The High Schools : Schaeffer Embracing Reseda’s Assignment to Pac-8 Conference

Of all the coaches who had reason to balk at the City Section’s releaguing plan, Reseda’s Joel Schaeffer might have topped the list. The sweeping changes that take effect this fall include the elimination of the 2-A level in all sports, thus boosting Schaeffer’s football team to the 3-A Division.

The Regents may have trouble saying goodby to the 2-A. In the past two seasons, Reseda has posted a 20-3 record, including a City championship in 1986 and a runner-up finish last season. But Schaeffer welcomes the realignment and the 3-A competition.

“I think it’s good for the athletic program and the school as a whole. I’m looking forward to playing at the 3-A level. And I like the fact that everyone in our league will be from the Valley. I think it will be good for establishing some rivalries that didn’t exist before,” he said.

Under the releaguing plan, 16 Valley teams have been grouped into two eight-team conferences that include two four-team leagues. Reseda is a member of the Valley Pac-8 Conference that includes Mid-Valley League teams Reseda, Birmingham, Monroe and Van Nuys and East Valley League teams Grant, North Hollywood, Poly and Sylmar.

Seven of Reseda’s games are against conference members, and Canoga Park and Chatsworth round out the nine-game schedule. Gone from the schedule are former Pac-8 League opponents University and Westchester.

The promotion to the 3-A level catches Reseda in a down year. Among those lost to graduation last year were linebacker-tight end David Wilson, running back Ronald Wilkinson and defensive back Sam Edwards, all of whom earned All-City recognition in ’87. Still, Schaeffer said the recent success will help the team in 1988.

“We did lose some very good players to graduation, but we have a lot of players returning who played supporting roles the last couple of years,” he said.

Playoff structure: Of the City’s 12 football leagues, only four play in the 4-A Division. Joining the two Valley leagues in Conference 5 will be Banning, Carson, Crenshaw and Dorsey in one league and Fairfax, Hamilton, Manual Arts and Palisades in another.

Three teams from each league qualify for the playoffs, forming a 12-team bracket that excludes only four divisional teams from postseason play. League champions will receive first-round byes.

The other eight leagues, including the Mid-Valley and East Valley, form the 3-A Division. The first two teams in each league advance to a 16-team postseason bracket.

10th game: Although this season marks the first year the City has allowed football teams to add a 10th game to the schedule, only six Valley teams will exercise that option. With mutual agreement, teams may elevate the first week of scrimmages to game status.

In the Pac-8 Conference, Belmont plays at Poly and Verdugo Hills plays at North Hollywood. In Conference 5, Granada Hills plays at Roosevelt, Hamilton meets Kennedy and San Fernando plays Banning at Harbor College.

Decision time: Former Chatsworth pitcher Pierre Amado has decided to attend Cal State Northridge and attempt to make the baseball team as a walk-on. Amado said he rejected a scholarship offer at Cal State Long Beach because the offer covered tuition and books but not room and board. He will live at home while attending CSUN.

Amado posted a 10-1 record with a 1.82 earned-run average last spring for Chatsworth.

Party boss: Crespi football Coach Bill Redell may pass a team rule forbidding his players to attend massive summer parties. Senior linebacker Quinn Fauria showed up at one last month and left with a badly sprained ankle and a cracked skull.

Fauria needed 15 stitches to close the wound in his head but said the biggest problem was not knowing who did it.

“I was just standing outside and all of a sudden I got hit in the back of head,” Fauria said. “I’m not sure but I think I got knocked out. I was angry but I don’t know who to get back at. I guess I’m going to avoid parties for a while.”

Fauria (6 feet, 1 inch, 205 pounds) said the injuries won’t force him to miss the first practice of the season Monday.

Marietta mania: Hart pitcher Kym Weil and Canyon slugger Stephanie Keeler led the Cerritos-based Gordon Panthers to a 6-2 record in the recent Amateur Softball Assn., 15-and-under Girls’ Fastpitch Softball tournament in Marietta, Ga.

Weil was 3-1 in the 57-team tournament, including a perfect game and a one-hitter. She had 12 strikeouts in the perfect game against Akron, Ohio, and 11 strikeouts and no walks in a 6-0, one-hit win over Chattanooga, Tenn.

Keeler batted a team-high .560, going 14 for 25 as the team’s catcher and designated hitter. She had hits in all but one game, scored seven runs and drove in eight.

Staff writer Tim Brown contributed to this notebook.