It’s actually a bit hard to believe, but we’re into the final two weeks of the high school football regular season in the Coachella Valley. And while the order of our weekly power rankings now barely changes from week to week, we’re doing something a bit different this week and next.
I want to introduce a tier system for the rankings the rest of the way. What does that even mean, you might be asking. Well, essentially, instead of just a ranking, this system provides tiers for each team to better illustrate where teams are heading into the final games of the season.
Each tier group teams together of a similar quality, rather than simply ranking 1-14.
Tier 1 consists of clearly the best teams, followed by Tier 2, which are good teams that probably
aren’t quite on the same level as Tier 1 teams. Tier 3 are teams that have had big moments this season, but we don’t believe that they’re on the same level as Tier 2. Tier 4 teams come after that, of course, then Tier 5.
The purpose in ranking teams this way is to show how much better, in our opinion, teams are than others. If teams are in the same tier, we expect a head-to-head matchup between those teams to be close. If they aren't in the same tier then, well, we don't expect the game to be close.
With that in mind, here’s our Week 10 power rankings, divided into tiers.
Tier 1
- 1 La Quinta
- 2 Desert Christian Academy
We still believe La Quinta (4-4) is best team in the valley, even with Desert Christian Academy (8-0) moving closer to clinching its second consecutive unbeaten regular season. The difference is that the Blackhawks have beaten better teams than the Conquerors, and their losses have all been against superior teams. If the schedules were reversed, La Quinta would be 8-0, in our opinion.
DCA will likely roll to a league title, without much of a challenge on the schedule to finish the regular season. La Quinta can claim an outright Desert Empire League title with a win on Thursday at Xavier Prep. La Quinta’s last outright league title came in 2016, so this week's game is significant.
Tier 2
- 3. Rancho Mirage
- 4. Desert Hot Springs
- 5. Palm Desert
Last Friday, the Rattlers (5-3) came back to beat Xavier Prep, 21-14, in a win that may have saved their season. Instead of falling to 0-3 in the DEL, Rancho Mirage can finish as high as second in the league with wins over Shadow Hills and Palm Springs. Those are not guaranteed but certainly possible.
Rancho Mirage can share a DEL title if La Quinta were to also somehow lose its last two games. But that appears quite unlikely.
Desert Hot Springs (6-2) rolled to a 48-0 win over Coachella Valley on Friday and looks like a team poised to make a deep postseason run. The only thing keeping the Golden Eagles from the No. 3 spot here is the head-to-head loss against Rancho Mirage.
Palm Desert (4-4) has lost two consecutive, against Xavier Prep and Shadow Hills, and some may wonder if the Aztecs even deserve to be in this tier. But they’ve done enough over the course of the season to warrant it. That said, the Aztecs may need a win this week at Palm Springs to feel good about a postseason berth.
Tier 3
- 6. Xavier Prep
- 7. Yucca Valley
- 8. Palm Springs
- 9. Shadow Hills
Xavier Prep (3-5) beat Palm Desert two weeks ago and is in a solid position to finish in the top three in the DEL. They should get there if they beat Shadow Hills next week. But a win over La Quinta on Thursday would put the Saints in position to potentially share the league title or even win it outright with some help.
The Trojans (4-4) have roared back to life after starting the season 0-4. Friday’s 34-27 win over Banning was a statement and puts Yucca Valley in play for a Desert Valley League title with wins over Coachella Valley and Desert Hot Springs over the next two weeks. Wins in those games will, however, not come easily.
Palm Springs (3-5) will face a reeling Palm Desert squad on Friday in a game between two teams that shared the DEL title last season. Both teams need this win to feel good about their postseason hopes.
Shadow Hills (2-6) shocked Palm Desert last week. The hope here is that it ignites an exciting finish to the season for the Knights, though it could have simply been lightning in a bottle. We’ll see on Friday against Rancho Mirage.
Tier 4
- 10. Coachella Valley
- 11. Indio
- 12. Desert Mirage
Coachella Valley (3-5) beat both Indio and Desert Mirage, but falls into the same tier here. Indio (4-4) then beat Desert Mirage (5-3) last Friday, 22-20, in overtime.
All three teams still have a shot to win a league tile or at least lock up an automatic postseason berth. For Indio and Desert Mirage, that is significant.
Tier 5
- 13. Twentynine Palms
- 14. Cathedral City
Though the Wildcats (3-5) are a step ahead of the Lions ( 1-7) after a 46-24 win over Cathedral City on Friday, both teams fall into the fifth tier in these rankings. Both can still qualify for the postseason, though there’s considerable work to be done over the last two weeks of the regular season.
Andrew John covers sports and recreation in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Week 10 football power rankings: Introducing our new tier system
