Proposal seeks separate playoffs for private schools
After years of complaining about private schools, south county public schools finally are trying to do something about them.
The Coast View Conference, a group of 10 south county schools that comprise the Sea View and South Coast leagues within the conference, has submitted to the CIF-Southern Section a long, detailed proposal that would place the section's private schools in separate playoff divisions.
"It is a 47-slide Power Point presentation," said Troy Roelen, athletic director and boys basketball coach at Mission Viejo. "Instead of just complaining about it, we're offering a solution."
This past Friday was the deadline for leagues to submit to the CIF-SS its choices for divisional placement for CIF-SS playoffs. The section has sent to sports advisory committees its thoughts on the topic.
The CIF-SS office will review these submissions before compiling its recommendations for playoff groupings for a two-year cycle that begins with the 2012-13 school year. On March 9, the CIF-SS office will sends its recommendations to league representatives.
Leagues can appeal the recommendations. With those appeals considered, the CIF-SS office in late March will send out another round of playoff groupings recommendations to league representatives.
The CIF-SS Council, the section's rules-making and rules-changing body made up of representatives of the section's 86 leagues, votes on the 2012-14 playoff groupings at its April 12 meeting.
The CIF-SS office sent to its football playoff advisory committee its preliminary suggestion that the Sunset League be moved from the Pac-5 Division to the Southwest Division, with the Marmonte League moving from the Northern Division to the Pac-5 to replace the Sunset League. The Marmonte League includes Westlake and Oaks Christian of Westlake Village. As the number of guaranteed football playoff berths per league has been reduced starting this coming fall — only two guaranteed entries, instead of three, from five-team leagues and only three, instead of four, from seven-team leagues — no league would have to vacate the Southwest Division to make room for the Sunset.
Looking toward this, we might see the Coast View Conference undergo a change, too. Currently, the 10 schools are divided into a five-team Sea View League and a five-team South Coast League, with the league memberships differing from sport to sport. Roelen said it might be that the South Coast would be a six-team league and the Sea View would be a four-team league, since six-team leagues get three guaranteed playoff berths and four-league teams get, like five-team leagues, two guaranteed playoff berths.
The Coast View's proposal would include a 32-team division in boys and girls basketball solely for private schools. Opposing voices could say that in boys basketball there could be a wide difference between a No. 1 seeded team like, say, Mater Dei, and a No. 32 seeded team like, maybe, Brethren Christian in the first round. But the current format carries the possibility that in the 1AA playoffs, Mater Dei could play Santa Ana in the first round.
The Coast View proposal also has to sufficiently address how other sports could be affected, too. And the private schools that object to the proposal will bring valid points to the discussion.
Most Coast View teams are not averse to playing private school teams. Mission Viejo's boys basketball team opened this season by playing Mater Dei — in the first round of Mission Viejo's own tournament, per Roelen's choice. And that's how it should be — public schools should not have to play private schools unless they choose to do so.
The gap between public and private school athletic programs is growing in the areas of hiring coaches, fundraising and attracting top student-athletes. It's time for action. The Coast View Conference is leading the way.
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• The CIF-Southern Section Council meets Thursday to vote on a couple of proposals. The most interesting is the Trinity League proposal for the rules that pertain to transfer eligibility, a proposal that would eliminate from the rules the wording "athletically motivated" that has rendered many transferred student-athletes ineligible. Nearly every student-athlete transfer is to some degree motivated by athletics, so the proposal deserves support but might not get much because the public schools probably think the Trinity League must be up to some shenanigans here.
• Mater Dei basketball player Katin Reinhardt is receiving the highest compliment a player can receive. "Katin's getting pounded some out there," Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight said. When opposing teams encounter an unstoppable player, they grab, push and shove that player as much as they can, and that's what Reinhardt, having a county player-of-the-year type of season, is enduring these past few weeks.
• Nobody coached their team and their sport better than Jerry DeBusk coached Santa Margarita boys basketball these past 20 years. DeBusk, 63, is retiring from coaching at the conclusion of this season. He consistently mixed a couple of good players with some average ones to create great teams.
• San Clemente football player Kyle Murphy, one of the nation's prize recruits at offensive line, waits until signing day today to announce his college decision. Prediction: Stanford gets Murphy.
• Sometimes fate places people where they are most needed. And so it was that Joe Hay was the football coach at Garden Grove for just that one season, 2009, when Argonauts senior linebacker Kevin Telles died after collapsing in the final moments of the team's season opener. Hay, 41, who died in his sleep unexpectedly Friday, helped Telles' teammates rise together to win the league championship and advance to a CIF championship game — the right man at the right place, at the right time.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
