It's Week 11 and the final week of the high school football season in the Coachella Valley, and yet only one team has been officially eliminated from postseason contention. That has to be a first here in the valley.
It's true that every team from the valley except for Coachella Valley High School still has a shot at the CIF Southern Section playoffs. La Quinta High School is officially clinched a Desert Empire League outright title, and Desert Christian Academy, Desert Hot Springs, Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms have also locked up automatic postseason bids.
But the rest is up for grabs.
The Sun Valley League 's second automatic qualifier has still not yet been determined and neither have the second and third-place finishers (automatic playoff
berths) in the DEL.
Here, we won't give your our picks for the week, but we'll offer you our best guess as to how local teams stack up heading into all the potential chaos in the final week. We're also bringing back our tier system, showing not only our ranking but the tiers where we believe similar teams belong.
Let's get into it.
Tier 1
- La Quinta
- Desert Christian Academy
These are, in our opinion, clearly the two best teams in the valley. They're both already in the playoffs and we could definitely see them making a big splash in the postseason. La Quinta will finish the regular season Friday against Palm Desert and DCA will face Rio Hondo Prep. Both will be nice challenges heading into the playoffs.
Tier 2
3. Desert Hot Springs
4. Rancho Mirage
5. Palm Desert
The Golden Eagles will face Yucca Valley this week for a shot to win what would be their first league football title in school history. That's huge. Even a loss would still mean a top-two finish in the Desert Valley League and an automatic playoff berth.
Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert are each playing for their playoff lives this week. Even if left out, they could apply for an at-large bid, but why leave it to chance?
Tier 3
6. Yucca Valley
7. Xavier Prep
8. Palm Springs
9. Shadow Hills
Yucca Valley is playing for a DVL title this week and has already secured a postseason berth after winning five consecutive games after starting the season 0-4.
Xavier Prep is sitting pretty if the Saints beat Shadow Hills this week, but there are a few things that still need to happen to lock up an automatic postseason berth. Palm Springs beating Rancho Mirage would help. Shadow Hills still has an outside chance at the playoffs, but it would require a win over Xavier Prep and some additional help to make that happen.
Tier 4
10. Coachella Valley
11. Twentynine Palms
Coachella Valley will miss the postseason for the first time since before head coach Bill Johnson took over, in 2021. The Arabs won't finish in the top two in the Desert Valley League to qualify for an automatic bid and won't have the five wins necessary to apply for an at-large berth.
Twentynine Palms may not be as good as Coachella Valley, but the Wildcats play in a different league and have already secured a top-two finish in that league to qualify for an automatic playoff berth. Friday's game against Indio will determine if they share the SVL title or capture it ourtright.
Tier 5
12. Desert Mirage
13. Indio
14. Cathedral City
The Lions scored a huge win over Indio last week, and with a win Thursday against Desert Mirage Cathedral City would reach the postseason for the first time since 2021.
Indio can get in and earn a share of a league title with a win over Twentynine Palms. That won't be easy after last week's surprising loss to Cathedral City.
Desert Mirage has more of an uphill battle to qualify for the postseason, but there's definitely still a chance if they can beat Cathedral City this week.
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: Palm Desert rises, Indio falls in final power rankings of 2026
