PREP WEDNESDAY : THE HEART OF DARKNESS : Decline in Enrollment Brings a Decline in Sunset League Football

The Sunset League was once one of the most respected high school football leagues in Southern California.

Coach Clare VanHoorebeke built the foundation for the league’s success at Anaheim High School with 16 championship teams in the 1950s and 1960s and heated rivalries against Santa Ana and Westminster.

After Anaheim and Santa Ana left the Sunset League because of declining enrollments, Fountain Valley and Edison continued the league’s winning tradition in the 1970s and 1980s.

Fountain Valley’s sophisticated passing game helped the Barons win the Big Five Conference title in 1978. Edison won 32 straight games from 1979-81 and Big Five titles in 1979-80. The rivalry between Edison and Fountain Valley reached a peak in 1980, when the schools attracted a total of nearly 55,000 to Anaheim Stadium for two games in a five-week span.

Edison and Fountain Valley were two of the largest high schools west of the Mississippi River, with enrollments of more than 3,500 and football rosters with 90 or more players.

But as Orange County’s population growth switched from Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley toward Irvine and the south county, the enrollment has declined at Sunset League schools, and football programs have been affected.

The average decline per school has been a total of 804 students over the past nine years. Marina has been hit the hardest, having lost 1,004 students.

The Sunset League, made up of the six high schools in the Huntington Beach Union High School District--Edison, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Marina, Ocean View and Westminster--has hit hard times. Consider:

Once-mighty Edison (0-5 this season) had never lost more than three straight games in a season since the school opened in 1969. The Chargers never lost more than five games in one season.

Fountain Valley (1-4) has won only three of its past 15 games. The Barons have failed to reach the postseason playoffs in each of the last two seasons after qualifying eight straight years.

Marina (1-4) managed to score only two touchdowns in its opening four games. The Vikings last year were 0-5 in nonleague games but were 5-0 and the Sunset League champions.

The league compiled a 10-20 record over the past five weeks of nonleague play, the worst mark among any of the nine Orange County leagues.

“We’ve lost 1,000 students (actually 919) over the past nine years,” said Dave White, Edison coach. “We’re projected at 2,000 next year. Declining enrollment has really hurt.”

The enrollment decline was so drastic that a citizens’ committee recommended to district trustees that one of the six high schools be closed in order to boost the overall average daily attendance. The trustees, however, are not expected to consider such a controversial action.

“When I was a player at Edison, we had almost 4,000 students and we played Magnolia, Estancia, Corona del Mar and Fullerton,” said White. “Now, we’re playing Capistrano Valley, El Modena, Servite and Mater Dei. You can’t play a tougher schedule than ours.”

Scheduling is another reason coaches believe the Sunset teams have suffered. Coaches say that many schools won’t schedule them. They’re forced to play the best teams each season, and this year was no exception. Edison’s five opponents compiled a 20-3-1 record in five weeks of play. Fountain Valley’s opponents were 17-6-1, Marina’s were 15-7-2.

“I think the league is paying for its reputation of the past 10 years when it comes to scheduling nonleague games,” said Guy Carrozzo, Ocean View coach. “I’ve had coaches tell me they don’t want to play us because we’re from the Sunset League.

“I’ll tell them, ‘Wait a minute, we were 0-5 in the league last year. We haven’t had a winning year since 1980.’ It doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine what they tell the coaches at Fountain Valley and Edison.”

Mike Milner, Fountain Valley coach for nine seasons, faces similar scheduling problems. He said that he would like to make some changes next season and that he recently called a Sea View League coach, whom he wouldn’t identify, to try to get a game.

“They wouldn’t play us,” he said. “Our preseason schedule (with the exception of El Toro) has been the same for seven years. It was originally put together when we were winning regularly.

“The only teams who would play us then were the (Long Beach) Polys and the Servites. I’ve always wanted to play good programs, but when we started declining in enrollment, I wanted to make some changes. Nobody wanted to play us.”

Milner says the league’s decline is merely a trend that other successful programs have experienced.

“We’re going through a down cycle,” Milner said. “Anaheim went through it. . . . Loara went through it. Someday El Toro will go through it. The time comes when a program stagnates.

“We’ve had as many as seven players in one year recruited by major colleges. Last year, we had one player recruited by a Division I school.”

Milner has also noticed a subtle change in the caliber of athlete who is participating, or declining to participate, in football in the 1980s.

“It is clearly evident that football is not as important to kids in high school as it once was,” he said. “That’s obvious by the turnout of players and the crowds at our games.”

Milner says the memorable games against Edison at Anaheim Stadium in 1980 were the peak of the Sunset League.

“I don’t think that (drawing 55,000 for two games) will ever happen again,” he said. “That was not only the peak of the Sunset League, it was the peak of high school football in Southern California.

“That same year, we drew 14,000 for a semifinal game against St. Paul at Cerritos College. Pair the same teams with the same players in 1987, and I don’t think you would draw half the crowd. We used to draw 4,000 people to an away game in Redlands. That doesn’t happen anymore.”

Milner said it has been difficult keeping up his players’ spirits during the drought.

“You keep telling the kids, ‘We’re getting better, we’re getting better,’ but they’re not seeing results,” he said. “It’s tough. But one thing I noticed while we were losing was the resiliency of youth. When the players came to practice on Monday, Friday night was forgotten and all they concentrated on was winning the next game.”

A SINKING SUNSET

EDISON

Year Record Enrollment 1979 12-2* 3,311 1980 14-0* 3,063 1981 10-1 2,923 1982 8-4-1 2,827 1983 4-4-2 2,799 1984 8-3 2,786 1985 11-2-1* 2,826 1986 8-3 2,590 1987 0-5 2,392

*Big Five Conference champions.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY

Year Record Enrollment 1979 6-4-1 3,940 1980 11-3 3,781 1981 8-4 3,699 1982 4-7 3,585 1983 9-3-1 3,481 1984 9-3 3,484 1985 4-6* 3,373 1986 2-8* 3,288 1987 1-4 3,111

*Failed to reach playoffs.

HUNTINGTON BEACH

Year Record Enrollment 1979 0-9-1 3,230 1980 1-9 3,307 1981 3-7 3,238 1982 8-4 3,142 1983 7-3-1 2,973 1984 2-7-1 2,903 1985 3-7 2,761 1986 3-7 2,636 1987 3-2 2,613

MARINA

Year Record Enrollment 1979 9-2-1 3,550 1980 6-5 3,281 1981 11-2* 3,147 1982 6-4 3,000 1983 6-5-2* 2,929 1984 8-5* 2,919 1985 8-4-1* 2,846 1986 5-6 2,742 1987 1-4 2,546

* Reached Big Five Semifinals.

OCEAN VIEW

Year Record Enrollment 1979 4-5-1 2,401 1980 6-4 2,294 1981 4-6 2,319 1982 2-8 2,352 1983 1-9 2,413 1984 2-8 2,485 1985 2-8 2,495 1986 2-8 2,550 1987 2-3 2,522

* Fielded first varsity team in 1978

Joined league in 1981.

WESTMINSTER

Year Record Enrollment 1979 5-5 3,277 1980 4-6 3,131 1981 5-5 2,902 1982 2-8 2,798 1983 5-5 2,783 1984 4-6 2,848 1985 8-5 2,809 1986 5-5-1* 2,731 1987 3-2 2,626

* Ranked No. 1 in the Nation by USA Today in Preseason.