BREAKING AWAY: PRO AND CON : ANALYSIS: ORANGE COUNTY ON ITS OWN: PRO : Region Ready, Willing and Able to Stand on Its Own

There should be an Orange County Section for the same reason that birds kick their young out of the nest, that kids go away to college.

It’s time. Orange County has grown up.

It was a nice arrangement while it lasted, the Southern Section helping to nurture the relatively young athletic programs of a relatively young region. But things have reached the point that Orange County is doing a lot of the nurturing--with revenues, personnel, publicity and facilities.

In just under 20 years, the population of Orange County has increased from 1,420,386 to 2,238,700. That makes it larger than San Diego County, which has its own section, and the 73 high schools that would be part of an Orange County Section would make it larger than five of the 10 existing sections.

“There’s a belief among some of the administrators in Orange County that the number of schools presently in Orange County and the number of schools that are expected to be built indicate the possibility of a very large (Southern) Section,” said James Ryan, principal of Foothill High School. “There are some ideas to break it apart, mainly because of the size and unwieldiness of a large section. The need for that has increased in recent years as operating an athletic section has become more and more complex.”

The phenomenal interest here in prep sports causes local papers to give extensive coverage. Taken as a whole, interest in high schools sports in Orange County rivals interest in the Rams and Angels.

The Southern Section recognizes this, scheduling major championships in Anaheim Stadium (baseball and football), UC Irvine’s Bren Center (basketball) and Orange Coast College’s LeBard Stadium (football) during the past school year.

Southern Section officials know that Orange County means above-average gate receipts because many of the section’s top officials have worked, still work and live in Orange County.

The section’s top official, Commissioner Stan Thomas, was principal at Foothill High School. Administrators Bill Clark and Karen Hellyer came from El Dorado and University high schools, respectively.

Newport Harbor principal Tom Jacobson is the president of the Southern Section Council. La Habra principal Tom Triggs and El Toro Athletic Director Sheri Ross are on the section’s executive committee.

So, Orange County has the size, interest, facilities and the talented people to run its own athletic section.

“All the money is here, all the facilities, it’s an ideal setting,” said Tom Danley, Katella athletic director. “Why wouldn’t we want to be in control of our own destiny.”

Danley has been a proponent of an Orange County Section since the early 1970s, and the idea seems to gain strength every year.

Presently, a committee of Orange County principals is looking into the feasibility of breaking away from the Southern Section, which, to many, has become unwieldy with 476 member schools. That’s larger than 43 state athletic federations.

Geographically, it stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Nevada border, from Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevadas to the Mexican border.

“For one staff to handle the needs of a great many high schools is a tough task,” Ryan said. “There’s a potential for some problems.”

To service that huge chunk of earth and humanity the Southern Section has two commissioners, two administrators and a handful of clerical help. Commissioners and administrators are there to answer questions by coaches or administrators about CIF rules and regulations.

But, as it stands, there is only one official to every 119 schools. Figuring that the great majority of those schools have both boys’ and girls’ programs and field about 20 varsity sports, that means 2,380 varsity coaches per official. Rue the day when all of them are in an inquisitive mood.

It’s not that the Southern Section has done a poor job, almost everyone agrees it’s doing the best it can.

“A lot of people figure, ‘If it’s not broke, why fix it?’ ” Danley said. “But the fact is, we could do better on our own.”

An Orange County Section would have 73 members, and even with a smaller staff than the Southern Section--say a commissioner and an administrator--there would be a much more responsive staff to school needs. In these times of knee-jerk litigation caused usually by ignorance of the CIF’s sometimes confusing rules, the value of this cannot be overlooked.

Then there is the matter of transportation. Once Southern Section playoffs begin, schools can find themselves traveling to the far reaches of the Southern Section’s boundaries.

The Whittier Christian football team will play its second-round Division IX playoff game in Bishop, just outside of Mammoth. The team will begin the six-hour trip at 8:30 Friday morning and turn around that night and drive back. If it wins the game, Whittier Christian could find itself rewarded with a much shorter trip--a three-hour excursion to Carpenteria.

“I’m for anything that means I don’t have to travel in a bus to Bishop,” Whittier Christian Coach Phil Bravo said. “I would absolutely love having a county section. I think anyone who has had to take one of these long bus trips would agree.”

And speaking of Division IX, an Orange County Section could establish its own divisions, ridding itself of the watered-down and archaic nature of 11 divisions for football and nine in basketball.

Three championship divisions in Orange County--one for large schools, one for mid-size and one for small schools. That’s it. Make a championship mean something, and with it establish even more passionate county rivalries, ones that go beyond leagues.

As it stands now, most Orange County teams, coaches and fans care almost exclusively about other county teams. Orange County polls take precedent over Southern Section polls and out-of-county opponents.

“It’s no problem getting kids up for games against teams in the league or teams around the county they’ve heard or read about,” El Toro Coach Bob Johnson said. “But it’s real hard for a kid to relate to Antelope Valley.”

For all intents and purposes, Orange County already has divorced itself. For example, during the recently completed nonleague football season Orange County’s major 58 high schools played nearly 300 opponents, and of those only 46 were from out of the county.

More than a few times in the past few years, the Southern Section has lost money on its traditional big moneymakers--football and basketball playoffs.

There is little doubt that playoffs played exclusively in Orange County, between Orange County teams, would be major draws.

“That would be heavy-duty revenue,” said Tony Ferruzzo, director of education for the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. “The history of Orange County athletics has been one of very healthy turnouts. I think that would only increase with an Orange County Section.”

Big playoff revenues defer the cost of running the section. One of the Southern Section’s main selling points is that its size plus its aggressive procurement of corporate sponsorship has allowed it to keep its dues at a state-low 23 cents per student.

And an Orange County Section would mean building a facility and paying a staff, but Danley believes the potential for corporate sponsorship for an Orange County Section is “astronomical.”

Danley should know. Though the Southern Section starting accepting corporate sponsorship in 1976, it was Danley who pioneered the practice when he accepted sponsorship from a soft drink company a few years earlier with the Orange County Athletic Directors Assn., an organization he helped found.

“I could see us eventually paying nothing,” Danley said. “The Southern Section gets about $250,000 ($211,750 in 1988-89). I would think $1 million (corporate sponsorship) is perfectly realistic. I think the bottom line is if we were allowed to go out, run it ourselves, support it ourselves, we would prosper more.”