The Preps : Santa Margarita to Find Home in County League

Santa Margarita High School, the $26-million Catholic school in southern Orange County, moved a step closer to finding a home for its athletic teams Thursday.

Orange County league representatives recommended to the Southern Section Executive Committee that the school be placed in the Orange County area beginning in the fall of 1990, which would place the school in an Orange County league for the 1990-91 season.

Santa Margarita will likely be placed in the Pacific Coast, Sea View or South Coast league, according to Trabuco Hills Principal Bill Brand, who attended the meeting.

“This is a first for Orange County,” Brand said. “This is the first time we’ve had an opportunity to experience a parochial school in a public school league.”

County principals will meet next Friday meet to determine in which league to place the two-year-old school.

The school will be a member of the Olympic League for the 1989-90 school year, but then will be placed in a new league as part of the realignment of Southern Section leagues for the 1990-91 and 1991-92 school years.

League representatives and Santa Margarita athletic officials favored putting the school in the county public school leagues. The league representatives had two other choices, however.

They could have placed the school in the small private schools group, which included leagues such as the Olympic. Typical enrollment in that league is about 500. Santa Margarita’s current enrollment is 470, but is expected to reach 1,200 by the start of the 1991 school year.

Or they could have put the school in the larger Catholic schools group, where it could have joined the Angelus League.