Prep column: Releaguing 101

Barry Faulkner

Orange County high school principals will come together in January

to form leagues for athletic competition beginning the fall of 2001.

Now, if you’ve ever asked for a high school principal’s time, you

realize they have somewhat more to think about all day than which

confluence of geography, enrollment and competitive equity would most

please the 62 schools that comprise the Orange County Area.

And, if you’ve seen them -- or, in some cases their special designates

-- doing their darndest at releaguing meetings, you’d realize the process

ranks somewhere above “meet with angry parent,” on their appointment

calendars.

So, having come up for air from a busy football season, with all my

Christmas shopping done, and about three weeks before winter sports begin

their league campaigns, I took an afternoon to solve the whole problem

for them. Here’s how it all works out:

The Century, Freeway, Orange and Sunset leagues remain intact, though

I would reserve the right for principals to shift Esperanza from the

Sunset into a North County league, as the Aztecs so vehemently desire. If

that happens, I’d leave the five remaining Sunset League schools to

handle the scheduling nightmares, while bumping a school from whatever

league Esperanza joined, to the Garden Grove League to make that an

eight-school circuit. The latter would relieve the odd-school schedule

problems, while crashing the one-district party the GGL has enjoyed since

1994 and repeatedly sought.

I would drop Orange Lutheran, like Calvary Chapel a new addition to

the area equation, into the Empire League, shifting current Empire

resident Century to the Golden West League.

I would move Tustin from the Golden West, Dana Hills from the South

Coast, and Corona del Mar from the PCL, into the Sea View League, making

it an eight-team circuit, while replacing CdM with Calvary Chapel in the

PCL.

Tesoro, set to open within the next two years in the Capistrano

Unified School District, would replace Dana Hills in the South Coast.

If Esperanza stays put (and competitive equity and enrollment dictate

it should), the only odd-school leagues would be the Golden West (sans

Tustin, which should mollify any whining by those schools) and Garden

Grove (which prefers its seven-school format, anyway). If either the GGL

or GWL squawk too loudly, the other principals could always vote to add a

Garden Grove school to the Golden West, making each a six-team league.

If Esperanza’s geographical hardships earn it a trip back to a North

County configuration (personally, I’m unswayed), the odd-school leagues

would be the Golden West and the Sunset (sans Esperanza, which should

pacify their scheduling pain).

From the South County perspective, CdM would make a fuss, since it

worked so hard to leave the Sea View for the PCL the last time around and

would prefer to remain there.

And, leaving emerging powerhouse Northwood and University (2,300-plus

enrollment) in a PCL that no longer included CdM, would give both a

license to dominate. But, I believe, they would rule less autocratically

than the Sea Kings have in the PCL these last 16 months.

To wit, of 15 boys league titles decided since CdM joined the PCL, the

Sea Kings have won or shared 10, while finishing second in three other

sports.

CdM’s girls programs have won 10 of 14 league titles contested, with

three second-place finishes thrown in.

Costa Mesa and Estancia would surely rather take their chances against

the Trojans and Timberwolves than continue to challenge the Sea Kings’

throne.

From the North County perspective, I leave the Esperanza issue up to

you. Barring that, your principals have much better things to spend their

time on.

q

Newport Harbor High senior football star Alan Saenz, the Sea View

League Co-Defensive Player of the Year, will spend some time at NCAA

Division I-AA runner-up Montana, when he takes a recruiting trip to

Missoula Jan. 12-14.

A middle linebacker all his football life, Saenz is, their coaches

tell him, the Grizzlies’ No. 1 recruit at defensive tackle, a position he

is, at best, ambivalent about. Unless totally blown away by the frigid

environs of Montana, and barring subsequent pitches from other four-year

schools, Saenz said he would be happy to play linebacker next fall at

Orange Coast College.

q

A good use of time for any high school football fan? Read, even reread

“Friday Night Lights,” H.G. Bissinger’s terrific tome about the 1988

season of Permian High in Odessa, Texas.

It remains the best book I’ve read on high school sports and, beyond

that, it’s a first-class bit of journalism.