Soccer in San Diego is bigger than ever, and so is the college basketball scene. We have a new arena in town. Three new professional teams started up, including San Diego FC, Major League Soccer’s newest franchise. (Who needs the Chargers?) And the Padres came this close to ruining the Los Angeles Dodgers’ playoffs dreams once again. 2024 is the year that sports blew up in San Diego.
This action contributed to so many memorable moments that July’s rugby match between Fiji and the legendary All Blacks of New Zealand at Snapdragon Stadium must settle for honorable mention. But another “moment” might emerge with time and perspective: When we look back at it, 2024 might be the year that the city finally lays to rest its “small market” reputation.
Mojo brings indoor volleyball to San Diego
Everyone watches women’s sports, and that includes indoor volleyball. USA Volleyball reported a 9.6 percent increase in membership in 2022-23 alone, and the 2023 Division I women’s volleyball championship between Texas and Nebraska set both attendance and viewership records. Fittingly, the Mojo, one of San Diego’s newest teams, ushered in 2024 by kicking off the inaugural season of the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF).
“Options were limited while I was growing up,” says Kendra Dalhke, a Fallbrook native and outside hitter for the Mojo. After 10 years away playing collegiately in Arizona and professionally overseas, she’s “watched San Diego volleyball grow, and it’s so much better now.” Look for more of the Mojo in 2025. After averaging more than 5,000 fans per match, PVF inked a deal with FS1 and FS2 to nationally broadcast games for the upcoming 2025 season.
Padres ace Dylan Cease throws no-hitter
The Padres’ Dylan Cease was already the most interesting man in baseball, then he threw a no-hitter on July 25 in Washington against the Nationals. Cease dominated the Nats and sent shockwaves through San Diego 3,000 miles away. Coworkers shattered the office quiet around noon that day with hysterical cheering. That cheering continued through the season, as Cease’s performance this year helped propel the Padres into the postseason, which set up the next best sports moment this year…
Fernando Tatís blows the roof off Petco Park in NLDS Game 3
The second inning of Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers started innocuous enough. Padres third baseman Manny Machado grounded a single up the middle. Seven batters later, outfielder Fernando Tatís stepped to the plate with a 4-1 lead and a man on first. He then launched the ball into Orange County. It’s arguably the most triumphant moment in Padres history since Steve Garvey hit a walkoff home run in game 4 of the 1984 National League Championship Series.
“When I hit it I just blacked out and started screaming at my teammates,” Tatís said after the game. “The energy was through the roof.” The Padres inexplicably failed to score a run in the ensuing 24 innings and painfully lost the series in five games. But for an inning—for an at-bat—the Padres were on top of the world. It shows what could be in 2025.
San Diego FC sign Hirving “Chucky” Lozano
This year saw San Diego’s newest soccer team inch closer to reality. Their first kits dropped, their development academy broke ground, and fans lined up for season tickets. But there’s probably no bigger news so far than San Diego FC signing its first star player in Hirving “Chucky” Lozano in June.
The 29-year-old forward has earned 70 caps for the Mexican national team, and he’s been a prolific scorer wherever his club career takes him. In two stints at PSV Eindhoven, a top Dutch team, Lozano has scored 44 goals, in addition to his 23 goals at Napoli and 31 at Mexican side Pachuca. His cross-border appeal was on full display when hundreds of fans attended a rally at the Rady Shell to welcome him to San Diego.
Oceanside’s Caitlin Simmers becomes youngest-ever surfing world champion
When I was 18, I was on my way to failing calculus. When she was 18, Oceanside’s Caitlin Simmers was being carried out of the ocean on shoulders, a posse of friends and family celebrating her becoming the youngest-ever world champion surfer. It’s tempting to call Simmers a prodigy, but her victory at the World Surf League Finals this summer at Lower Trestles proves she’s fully arrived and ready to dominate the sport for years to come.
Alex Morgan calls it a career
Statistically, Alex Morgan is a legend. She scored over 200 goals for club and country. She’s a two-time World Cup champion. She’s an Olympic gold medalist. She’s one of two U.S. women, along with Mia Hamm, to record 20 goals and 20 assists in a calendar year. But how does one quantify the impact of proving women’s soccer is a force in San Diego? Or putting the National Women’s Soccer League on the map? Or rallying a country around women’s sports? Or inspiring young athletes around the world for almost two decades? That’s what made Alex Morgan’s final game, on a hot September night at Snapdragon Stadium, so emotional. She made us believe that greatness was possible and now we must wait for the next hero to take up the mantle. As one fan-made sign put it: I’m not crying, you’re crying.
SDSU men’s basketball team hangs another Sweet Sixteen banner
Led by Jaedon Ledee, who won the 2024 Karl Malone Award as the nation’s best collegiate power forward, SDSU beat University of Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of this year’s March Madness. The Aztecs then dismantled Yale in the round of 32 to earn a second consecutive Sweet Sixteen berth. That banner, unveiled at the opening game of the 2024-25 season, hangs among those recognizing the three conference tournament championships since 2018 and their 2023 Final Four appearance. The Aztecs are currently ranked No. 23 and are primed for another tournament run come March. Put simply, coach Brian Dutcher’s program is one of the best in the country.
San Diego Clippers come home
It took 40 years, but the Clippers came back to where it all started. Well, maybe not the original Clippers, but in a major splash the G League, the NBA’s developmental affiliate, moved the Ontario Clippers to Oceanside’s new Frontwave Arena. At their first game in November, the team honored favorite son and former Clipper Bill Walton, who died in May. The tribute reminded us where the franchise name belonged all along. The Clippers’ presence is also a significant recognition of the region’s thirst for professional sports. “Getting the stamp of approval from the NBA is a huge feat,” Frontwave Arena Co-founder and CEO Josh Elias told San Diego Magazine in September. Fans at Frontwave Arena get to see “truly the best players, guys who are hungry to compete and make it at the highest level.”
UC San Diego men’s basketball team earns landmark win in new era
This year’s NCAA tournament will be the first UC San Diego is eligible for. Utah State University has four NCAA tournament appearances since 2019. UCSD competes in the Big West Conference, which includes only one school outside of California. Utah State plays in the competitive Mountain West Conference. UCSD was an 8.5-point underdog in their recent matchup against Utah State. The Tritons won by two.
UC San Diego athletics elevated to Division I this year, and the men’s basketball team’s win over previously-undefeated Utah State this month—on the road, no less—is nothing short of a landmark victory. Long known for its academic excellence, UC San Diego is planting its flag at the highest level of college basketball.
Lincoln High School football win second state title in three years
Akili Smith Jr., the Oregon-bound quarterback and one of our young athletes to watch, led Lincoln High to their second state title in three years, but it was never an easy journey. It never is for the school, which serves one of the poorest, most disinvested areas in the county.
This year, the Lincoln Hornets football bussed to every practice and game because their water-damaged home field was unplayable. They won the state title anyway.
In 2022, they were awarded a key to the city after an underdog run at their first state title in school history. A year before that, Lincoln players pulled out of a game in protest of racist social media posts targeted at them. Students at Lincoln High achieve so much despite being given so little. Imagine what they can achieve with the resources and investment that they deserve. There may be no brighter light in San Diego sports than Lincoln High School’s football team.
