Let the fun begin _ it’s time to form new leagues

There are few things more entertaining for sportswriters than the formation of new leagues every four years in the Southern Section.

In particular, the Northern Area, made up mostly of Ventura County schools, and the schools in the Catholic Athletic Association, always seem to engage in activities that creates drama.

It was four years ago that the Northern Area, fed up with Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure dominating in football, tried to boot out those schools and send them to the CAA. Everybody forgot that private schools know good lawyers. Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure went to court and won an arbritation decision.They stayed put.

Now on Thursday, the Northern Area representatives will get together in Oxnard and vote for the new alignment of leagues set to begin in 2018-19. Incredibly, there are 42 proposals.

Much of the debating and deal making will involve football. Some things have changed.

Jim Benkert has gone from coach at Westlake to coach at Oaks Christian. Tony Henney has gone from coach at Nordhoff to coach at Trabuco Hills to coach at Westlake to coach at St. Bonaventure. Casey Clausen has gone from assistant at Oaks Christian to coach at surging Calabasas.

Everybody better watch their backs.

As for the CAA, the schools are concerned about having seven-team leagues, as the Mission League is. It’s not maximizing the automatic playoff berths and also causing scheduling issues. Several schools want a six-team league or four-team leagues. And several schools don’t want anything to do with being in a football league with Serra, Bishop Amat and Loyola.

It’s fun to see admistrators do their best acting jobs in feigning disbelief that their school can compete against a supposed Division 1 school but celebrate Division II and III success.

Perhaps helping alleviate some league concerns is the new Southern Section playoff format that places schools in divisions with no regard to what league they compete in. It’s based on performance.

So sit back and wait to hear all the leaks about who’s scheming and who’s making deals. It’s going to be entertaining.

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