Which teams are the early favorites for HSNI bids?
March 19, 2026 by Charlie Eisenhood in Rankings
Welcome to the first edition of the 2026 High School Power Rankings! The rankings can be permanently found on our Youth Rankings page.
Because many youth teams have not played yet this season, these rankings should be considered preliminary and will change during the course of the spring. The rankings will eventually be used to determine invitations to the 2026 High School National Invite; currently, we plan to use the rankings published the week of May 18th as the final rankings before final bids are sent out (many bids will be sent out on a rolling basis).
If you have additional information about tournaments or team strength that you would like to be considered for the High School Power Rankings, please email [email protected].
Teams, if you would like to add logos and team information to your Team Pages, follow these instructions!
Without further ado, here are the Top 25 teams in the Boys’ and Girls’ High School Divisions!
High School Boys Power Rankings:
Notes
- There’s been a major shake up in the top 25 compared to a year ago. 2025 HSNI champion Arlington (MA) is no longer ranked after graduating a huge swath of talent, and other top HSNI finishers like Open World Learning (MN) have also fallen out of the rankings as they lose key players. It was a very strong graduating class across the country last spring. Newly at the top this year is Albany (CA), who stormed into the Seattle Invite in the fall and locked up an auto-bid to the 2026 HSNI with a dominant performance against the best teams in Washington and Oregon. Let me quote last year’s HSNI recap: “The real story with this squad is the future: Muhammad Awais, Hugo Tsai, Nicolad Rusa, and Jasper Graf are all returning. With that core intact, Albany is poised for a deep run at next year’s HSNI.”
- Perhaps Albany will prove to be in a league of their own, but we’re expecting another year with balance between West, Central, South, and East. Lakeside (GA) should be an excellent side again this year with Sam Shapiro, Pearce Becker, and Sawyer Morgan in their senior seasons, and it’s going to be a big up year for Middleton (WI), who just missed out on HSNI last year. Traditional heavy hitters like Edina (MN) and Green Canyon (UT) will be strong again, though Edina may be down a bit from last year and Green Canyon should have a little more to surround the superstar Blake Holt. Columbia (NJ) looked very strong in the fall. And watch out for South Eugene (OR), who will be playing close to home at HSNI.
- Will we see a New York team at HSNI for the first team? Brooklyn Tech (NY) had a good year in 2025 and is looking even stronger for 2026. They just beat Columbia in a one-day tournament. We’ll learn a lot at YULA.
- Hello Montgomery Blair (MD)! The Maryland state champs make their debut in the top 25; can they make a statement at YULA?
- There are a lot of teams that have a reasonable case to be ranked that aren’t. Haverford (PA) is in an up year and could challenge for Pennsylvania supremacy. Arlington (MA) is coming off an HSNI title, but they lose a ton of key seniors. El Cerrito (CA) has flashed some strong early results in California league play. Parkway (MO) looked strong against a solid group of Midwest teams early this season. And Grant (OR) has a win over Franklin (OR); maybe they will push into the rankings later this season?
High School Girls Power Rankings:
| 1 | South Eugene (OR) |
| 2 | Garfield (WA) |
| 3 | Washburn (MN) |
| 4 | El Cerrito (CA) |
| 5 | Roosevelt (WA) |
| 6 | Paideia (GA) |
| 7 | Lincoln (WA) |
| 8 | Holy Family Catholic (OH) |
| 9 | Springfield (PA) |
| 10 | HB Woodlawn (VA) |
| 11 | Ingraham (WA) |
| 12 | Amherst (MA) |
| 13 | Madison (VA) |
| 14 | Fairview (CO) |
| 15 | Nathan Hale (WA) |
| 16 | West (UT) |
| 17 | Four Rivers (MA) |
| 18 | Strath Haven (PA) |
| 19 | Edina (MN) |
| 20 | Provo (UT) |
| 21 | Oakland Tech (CA) |
| 22 | Eastside Prep (WA) |
| 23 | Hopkins (MN) |
| 24 | Jordan (NC) |
| 25 | Lower Merion (PA) |
Notes
- South Eugene (OR) is back at the top of the Power Rankings after the mega-class from defending HSNI champions Roosevelt (WA) (headlined by Chloe Hakimi) graduated last spring. South Eugene has been the strongest high school program in the country for years; can they keep their top spot? They graduated some great players, but they always seem to have more players to step up into big roles.
- Garfield (WA), led by the country’s best player, Nora Luloff, is the early Washington state champs favorite, but there are a lot of other strong programs this year, including Roosevelt, Lincoln, Ingraham, and Nathan Hale. Should be a fascinating season.
- It’s going to be a very strong up year for Washburn (MN). The borderline top 10 team last year finished top half at HSNI and loses almost nobody for the 2026 season. And, yea, Kumari Okumura is back.
- Springfield (PA) made some waves last year as a brand new team on the competitive scene: expect them to take a big step forward this year and perhaps make an HSNI run.
- Could we see a Colorado team make HSNI this year? Fairview (CO) was cracking the top 25 a year ago.
- The Utah programs have been slipping a bit with numbers in the past couple of seasons. Are they going to fade from HSNI contention?
Looking Ahead
High school ultimate will be ramping up in the next few weeks. Three HSNI qualifiers are on deck before the end of the month: the YULA Invite is this coming weekend, and River Campus Classic and Seattle Invite (Girls) are set for the weekend of March 28-29 and will give a ton of insight into where teams stand. Each of the tournaments is loaded with ranked teams.
The next set of HSNI qualifiers won’t happen until May, but there will be lots of other tournaments and local league games taking place in the interim. It’s going to be a great season!
HSNI Bids Accepted So Far
Boys
- Albany (CA) [Seattle Invite Champion]
- Edina (MN) [2025 HSNI Finalist]
- Lincoln (WA) [Washington State Champion]
- Roosevelt (WA) [Strength Bid]
- South Eugene (OR) [Strength Bid]
Girls
- Roosevelt (WA) [2025 HSNI Champion]
- South Eugene (OR) [2025 HSNI Finalist]
