New Structure of City Football Concerns Several Area Coaches

Protests were expected when the City Section revamped its playoff structure for football this week, forcing nearly one-third of its 49 schools to move up to the 4-A Division.

At Poly High, Coach Fred Cuccia questions a system that places the Parrots in the 4-A Division after only one good season. Poly stumbled to an 8-29-1 record in four seasons before Cuccia led the team last fall to a 9-3 record and the 3-A championship, Poly’s first title in more than 60 years.

“Basing the divisions on a one-year record is ridiculous,” Cuccia said. “I don’t care if we’re in the 4-A, but it would have been more equitable to look at a broader period of time.”

But maybe not even the City’s governing body expected a complaint from a team that was moved down. Kennedy High Coach Bob Francola was anything but upbeat when he learned that the Golden Cougars would play the 1991 season as a 3-A Division team. “If you’re a competitor you want to compete against the best,” Francola said. “What an insult. Now, we have to beg our way (to move up) when everyone else is crying about moving up.”

The Interscholastic Athletics Committee, the City’s governing body for sports, changed its oft-criticized playoff format Monday when it approved a new structure that establishes two, more evenly balanced football divisions for the fall season, rejecting a proposal that called for placing all teams in one division.

Francola might get his way. On April 22, IAC’s Games Committee will hear recommendations from conferences on league alignments. The only stipulation is that each conference maintain a four-team 4-A league. The committee also will decide whether to adopt 16- or 12-team playoff brackets.

Previously, only 12 teams in three leagues competed in the 4-A Division, resulting in a playoff bracket that was criticized because it included too few teams and created rematches from the regular season.

In an effort to remedy that complaint, the City doubled the number of teams in the 4-A Division. The new plan, which will be reviewed after one season, establishes a 24-team 4-A Division and a 25-team 3-A Division with each division consisting of six leagues. Each of the six conferences will consist of one 4-A league and one 3-A league. Each conference contains eight teams except the Southeastern, which has nine.

The City has suggested placing teams in leagues based on last year’s conference records. In each conference, the four teams with the best records would form the 4-A league and the other four would compose the 3-A league.

In the Northwest Valley Conference, Granada Hills (7-0 in conference play last year), Taft (5-2), El Camino Real (5-2) and San Fernando (4-3) would play in the 4-A. The conference’s 3-A league would consist of Kennedy (3-4), Reseda (3-4), Chatsworth (1-6) and Cleveland (0-7). In the Valley Pac-8 Conference, Sylmar (7-0), Birmingham (6-1), Poly (5-2) and North Hollywood (4-3) would be 4-A teams, and Monroe (2-5), Van Nuys (2-5), Canoga Park (1-6) and Grant (1-6) would compose the 3-A league.

Because last year’s 12 4-A teams included all eight teams from the Northwest Valley Conference--four of which have been dropped to 3-A--the City actually has promoted 16 teams to the 4-A. Francola calls it ironic that while some schools have been dragged to the 4-A, his team is screaming to get out of the 3-A.

“I’m willing to trade with anybody stuck in the 4-A,” Francola said. “Our kids are going crazy.”