Coast View teams split by sports, strengths

The Coast View Conference, the mix of schools mostly from what are the South Coast and Sea View leagues today, separated its members into leagues for different sports earlier this week.

There is one heck of a football league in that conference.

Dana Hills, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Tesoro and Trabuco Hills will play in the same football league when new league alignments in Orange County and throughout the CIF-Southern Section take effect for a four-year period beginning with the 2010-11 school year. (Click here for a look at how the South Coast and Sea View leagues are aligned for each sport.)

As only the top three finishers in that league every year will be guaranteed entry into the playoffs, there could be a darned good fourth- or fifth-place team that will be shut out of postseason play.

Ten south county schools joined to form the Coast View Conference: Aliso Niguel, Capistrano Valley, Dana Hills, El Toro, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, San Juan Hills, Tesoro and Trabuco Hills. The advantage of a conference is that the schools within can create leagues of different memberships for different sports. For each sport within the Coast View Conference, what are perceived to be the stronger teams are in the South Coast League in that sport, with the teams perceived to be second-tier grouped into the Sea View League in that sport.

The conference can move schools from one league to another in a given sport when competitive equity changes. It is a very good idea, one that we have seen many of the county's small private schools employ as part of the 14-school Western Athletic Conference.

So Dana Hills, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Tesoro and Trabuco Hills will be in that ultra-tough South Coast League for football, and the Sea View League will be composed of Aliso Niguel, Capistrano Valley, El Toro, Laguna Hills and San Juan Hills.

Of course, not every school is going to be satisfied. It is impossible to create leagues that please everybody. That fifth-place football team in the South Coast League is going to be good enough to be a league champion in other county leagues. And then you might have a situation in which a very good team wants to play in the upper league – Mission Viejo is going to have a terrific baseball group in spring, but it is in the Sea View League when it possibly could be the top team in the South Coast.

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:

•Basketball coaches and other winter-sports coaches can download 2010-11 team surveys at ocvarsity.com. Click here to go to the surveys, download the form and get it back to us immediately (and thank you).

•Football playoff seedings and first-round pairings, and which teams got those at-large berths, will be released Sunday and will be available right away at ocvarsity.com.

•Edison quarterback Matt Viles, the county's second leading passer, (strong-armed Mike Frank of Rancho Alamitos is No. 1), likely won't play for the Chargers on Friday against Aliso Niguel. He got a hyperextended left elbow (he's right-handed) in Edison's victory over Fountain Valley last week. Edison coach Dave White said Viles should be just fine for the playoffs.

•Orange Lutheran running back/linebacker Garrett Gilliland has been in and out of the lineup this year, because of torn ankle tendons. "I'm amazed he has played at all this year," Lutheran coach Jim Kunau said. Whether Gilliland plays Friday against Santa Margarita will be a game-time decision.

•Dana Hills quarterback Josh Dean's shoulder, which kept him out of the Dolphins' victory over Capistrano Valley two weeks ago, is fine – but he rolled an ankle in their triumph over Aliso Niguel last week. Dana coach Brent Melbon said Dean looked great in practice Wednesday night, and is good to go for the big game Friday at Mission Viejo. No. 4 Dana Hills and No. 2 Mission Viejo are 4-0 in league.

•Did Mater Dei somehow manipulate the calendar? National letter-of-intent signing day was Wednesday, Veterans Day, a holiday for most public schools. So public schools could not have big signing-day media extravaganzas that day, but private schools could and Mater Dei sure took advantage of the opportunity to showcase its large group of outstanding student-athletes.