Football: Simi Valley plays Calabasas for rare league title

The formation of new leagues this season that resulted in breaking up the Marmonte League has given new opportunities for teams that rarely made the playoffs, let alone compete for a league title.

That has led to Calabsaas and Simi Valley playing for the new Canyon League championship on Friday night at Calabasas.

Simi Valley (5-4, 2-0) has earned its first playoff berth since 1992, when none of the players were even born and Coach Ryan Taggert was a teenager playing football in Northern California. Some of the players probably can’t even name the league they’re in but the fact they’re going to the playoffs means they’ve made history.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Taggert said. “One more of our goals off the list.”

For years, Simi Valley was stuck trying to compete with Westlake, Moorpark, Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure. Ditto for Calabasa (5-4, 2-0), which is also having its best season since 2002 under first-year Coach Casey Clausen.

“It obviously benefited a lot of schools, kind of making it competitively equal,” Clausen said of the new leagues.

Another new league created out of the realignment was the Camino League, and that has led to Newbury Park (7-2, 2-0) facing Thousand Oaks (7-2, 1-1) for a league title on Friday at Thousand Oaks. Also in the mix is Royal (4-5, 1-1), which hasn’t been to the playoffs in years.

Adding to the intrigue is that longtime power Oaks Christian is unlikely to make playoffs unless it upsets Westlake in a Marmonte League finale on Friday.

Twitter:@LATSondheimer