ANAHEIM – Maybe Corona del Mar goes to the Sunset League.
Is Crean Lutheran headed for the Empire League or Coast View Conference?
Maybe Tustin and Valencia go to the Century Conference. Maybe Laguna Hills leaves the Coast View Conference.
Orange County school representatives, principals and athletic directors met Monday to continue the process of configuring leagues for a two-year period that begins with the 2018-19 school year.
These schools are in the “Orange County Area” for league-configuration purposes. Most of the 74 Orange County Area schools are O.C. public schools.
Trinity League schools, including St. John Bosco of Bellflower, are in the Orange County Area, as is private school Calvary Chapel. Added to the Orange County Area for this releaguing process is private school Crean Lutheran and public school Portola, which opened this school year and will field varsity teams in 2018-19.
The county’s smaller private schools like Brethren Christian, St. Margaret’s and Sage Hill are in the “Small Schools Area” so are not among the 74 Orange County Area schools.
The group submitted 60 proposals to review. In Monday’s meeting, the school representatives voted to reduce the number of proposals to six semifinalists. They voted again to reduce the number of proposals to three finalists.
They meet again May 8 to select one proposal that will create league alignments for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years. A proposal must be supported by at least 60 percent for approval.
Corona del Mar’s proposal got the most votes, 23 among the three finalists. It moves CdM from the Pacific Coast League to the Sunset League. The other five Pacific Coast League schools want Corona del Mar to be elsewhere, which was communicated by league representatives during Monday’s meeting.
“I feel fine that we’re unwanted,” Corona del Mar principal Kathy Scott said. “I get that. The bottom line is we have to go somewhere, so it’s kind of where can we go that will be the least impactful and would provide the most competitive equity? We’ve had a great run with the Pacific Coast League, but it’s time to move on and we want to be supportive of their request.”
That proposal also has Cypress going to the Sunset League, from the Empire League, to create an eight-school Sunset Conference, and Crean Lutheran and Garden Grove going to the Empire League to replace Cypress and Western. Western, and Laguna Beach would replace Loara and Orange in the Golden West League, among other movements.
Segerstrom’s proposal, the second finalist with 21 votes, keeps the Century Conference and Sunset League intact. Its would put Corona del Mar in the Coast View League where it would replace Laguna Hills, and Laguna Hills would move to the Pacific Coast League, which would also include Portola and Laguna Beach for an eight-school conference. The proposal slides Garden Grove, Godinez and Western into the Golden West League and places Crean Lutheran in the Empire League.
The Estancia-submitted proposal got the third-most votes, 18. It has Crean Lutheran and Cypress joining the Sunset League to make that an eight-school conference. That proposal also has Tustin and Valencia leaving the Empire League to join the Century Conference to make it a 10-school conference.
Estancia’s proposal had several other changes, among them having Portola and Laguna Beach join the current Pacific Coast League schools to create an eight-school conference. Loara would trade places with Garden Grove, with Loara going from the Golden West League to the Garden Grove League and Garden Grove going from the Garden Grove League to the Golden West League. And the proposal would dissolve the Empire League, spreading its six schools to various leagues with most of them becoming part of an eight-school Golden West Conference.
Conferences have two leagues in them, with league membership varying from sport to sport. In the Century Conference, Brea Olinda, for example, is in the Crestview League for girls basketball but it is in the North Hills League for baseball.
Orange County releaguing meetings in past years have been contentious at times. Monday’s session, chaired by Servite principal Mike Brennan with assistance from Servite athletic director Alan Clinton, associate athletic director Joel Hartmann and CIF-Southern Section executive assistant Sharon Hodge, was convivial.
“It’s a complicated process,” said Scott, in her third year as Corona del Mar’s principal. “People kind of look at it from their own perspective. It’s a challenge to look at the big picture and at every school in every league.”