2019 preseason high school football rankings watch list

By Zack Poff Jul 19, 2019, 12:00am

Monday we release our initial Top 25 rankings and Mater Dei, North Shore, St. John Bosco and St. and Frances Academy all have chance to be No. 1.

Video: Preseason high school football rankings watch list
Find out which programs are in the mix for preseason No. 1 ranking.

Updated July 19

We are three weeks away until the high school football season gets underway and three days left until the release of our Top 25 preseason rankings.

On Monday, the nation's Top 25 will be unveiled, followed by the Top 100 squads on Wednesday, and the best teams in each state on Friday.



There are a lot of teams in the mix to start the 2019 season at No. 1 and the video above tackles the contenders.

It went down to the wire last year as North Shore (Houston) ended the season at No. 1 in our Top 25 rankings after finishing 16-0 and winning its first state title since 2015. Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.), Duncanville (Texas) and IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) rounded out the Top 5.

Expect all five schools to be in the mix again this season.

One of the most exciting things about this year are the big-time, out-of-state matchups. It's arguably the best national schedule of games we've seen.

Notable out-of-state games:

• Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) vs. St. Frances Academy (Baltimore)  — Sept. 14
St. John's (Washington, D.C.) at Duncanville (Texas) — Sept. 14
• IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) at St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia) — Sept. 14
• Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) at St. John's (Washington, D.C.) — Sept. 27

The Top 10 high school football Games of the Year started our preseason content, on July 1, and all five matchups were there.



After that, we rolled out enough preseason rankings content to keep high school football fans satisfied until the opening kickoff. Starting in Aug., look for our preseason All-American lists.

• July 8 — Top 10 quarterbacks
• July 10 — Top 10 running backs
• July 12 — Top 10 wide receivers
• July 15 — Top 10 defensive players
• July 19 — Top 10 players overall
July 22 — Initial Top 25 rankings
July 24 — Preseason Top 100 rankings
July 26 — Top team from each state
Graphic by Ryan Escobar