PCO Final Portends End of 2026 High-Goal Polo Season, And More Sports

Santa Barbara Polo’s high goal season comes to its conclusion with the final weekend of the U.S. Polo Association’s Pacific Coast Open, the most prestigious tournament of the summer and one of the oldest as it got started a few years after the turn of the last century.

Just five teams are competing for the glory — and having their names permanently inscribed on the bejeweled trophy — but they’ve spread the spoils around during the previous tournaments this summer. Klentner Ranch claimed the season-opening Skene Trophy, Delta Defence won the Whittier Trust Silver Cup, and last year’s PCO winner La Karina came out on top in the America Cup, the most recent tourney for the 16-17 goal rated squads. After last weekend’s matches, Delta Defence was the only team eliminated from Friday’s semifinals. The first semifinal features Klentner Ranch (led by Ignacio “Nachi” Viana and Jesse Bray) playing Zahedi Chogan (starring Facundo Obregon and Nicolas ‘Nico’ Escobar). The second semifinal will pit La Karina—featuring Carlos ‘Carlitos’ Gracida Jr., Felipe ‘Pipe’ Vercellino, and Lucas Escobar—against Mrs. Momma Bear, led by stars Santi Torres and Mike Azzaro. Admission is free for both games with an announcer and happy hour menu for the 4 pm game.

Friday’s winners will face off on Sunday afternoon, August 30, with all the attendant glitz, glamor and galloping horses following a lot of pomp and circumstance before the first toss-in. Even if you have no idea about the rules of polo, it’s well worth checking out at least one of the games, as Santa Barbara is lucky to have some of the sport’s greatest athletes spend their summers in the seaside fields at the Polo Club in Carpinteria. On the other hand, you can also watch the matches online at https://watch.uspolo.org, via video from a drone above the action – although that option precludes you stomping any of the divots at halftime.

Visit http://sbpolo.com.

Cancer Kicking Quarterback Can’t Quite Conquer Camarillo 

Santa Barbara High’s Griffin Arnold sophomore season as the starting quarterback was going gangbusters last fall as he threw 14 touchdown passes against a single interception, racking up 1,250 passing yards in six games. But then he was suddenly diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, derailing both his and the team’s season.

Through chemotherapy Arnold recovered quickly and is back at the helm of the offense for the 2026 season. In the opening game against Camarillo High last Friday at Peabody Stadium, he started slow but once again began moving the offense, including a 80-yard, pass-only march to the end zone to open the third quarter. But an interception at the one-yard line in the last 20 seconds resulted in Camarillo claiming the 17-16 victory. Still, good things are predicted for both the SBHS Dons and the resilient quarterback in his junior year.

By the way, I just discovered that admission for those 62 and over is free for all SBHS home football games, so why not come relive those memories on the gridiron you may never have had, alongside a whole bunch of grandparents who actually played on the field back when it was made out of actual grass?  

Visit https://sbhs.sbunified.org/athletics/fall-sports-schedules/football.