Football: Marmonte League in shock over realignment vote

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‘I’m just shocked,’ Newbury Park assistant principal Richard Urias said.

He’s not alone. There were stunned and silent Marmonte League administrators Thursday in Long Beach after the Southern Section Council overturned a vote by the Northern Area leagues and accepted an appeal proposal by Ventura that will put Ventura St. Bonaventure and Westlake Village Oaks Christian in the now 10-team Marmonte League for football only effective with the 2010 season.

Calabasas gets to stay in the Marmonte League for all sports. The decision came after the nine Northern Area leagues voted 7-1 to put Oaks Christian in the Marmonte League for all sports, replacing Calabasas. But Calabasas and the Channel League combined to put forth an appeals proposal to deal with football powers Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure, two private schools that have been dominant in Ventura County.

St. Bonaventure Principal Mark Groff was trying to figure out whether the Marmonte would be divided into two five-team leagues for football but found no answers.

‘The Marmonte is in shock over this,’ Groff said. ‘Nobody knows anything. It’s more up in the air right this minute than it was three hours ago.’

The big winner in the vote was the Channel League, which rids itself of St. Bonaventure, a team that hasn’t lost a Channel League game since joining the league in 2002. The Channel will become a five-team league in 2010.

The other winner was Calabasas, which gets to stay in the league for all sports, though its struggling football program faces new challenges having to play Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure.

The new leagues will last for four seasons.

-- Eric Sondheimer