Five Long Beach teams were honored at Angel Stadium last week for claiming 2024-25 CIF Southern Section Academic championships. Out of 556 total high schools in the CIF-SS, Long Beach Poly boys and girls cross country, Poly boys and girls wrestling, and Wilson girls water polo posted the highest cumulative unweighted team GPAs in the large school division for their respective sports.
The CIF Southern Section Academic Awards program, sponsored by Ford, began during the 2003-2004 school year to recognize the academic accomplishments of student-athletes. Schools with an enrollment of 1,500 or above are deemed to be large schools. For each CIF sanctioned sport, a small school and large school are commemorated as academic team champions for the school year at an Angels baseball game.
Long Beach squads have made many appearances at the ceremony over the past two decades, affirming the city’s continued success both on and off the field. This program has empowered student-athletes by recognizing their dedication to excellence in school and valuing it just as much as sports.
The Southern Section is by far the largest and most competitive section in California. It contains more than double the amount of schools than any other section in the state, with the second largest being the Sac-Joaquin Section, which encompasses 198 schools.
Consequently, ample competition is provided for athletes who live in and attend school within its jurisdiction, and it is by no means an easy feat to maintain the highest team GPA in the entire section. Poly boys and girls cross country had unweighted GPAs of 3.950 and 3.957, respectively, Poly boys and girls wrestling posted GPAs of 3.765 and 3.821, respectively, and Wilson girls water polo possessed a GPA of 3.936.
At the ceremony, two representatives of each team took to the Angels’ field alongside squads from dozens of other Southern Section schools and waved up to the cheering crowd as each team’s name was announced.
Poly’s boys wrestling, girls swim and dive, boys water polo, and girls golf were also recognized at last year’s edition of the event, making it the third year in a row that four or more Long Beach teams have won the award.
This simultaneous athletic and academic excellence is a tradition that the Moore League hopes to continue in the future, as athletes keep growing intellectually and physically and pushing their limits in school and sport, becoming better people along the way.
