Air Academy of Colorado Springs was the highest-scoring boys soccer team in Colorado last season and one of the stingiest defensively anywhere. The result was a 20-0 record, a second 4A state title in four years and a No. 1 national ranking.
Building on that success, the Kadets enter the 2015-16 season as the No. 1 team in the debut of the USA TODAY High School Sports/National Soccer Coaches Association of America Super 25 in boys soccer. This is the first time the NSCAA has done preseason rankings and the first outgrowth of a partnership between USA TODAY and the NSCAA announced Tuesday.
Weekly regular season national and regional rankings begin Sept. 1.
RANKINGS: See the complete preseason rankings in boys soccer
Air Academy posted 102 goals and allowed only five goals all season and at one point, the margin was 71-2. An opponent didn’t score until the sixth game of the season. The program also recently finished second in fan voting in the USA TODAY HSS Best 2014-15 Team contest, which covered national champions across sports.
The No. 2 spot in the preseason rankings belongs to St. Benedict’s Prep (Newark, N.J.), which is coming off a 19-1 season and returns 18 players (nine starters). The program has won 26 consecutive state titles, the most recent coming with a 1-0 victory against Peddie in the Prep A final.
RELATED: More on the partnership between USA TODAY HSS and NSCAA
Wesleyan Christian Academy (High Point, N.C.) comes in at No. 3 after an unbeaten 21-0-2 season followed by Ohio large school champion St. Ignatius (Cleveland) and Kansas 6A champion Olathe East to round out the top five.
The top 13 teams come from 13 different states and 16 states are represented in all. Among the top 25, three teams are from Ohio, three from Massachusetts and three from New York and two each from New Jersey, Kansas and California.