Southern California High School Football Report: Escarcega on Preps - My Five Surprise Teams of 2026. (PAID)

It’s that time for our “My Surprise Teams of 2026.”

For those who might be reading this for the first time, this was copied from the great Phil Steele’s college football preview.

The premise is simple. We want to find those teams that underperformed in 2025 and project them to have a big season. We did an excellent job two years ago when he focused on the Sab Gabriel/Whittier area teams.

Last year was the first year that we did for all the teams in the Southern Section, and the results were a bit of a mixed bag.

Our biggest success was St. Pius X-St. Matthias. They went 6-10 and made the state final, but we felt 2025 would be a big season, and they made the CIFSS Final with seven wins (compared to four in 2025). That was an improvement, and we’ll take it as a win.

Colony would have been a big win for us, had they not forfeited their league wins for using an ineligible player. They would have had 7-8 wins, compared to zero wins in 2024. We had it tabbed perfectly, but circumstances beyond our control made it a minor win with 3 wins.

We had high hopes for Western with five wins in 2024. But they improved slightly to six wins in 2025. The ones that we totally whiffed on were Westminster and Temple City, but we are going to take our chances with one of those teams in 2026.

It’s time to go back to the batter’s box and take our swings for the 2026 season. And for the first time ever, this will be behind a paywall for our paid subs.