Baseball: City playoff proposal receives support

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There was strong initial support for a revamping of the City Section baseball playoffs from members of the City Interscholastic Athletic Committee on Monday. A proposal from the baseball advisory committee was submitted that would create three new playoff divisions instead of the current format that has City Championship, City Invitational and small schools.

Also in the proposal is a plan to remove coaches from the seeding process, replacing them with IAC and regional representatives who would use a criteria to seed playoff teams based on a coaches’ poll, an RPI rating system and a maxpreps.com rating system.

Fifty of the 67 schools that participate in baseball would make the playoffs. There would be an 18-team tournament in Division I, 16 for Division II and 16 for Division III.

The proposal seems to have a good chance of being approved at the January IAC meeting and taking effect for the 2009 season. Here’s a look at the breakdown of playoff divisions:

Division I: Arleta, Banning, Bell, Birmingham, Carson, Chatsworth, Cleveland, El Camino Real, Franklin, Garfield, Granada Hills, Grant, Kennedy, Marshall, Narbonne, Palisades, Poly, Roosevelt, San Fernando, San Pedro, South East, South Gate, Sylmar, Taft and Verdugo Hills.

Division II: Canoga Park, Crenshaw, Dorsey, Eagle Rock, Fairfax, Fremont, Gardena, Hamilton, Hollywood, Huntington Park, Lincoln, Locke, Los Angeles, Monroe, North Hollywood, Reseda, University, Van Nuys, Venice, Washington, Westchester and Wilson.

Division III: Belmont, Central City, Community Harvest, Contreras, Discovery Prep, Elizabeth, Fulton Prep, Harbor Prep, Jefferson, Jordan, LACES, Manual Arts, Maywood, Northridge, Orthopedic, Panorama, Santee, Sherman Oaks CES, Vaughn, West Adams.

It was impressive seeing coaches from Chatsworth, Carson, Roosevelt, Gardena, Narbonne, San Fernando, Maywood and Banning show up at the IAC meeting organized and committed to improving the sport.

I think the plan is excellent and deserves approval.

-- Eric Sondheimer