SoCal Prep Legends finalists for 2016 Team of the Year

Throughout the school year, SoCal Prep Legends has been recognizing the best high school student-athletes in Southe Califoia. As the end of the spring sports season approaches, SoCal Prep Legends will aounce award wiers in 11 categories, including boys and girls Athlete of the Year wiers.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll aounce finalists for the awards from KABC and the Southe Califoia News Group that includes 11 news outlets throughout Southe Califoia.

Here are the nominees for Team of the Year:

Chaminade girls basketball (31-4) >> Led by Valerie Higgins, a USC-signee, and Leaoa Odom, an athletic wing heading to Duke, the Eagles soared to new heights, capturing their second consecutive CIF Southe Section Open Division title by beating Long Beach Poly. Chaminade would faced Poly again, just two weeks later, for the CIF State Southe Califoia Regional title. Odom’s game-wiing three-pointer placed Chaminade into the State final. The Eagles then put the finishing touches on a baer campaign by beating Miramonte in the CIF State Open Division final for the program’s second state crown.

Chino Hills boys basketball (35-0) >> Finishing the year undefeated and being regarded as the No. 1 team in the country by a plethora of publications, the Chino Hills Huskies’ list of accomplishments is a mile long. Led by UCLA-commit Lonzo Ball, who averaged a triple-double this season, the Huskies won the CIF Southe Section Open Division title, the Southe Califoia Regional Open Division and the CIF State Open Division championship.

National praise doesn’t come without a national victory, and Chino Hills obtained that marquee win over Montverde Academy (Fla.) in the The City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla. on Dec. 21 in a nail-biting 83-82 victory while Montverde was ranked No. 1 at the time.

Corona Centeial football (14-1) >> Scoring 812 points against their opponents this year and letting up only 298, the Huskies of Corona Centeial were one of the best high school football teams in the nation. Rolling through the Big VIII to an undefeated league crown, Centeial then glided through the Pac-5 Divisional playoffs on its way to a 62-52 shootout with St. John Bosco. After being crowned the champion of the best football division in Southe Califoia, the Huskies finally met their match in the 2015 CIF State Football Championship Bowl against De La Salle of Concord, Calif., where they lost 28-21, and finished the ruer-up.

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Despite coming up short in the state title game, Centeial displayed dominance like no other team in Southe Califoia this past season.

Great Oak boys cross country >> The team was labeled the best in the nation this fall, crowned national champions in Portland at the Nike Cross Nationals on Dec. 5. Not only did the Wolfpack win, they made history at the event with 114 total points and won by 49 points -- the largest margin in meet history. Great Oak put all seven of its ruers across the finish line before ruer-up American Fork’s fifth man.

Along the way to their national title the Wolfpack captured a 2015 CIF Southe Section Division 1 title at Mt. Sac, and a CIF Califoia State championship in Fresno. Although the 2015 divisional title was the first in the program’s history, the 2015 state title was Great Oak’s second consecutive.

Santa Margarita girls soccer (25-4) >> The Eagles, under head coach Chuck Morales, ranked No. 1 in the nation by the USA TODAY High School Sports/National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Santa Margarita defeated its local rival, Tesoro of Rancho Santa Margarita, to win the CIF-Southe Section Division 1 championship, 3-1, on March 5. Two weeks later, the Eagles beat their rivals again, this time 5-0, to win the CIF Southe Califoia Regional Division I title.

Senior team captain/midfielder Natalie Keedy was the CIF-SS Division 1 player of the year.

Santa Margarita showed great toughness and determination by wiing two playoff games in penalty kicks on its way to adding more hardware to the program’s trophy case. It was the sixth CIF-SS championship the Eagles have won under Morales.