This weekend, the 2nd edition of High School Southerns will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina. With a good combination of teams across the southeast, one will look to earn their school the title as the best team in the south. Many teams have played each other in regular season tournaments, which will lead to an interesting last time around in terms of state vs. state competition. Following pool play on Saturday, the top eight teams will be re-seeded for the Championship Bracket on Sunday. Let’s take a look at the seeding going into this Saturday.
Pre-Tournament Seeding (recent tournament places):
- Paideia HS (Georgia State Champ, Music City Mash-Up Champ, Deep Freeze Champ)
- University School of Nashville (Terminus Champ, Music City Runner-Up, Deep Freeze Runner Up, Reigning Southerns Champ)
- Independence High School (Middle TN HS League One-Day Champ, 3rd at Music City Mash-Up & Deep Freeze)
- Carolina Friends School (YULA Invite Champs, Queen City Tune-Up Champs)
- Lakeside High School (Georgia State Runner-Up, Terminus Runner-Up, 3rd at Deep Freeze, Queen City Tune-Up Runner-Up)
- CHHS – CHUF (3rd at Terminus, YULA Invite Runner-Up)
- Brookwood (3rd at Terminus, T-5th at Deep Freeze)
- Catholic HS (Louisiana State Runner-Up, 5th at Terminus)
- Grady (4th at Georgia State Championship)
- McCallie School (3rd at Middle TN HS League One-Day)
- Yorktown High School (Virginia State Runner-Up, 3rd at YULA Invite)
- East Chapel Hill (Easterns HS Division Runner-Up, 5th at Queen City Tune-Up)
- HB Woodlawn Varsity (Virginia State Champs)
- Woodside HS (3rd at Virginia State Championship)
- LC Bird (7th at Virginia State Championship)
The pools are broken down as such:
Pool A
Paideia HS
Catholic HS
Yorktown High School
Woodside HS
Pool B
University School of Nashville
Brookwood
East Chapel Hill,
HB Woodlawn Varsity
Pool C
Independence High School
CHHS – CHUF
Grady
Pool D
Carolina Friends School
Lakeside High School
McCallie School
LC Bird
There will be plenty of rematches from regular season games as well as first time match ups on Saturday. Not surprising that Paideia gets the number first overall seed in the tournament, also not surprising that 2012 Southerns Champion USN gets the second overall seed. Both teams have played each other in the finals of two tournaments, with Paideia coming out on top both times. The next two top seeds, and the rest of the teams participating, are a bit of a mystery to most youth ultimate followers. Independence has played Paideia and USN in multiple close games during the season and came in 2nd place in last years’ Southerns. Carolina Friends bring an undefeated record to the table; this record is something no other team has on their resume. Many teams will look to challenge the seeding and improve off their performances from Southerns last year. One team in particular won their state tournament and is looking for upsets – HB Woodlawn Varsity. Some were probably left scratching their heads at their placement: seeded 13th overall and sitting at a four seed in Pool B. Last season, HB Wood lawn and Yorktown High School brought a conjoined team to Southerns. Now both are seeded in the lower half and look to prove what the boys from Virginia have in their arsenal.
My prediction is that there will be a lot of exciting and fun youth ultimate will be played at Ramblewood Park. I personally cannot wait to see the competition and to see all the new teams. Will USN and Paideia find themselves clashing in another tournament final, or will another team step up and make some noise in the constantly growing south region?
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