Moorpark Set Adrift in Channel by Officials

For a sport that lasts roughly one-quarter of a school year, football sure holds athletic departments by the tail.

Take a look at the problems surrounding the new league realignments and Moorpark High--and how ridiculous it all is in the name of football.

Moorpark, enrollment 1,800 and growing, hoped to join a league with schools of similar size and in the same region beginning in 1998-99, the first of a minimum four-year alignment.

The Musketeers rightfully feel they have outgrown the Frontier League.

Based on the criteria for realignments--proximity, size of school and level of program--Moorpark officials believe the Marmonte League is the correct fit. And they’re right.

But Marmonte and Channel league members fought the move because they believe an odd-number of schools presents too large a headache when it come to scheduling for a bye week or open date.

Incredibly, their arguments prevailed.

In March, a releaguing committee moved Camarillo and Channel Islands out of the Marmonte League and into a newly formed “Oxnard School District League.” The movement of teams left the Marmonte with six teams, the Channel with six and the “Oxnard League” with five--temporarily. A new Oxnard-area school may open in 2000.

Moorpark was moved into the Channel League with Ventura, Buena and Santa Barbara-area schools San Marcos, Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara.

The releaguing committee--comprised of officials from 38 Northern Area Southern Section schools from Calabasas to Ojai--voted, 25-13, to move Moorpark to the Channel League to create more leagues with even-numbered teams.

Keep in mind that the Marmonte League sponsors about 20 sports for boys and girls--and at several different competition levels.

And yet it’s football everyone is so concerned about.

Nice work folks. Hope too much gray matter wasn’t burned in the process.

Moorpark’s closest league rival would now be 30 miles away. Three of the Musketeers’ opponents are about 65 miles away.

With about 40 Moorpark coaches teaching classes in addition to their coaching duties, more drive time means less class time--a lot less.

“[Now] instead of teachers missing half of a class, they could miss as many as two classes [to travel with their teams for away games],” said Rob Dearborn, Moorpark’s athletic director.

Likewise, student-athletes will also be forced to miss a lot of class time.

Parents who want to see their sons’ or daughters’ afternoon game will have to take a half-day off work to do it.

And if students want to get to a game before it starts? Forget about it, unless they’d like to risk ditching class.

The new Marmonte League consists of Agoura, Westlake, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Simi Valley and Royal--all of which are within a 20-mile radius of Moorpark.

If having to deal with a bye week in the middle of football season is the greatest argument against Moorpark joining the Marmonte League, here’s some advice:

Have the teams with a bye week from the Marmonte and Channel Leagues play one another in a nonleague contest. Granted, it will work for four weeks and leave two Marmonte teams scrambling to fill an open date.

But since Moorpark has already offered to take its bye in Week 10, only one team is left looking for a nonleague game.

Filling out schedules is part of what athletic directors are paid to do. Considering the problems joining the Channel League would cause for Moorpark, the hardship of finding one nonleague opponent for one team each year doesn’t seem comparable.

Let’s face it, releaguing committee, Moorpark belongs in the Marmonte League.

And remember, Marmonte League, the credo of the most famous Musketeers . . . All for one and one for all. . . .

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Moorpark hasn’t buried its head in the sand despite being shot down in March.

Tom Duffy, superintendent of Moorpark Unified School District, and Moorpark Principal John McIntosh are lining up their ducks again for a second appeal, which they will present to the Southern Section appellate board in October.

“We believe the Marmonte is the appropriate league [for us],” Duffy said. “I’m looking forward to it being remanded for further review.”

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With recent temperatures well above the 100-degree mark all around the Valley, City Section football players must be wishing they played for a Southern Section school.

While City teams are enduring running and conditioning drills in the grueling heat, the Southern Section is in the first week of a three-week dead period. During the dead period, only weightlifting is permitted. Running and other types of conditioning are not allowed.

To help stave off heat exhaustion, City coaches have moved practices into air-conditioned gymnasiums, or have pushed up practice times to later than the common 3:15 p.m. start time. Frequent water breaks and cold towels also keep players from over-heating.

As hot as it has been in the Valley, one has to ponder the benefits of practices under an unforgiving sun.

Perhaps City Commissioner Barbara Fiege knows best the mentality of the coaches: “[Their thinking is] if the other guy down the street is [conditioning his players], I have to do it, too.”

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Taft football Coach Troy Starr has not been able to secure an opponent for the second week of the season.

The Toreadors play host to Banning in their first game and Dorsey in their third.