom Umberg in 1990, who is leading in his Board of Equalization District 4 race this year. Umberg served one term.
Van Der Mark, who is a member of Huntington Beach’s City Council, did not respond to requests for comment.
Kluwe, though, said he expected a “really strong early showing” when returns first came out Tuesday night after the polls closed, and was happy to see that was the case.
“We knew that there was going to be a significant bounce-back from the in-person voters, because those tend to skew heavily Republican, and so now we’ve got to wait for the mail-in ballots to get counted,” Kluwe, a former NFL player, said. “We’re hopeful that those are going to go our way, because traditionally those tend to skew Democratic.”
Kluwe said the close results show that voters want a representative in Sacramento who “is going to actually make the government actually work for them,” regardless of political party. Voters connected with his campaign’s prioritization of mitigating climate issues and coastal erosion the most, he said, “because it’s materially affecting their lives.”
Registered Republicans account for 39.19% (135,017) of voters in the district, while Democrats account for 32.09% (110,633). No party preference voters make up 21.62% (74,553) of the electorate, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Assembly District 74
The contest in Assembly District 74 — which spans Orange and San Diego counties and includes Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente — was a bit tighter.
As of Thursday afternoon, Assemblymember Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel, maintained a lead of 1,062 votes, so far receiving 50.4% to Democrat Sergio Farias‘ 49.6%.
Laurie Davies, left, and Sergio Farias are vying to represent Assembly District 74. (Courtesy Davies, Farias campaigns)
Davies, who is seeking a third term, first flipped the seat red in 2022. Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris held the seat from 2018 to 2022, until redistricting changed the area she still represents.
Davies could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Farias, a San Clemente City Council member, said he was surprised and encouraged Tuesday night to see that he initially jumped out with a slight lead when returns first came in. Farias thought he “would be five percentage points behind on the first drop,” he said Thursday.
Affordability was a major in-road to connect with voters leading up to Election Day, he said.
“Voters were voting like their financial futures depended on it,” Farias said.
“At the end of the day, I think it just shows the frustration of the 74th Assembly District, especially when it comes to affordability,” Farias said. “There’s a sentiment of: ‘Get out of the way if you’re not going to do anything.’”
According to the secretary of state’s office, registered Democrats account for 34.75% (108,832) of all voters, while registered Republicans account for 34.65% (108,495). No party preference voters make up 22.09% (69,183) of the electorate.
Catcher Bo Naylor, a former teammate of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, says he didn’t know gamblers could place bets on individual pitches until the criminal case against the pitchers arose
An attorney arrived home late after a very difficult day trying to get a stay of execution for his client.
His last-minute plea for clemency to the governor had failed, and he was feeling exhausted and depressed.
As soon as he walked through the door, his wife started in on him.
“What time of night do you call this? Where have you been? Dinner is cold, and I’m not reheating it!”
And on and on she went.
Too exhausted to play his usual role in their familiar argument, he poured himself a shot of whiskey and headed upstairs for a long, hot soak in the bathtub, followed by the predictable sarcastic remarks as he made his way up the stairs.
While he was in the bath, the phone rang.
His wife answered and was told that her husband’s client, James Wright, had been granted a stay of execution after all. Wright would not be hanged that night.
Finally realizing what a terrible day her husband must have had, she decided to go upstairs and give him the good news.
As she opened the bathroom door, she was greeted by the sight of her husband, bent over naked, drying his legs and feet.
“They’re not hanging Wright tonight,” she announced.
He spun around and screamed:
“FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WOMAN, DON’T YOU EVER STOP?!”
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