Going into this just-completed high school sports year, my 35th consecutive year of covering Orange County high school sports, the thinking was that I had seen everything.

Nope.

The Dana Hills baseball team committed eight errors but still won the game. The unranked Dolphins beat Aliso Niguel — ranked 13th in Orange County — 9-8 in a South Coast League game on April 25. Sophomore Ryan See’s line drive down the left-field line in the bottom of the seventh inning sent home Tommy Moro with the winning run.

That was one highlight from another entertaining high school sports year that ended this month. There was too much good stuff to include it all here. And some not-so-good stuff.

Let’s take a look back and a look ahead to the 2025-26 high school sports year. …

Mater Dei, Edison and Portola won CIF Southern Section football championships. Raul Lara’s first season as Mater Dei head coach also yielded a CIF State championship. …

The upcoming football season brings some new coaches, such as Carson Palmer at Santa Margarita. Palmer was a star quarterback for the Eagles before going on to greatness at USC and in the NFL. …

Among many other football coaching changes, Mitch Olson, Kennedy’s football coach for many years, is now the head coach at Fountain Valley; former Irvine coach Erik Terry is at Northwood; and Jason Jellerson replaces the retired Doug Case at Foothill. …

Servite still is figuring out where to play some of its football home games. Some will be at Orange Coast College, some at Santa Ana Stadium — and there is talk of a game or two on campus. …

Releaguing completed for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years for non-football sports moved Laguna Beach to a north county conference and expanded the Trinity League to a Trinity Conference that brings in Crean Lutheran, Pacifica Christian, Sage Hill and St. Margaret’s and returns Rosary to the Trinity group. …

Mater Dei won a second straight CIF-SS Division 1 girls volleyball championship. …

The fastest-growling sport is girls flag football. The CIF Southern Section had its first CIF-SS championships. Orange County’s Northwood, Orange Lutheran and Troy won CIF-SS titles. …

In boys water polo, Newport Harbor beat JSerra 11-10 in the CIF-SS Open Division final. JSerra beat Newport Harbor in the CIF Southern California Regional Division I final 11-9 for Newport Harbor’s only loss. …

Mega-successful girls basketball coach Kevin Kiernan is returning to Troy to coach there in 2025-26 after 17 seasons at Mater Dei. His 900 career wins is the most in California girls basketball history. …

Trabuco Hills senior Holly Barker won the CIF-SS Division 1 girls cross country championship. Dana Hills senior Evan Noonan won a third consecutive CIF State boys cross country championship. Noonan is one of the all-time greats in O.C. cross country. …

Fairmont Prep, Los Alamitos and Santiago won CIF-SS boys basketball championships. …

Canyon senior Brandon Benjamin was Orange County boys basketball player of the year. He was county player of the year as a sophomore at Canyon, spent his junior season at Mater Dei and returned to Canyon. …

Ringo Bossenmeyer resigned as Tustin boys basketball coach after 25 years at that post. He was known for getting the most out of his roster. …

Trinity League boys basketball teams will play each other one time in league play next season and finish the regular season with a league tournament, like they’ve done in the Pacific Coast League. …

Esperanza freshman Sammy Sanchez won everything that could be won in wrestling, including CIF section and state championships. Marina freshman Aubree Gutierrez and Esperanza junior Olivia Davis won CIF State girls wrestling championships. …

JSerra boys soccer won CIF-SS and CIF SoCal Regional titles, and was named national champion. …

Beckman won a national cheer championship. …

Anaheim, El Dorado and Laguna Beach were CIF-SS girls water polo champs. …

The Newport Elks baseball tournament is no more. It was a great season-opening tournament. …

Estancia was Orange County’s only CIF-SS baseball champion, winning the Division 6 title. …

Servite’s group of freshmen and sophomore sprinters set Orange County records in the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 relays. No California team has gone under 40 seconds in the 4×100 — until next year. …

Santa Margarita senior swimmer Teagan O’Dell was the county girls athlete of the year for the second year in a row. Future Olympian. …

The very early Orange County football preseason Top 10: 1. Mater Dei; 2. Santa Margarita; 3. Mission Viejo; 4. Orange Lutheran; 5. Servite; 6. San Juan Hills; 7. JSerra; 8. Edison; 9. Crean Lutheran; 10. Tustin. …

The even earlier Orange County boys basketball preseason Top 10: 1. Mater Dei; 2. Santa Margarita; 3. JSerra; 4. Fairmont Prep; 5. Orange Lutheran; 6. Crean Lutheran; 7. Pacifica Christian; 8. Los Alamitos; 9. La Habra; 10. Corona del Mar.

Getting older means the list of departed friends annually gets too many new additions. Difficult goodbyes to John Dahlem, CIF historian and the greatest adventurer one could know; Jerry DeBusk, a great basketball coach at Newport Harbor and Santa Margarita; Fran Ursini, football ref and supporter of high school athletics in every way possible; Villa Park boys basketball coach Kevin Reynolds, smart coach and a kind, funny man; and Ed Arnold, TV sportscaster who did so much for Special Olympians of high school age and other age groups.