Crespi Wants No Part of New Valley League

By the beginning of Russell White’s senior year at Crespi High, he probably will have rushed for 5,000 yards and 60 touchdowns. White clearly will need a new league.

Had Crespi agreed to join the San Fernando Valley League, which will be formed for the 1988-89 school year, White would have had fresh competition. But would it have been any competition?

After two years of stomping through Del Rey League defenses, he would step down to playing Bell-Jeff, St. Genevieve and Chaminade. It would be like sending Don Mattingly to the Class-A California League.

The Catholic Athletic Assn. is expected to form the new league at a meeting Tuesday at the Archdiocese in Los Angeles. The league will include Alemany, Notre Dame, St. Genevieve, Harvard, Chaminade and Bell-Jeff. Alemany and Notre Dame are presently in the Del Rey League and the others are in the Santa Fe League.

The San Fernando Valley League easily could have included Crespi. “The original proposal included us,” Crespi Athletic Director Paul Muff said. “We wanted no part of it.”

Muff--who coaches the Celt basketball team--and other coaches at the school were concerned that the new league would be of a lower classification than the Del Rey, which is 5-A in basketball, 4-A in baseball and belongs to the Big Five Conference in football. The Santa Fe League belongs to the Desert-Mountain Conference in football and is 1-A in basketball and baseball. Crespi also has top-flight programs in water polo and swimming. Many of the schools in the new league do not.

Coaches at Alemany are not happy about leaving the Del Rey, although the Indians will probably dominate the new league in most sports. “We enjoy the competition where we are,” Alemany basketball Coach Joe Anlauf said. “Every coach I’ve spoken with feels that way.”

Decreased transportation costs and the fact the same league can be used for girls sports made joining the San Fernando Valley League attractive to Alemany administrators.

Notre Dame, which supported the proposal from the outset, will no longer be a league rival of Crespi. Games between the schools in all sports have always drawn large, spirited crowds. “We really regret losing the rivalry with Notre Dame,” Muff said. “People think of the big football and basketball crowds, but the rivalry added life to the so-called minor sports.”

Each of the present four leagues in the CAA, which is allowed by the Southern Section to govern its members, is affected by the releaguing proposal. Crespi will be the only Valley school in the Del Rey League. The Santa Fe League no longer will have Valley schools.

Joining Crespi in the reshuffled Del Rey League will be Loyola, St. Francis, St. John Bosco, Bosco Tech and St. Bernard; the Angelus League will include Servite, Bishop Montgomery, Mater Dei, St. Paul and Bishop Amat; the Camino Real League will include Pius X, St. Anthony, Daniel Murphy, El Segundo, Serra and Verbum Dei; and the Santa Fe League will include Cantwell, Mary Star, St. Monica’s, La Salle, Cathedral, Pater Noster and Salesian.