Football: Marine League teams choose Division I for playoffs

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Crenshaw might be considered the pre-season favorite to win this year’s City Section championship, but as far as leagues go the Marine looks to be strongest from top to bottom. A total of 23 schools opted to compete in Division I, including all six from the Marine League (Banning, Carson, Gardena, Narbonne, San Pedro and Washington).

The other power leagues appear to be the Coliseum and West Valley, each having four teams vying for one of 16 playoff berths in the higher of the City’s two 11-man brackets.

In the Coliseum League, Crenshaw, Dorsey, Fremont and Locke will be in Division I, while Jefferson and Manual Arts will play in Division II. Over the hill, the West Valley League, Taft, Birmingham, Chatsworth and Granada Hills will be in Division I, leaving Cleveland and El Camino Real to challenge for the Division II crown.

There are four other leagues with Division I representation: the Western (Venice and Westchester), Eastern (Garfield and Jordan), Southern (Hollywood and Santee) and Valley Mission (Kennedy, San Fernando and Sylmar).

No Northern or East Valley League schools elected to play in Division I, not even Arleta, which went 14-0 on its way to the Invitational (lower division) title last fall. Coaches had to decide in May which division to compete in for the 2009 season.

The new City alignment breaks the section down into three geographic regions, with the Coliseum, Marine and Western leagues forming the Coastal Region while the Eastern, Northern and Southern leagues make up the East Region and the East Valley, Valley Mission and West Valley leagues form the Valley Region.

Division III is made up of the City’s eight-man schools, which are divided into two six-team leagues.

-- Steve Galluzzo