Athletic Boom Town Unfolding : 2 New Schools Open Doors in Antelope Valley

Sports are heating up in the Mojave Desert.

The boom that has nearly doubled the population in the Antelope Valley is having a trickle-down effect on high school competition. By the early ‘90s, two high schools that opened this year--Highland and Little Rock--will be fielding varsity teams to challenge the establishment: the Palmdale Falcons, Quartz Hill Rebels and the longtime king of the valley in sports, Antelope Valley High’s Antelopes.

“It will be an instant rivalry,” says Brent Newcomb, football coach at Antelope Valley for the past 12 years.

How this will affect the balance of power in Antelope Valley is anybody’s guess. Antelope Valley High, which opened in 1912, has almost always been the biggest school in the Antelope Valley Union High School District--outnumbering its rivals by as many as 1,000 students--and has maintained a rich tradition of sports excellence. Palmdale, built in 1957, enjoyed a few years of glory in the early ‘60s and recent success on the football field but generally has been a doormat. Overall, Quartz Hill, 25 years old, has been average.

But the boom--which raised the Antelope Valley’s population from 111,000 in 1980 to 206,000 this year--has evened out the student bodies at the three four-year high schools. In the coming school year, Antelope Valley will be at 2,900, Palmdale 2,700, and Quartz Hill, which had an enrollment of only 1,900 three years ago, will be at 2,900.

The new schools are freshman-only this year (about 400-500 per school) but are projected to have 2,300 students each by the time they field varsity teams in 1991. Highland and Little Rock probably won’t join the other three schools in the Golden League until 1992.

With all the high schools now drawing about the same number of students--who have about the same socioeconomic backgrounds--competition is heated. As the new schools fill up with students, the level of play throughout the valley should remain strong.

“The only difference in the sports teams will be strictly program differences,” says Ray Monti, new principal at Quartz Hill and nearly a lifelong resident of the Antelope Valley.

Antelope Valley High is located in Lancaster, the fastest-growing city in the state. For decades, it was the only school in a vast area and had to play in a league with teams from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Now there are four other schools within a few miles.

“We drive to El Toro someplace in Orange County to play,” Newcomb says. “We have long drives to Santa Maria and Bakersfield. But we’ll be able to drop those schools in a couple of years and only play in our back yard.”

The Antelopes, who capped a 12-2 season last year by winning the Southern Section Division II football title, haven’t been touched by the boom as much as other teams in the area. The school draws from an established community of old subdivisions, “and the people have lived here a long time,” Newcomb says. But, he adds, Palmdale and Quartz Hill are surrounded by new subdivisions, and the increase in people “has to help them athletically.”

The new schools have siphoned off a couple of hundred freshman students from each of the established schools. Has that had an immediate impact? “It appears our freshmen football numbers are down,” says Palmdale Principal Linda Janzen.”

Palmdale, which had an enrollment of 3,000 three years ago, is expected to be squeezed the most by the new schools. “We’re going to be the smallest of the big three,” Janzen says.

The sudden influx of people into the Antelope Valley has produced the expected consequences: crime is up, strip malls are blooming, traffic is clogging previously wide-open Highway 14, schools are opening year-round. In high school sports programs, demand for certain sports has not been able to keep pace with the supply. “It’s a battle to have a sufficient number of teams to enable all the students to participate,” Monti says.

To solve the problem, the schools are adding junior varsity teams and getting additional sports approved for varsity teams by the Southern Section. Palmdale, for example, will offer varsity volleyball for the first time.

“It’s an exciting time,” Newcomb says, “to be living in the Antelope Valley.”