Westchester High Appeals Proposal to Switch Leagues : Competition: Should Westchester move to the Southern-Pacific Conference in place of perennial doormat Narbonne, which wants out? L.A. City Section officials like the idea, but Westchester parents and school administrators say no.

The stage is set Monday for perhaps the fiercest high school releaguing battle of the year.

Backed by concerned parents, Westchester High will appeal an L.A. City Section proposal to move the school to the Southern-Pacific Conference in place of Narbonne, which requested a change because of its continued failure to compete on that level.

Narbonne has a two-year conference football record of 0-14, playing a demanding schedule that includes Carson, Banning, Dorsey and Crenshaw. In basketball, the Gauchos were 1-9 in the conference last season.

“We don’t think Narbonne should stay there,” Westchester football Coach Larry Wein said, “but we don’t think they should put another school in there to suffer.”

Will Westchester suffer? Several South Bay coaches believe the Comets are capable of being competitive in the Southern-Pacific Conference.

Westchester’s football team has reached the L.A. City 2-A and 3-A Division finals each of the last two years and will play a second-round 3-A playoff game Friday against South Gate. The basketball team regularly qualifies for the 4-A playoffs.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Carson football Coach Gene Vollnogle said of the proposal. “I have no respect for coaches who don’t want to move up.”

Wein, though, said Westchester’s reluctance to move from the Coastal Conference to the Southern-Pacific Conference involves more than potential wins and losses.

He outlined three reasons:

* The community is concerned about the prospect of gang activity after two football games this season at Southern-Pacific Conference schools (Washington and Dorsey) were suspended in the fourth quarter because of gunfire outside the stadiums.

* By placing Westchester in the Southern-Pacific Conference, four of the City section’s five high schools with black enrollments of at least 60% (Crenshaw, Dorsey, Washington and Westchester) will compete in the same conference, thus creating a segregated conference.

* With an enrollment of 1,600 students in grades nine through 12, Westchester is the second-smallest high school in the City section and will have trouble competing in football with larger schools such as Banning, Carson and Dorsey.

Wein also argued that moving Westchester from the Coastal Conference will terminate longtime rivalries with Venice, Palisades and University.

“When I came here eight years ago, the football team had won two games in five years,” said Wein, whose team is 19-5 over the last two seasons. “We’ve come a long way. To see the program destroyed in a year or two, along with the school’s spirit, would be a shame.

“We’re just looking for an equal situation. None of the Westside schools have large student pools. Give us 3,000 students, and we’ll go anywhere you want us to go.”

The proposed switch with Narbonne involves moving Westchester to the 3-A Division Southern League with Gardena, San Pedro and Washington, and in the conference with 4-A Pacific League members Banning, Carson, Dorsey and Crenshaw. Narbonne would be grouped in the Coastal Conference with 3-A Metro League members University, Venice and Los Angeles, and 4-A Western League schools Manual Arts, Hamilton, Fairfax and Palisades.

The changes would affect all sports for the 1990-92 cycle beginning next fall.

If Westchester loses its appeal Monday before the releaguing subcommittee, Wein said the school will appeal the matter to the Interscholastic Athletics Committee, the governing body of L.A. City athletics.