Notre Dame High A.D. Defends the Makeup of New Football Division

Kevin Rooney, the Notre Dame High athletic director who is searching for two assistant football coaches, also could use a public relations director. All too often of late, Rooney finds himself forced to defend his school’s athletics image.

The latest affront came last week after the Southern Section released its playoff groupings for the 1988-89 season. Notre Dame will leave the Del Rey League at the end of the school year to join the newly formed San Fernando Valley League, which includes former Santa Fe League teams Bell-Jeff, Chaminade, Harvard, La Salle and St. Genevieve.

Rooney, who doubles as football coach, has bristled at claims that Notre Dame, a parochial school of 1,000 students in Sherman Oaks, was de-emphasizing athletics by moving to the San Fernando Valley League, which figured to play at lower levels than the Del Rey.

Rooney found little fault with the Southern Section’s playoff groupings in most sports. The baseball program, traditionally a strong one at Notre Dame, drops only marginally, from the 5-A to the 4-A division.

But Rooney received bad news regarding the football program. The Southern Section dropped the geographical names for its football divisions and gave them numbers to indicate competitive strength. The new league will play in Division VII, the third weakest of the nine divisions. The Del Rey will play in the strongest division.

“Somebody said to me, ‘How meaningful will it be if you win Division VII?’ ” Rooney said. “It was pretty damn meaningful when Canyon and Hart won their divisions and it will be pretty damn meaningful for us.”

Rooney claims that Notre Dame will play in a division similar to the ones that formerly contained Valley-area powers Canyon and Hart. Canyon and Hart each won Southern Section titles in the Northwestern Conference, which included Division VII members from the Camino Real, Northern and Rio Hondo leagues.

“This is just a public relations problem,” Rooney said. “All people see is that it’s Division VII. When Canyon and Hart played in what is mostly this division, nobody considered it a weak division.

“There are some pretty strong schools in the conference. I’m displeased with being ranked No. 7. We could be ranked No. 4 just as well as No. 7.”

Rooney said the strength of Notre Dame’s preleague schedule will provide a true gauge of the Knights’ strength next season.

Notre Dame plays Alemany, Burroughs, North Hollywood, Canyon, St. Bernard and St. Anthony.

“We play teams from the first three divisions that have good reputations,” he said. “If we win our league and our division, that will prove that we’re pretty good. And playing those other guys will give us credibility.”