Notre Dame, Crespi to Join Mission League

The Southern Section General Council on Thursday ratified two separate releaguing proposals that will keep the Foothill League intact and create a new parochial high school league reuniting Crespi and Notre Dame for the two-year releaguing cycle that begins in the fall.

The Foothill Area and the Catholic Athletic Assn. were the last of the Southern Section’s releaguing groups to adopt plans because their proposals were rejected Sept. 21 when the council approved other releaguing proposals.

The CAA plan disbands the Del Rey League, realigns the San Fernando Valley League and groups Crespi and Notre Dame with Alemany, Chaminade, Bishop Montgomery, St. Bernard and St. Paul in the new Mission League. Notre Dame left the Del Rey League and ended its rivalry with Crespi when the San Fernando Valley League took effect in the fall of 1988.

The newly aligned San Fernando League groups current league members Bell-Jeff, St. Genevieve and Harvard with St. Francis, El Segundo and La Salle. Louisville and Flintridge Prep will compete in girls’ sports only.

Loyola, a Del Rey member that was placed in the newly aligned Angelus League with Bishop Amat, Mater Dei, St. John Bosco, Santa Margarita and Servite, unsuccessfully appealed the decision. Crespi had lamented the end of its 17-year association with the Del Rey League and supported Loyola’s appeal. Crespi already has scheduled Loyola for next football season, but Athletic Director Paul Muff said that he is happy with the new league.

“We’re sorry about the end of the Del Rey League, but it’s good for the Valley to have a solid Catholic league,” he said. “We’ve already had two league meetings and there’s a real spirit of cooperation. We’re looking forward to a real good relationship with Notre Dame and the other schools.”

The new league will seek Division I status in football when the Southern Section ranks new and revamped leagues in the spring.

“We’re hoping we get Division I in football because we don’t want this league to look like a step down for us,” Muff said.

The Foothill plan keeps Burbank, Hart and Burroughs in the Foothill League with Alhambra, San Gabriel and Schurr. The council rejected an appeal by California High of the Whitmont League that would have disbanded the Foothill League and created a realigned, eight-team Pacific League that would have grouped Burbank, Burroughs and Hart with current Pacific League members Crescenta Valley, Glendale, Hoover, Muir and Pasadena.

Instead, the Foothill, Pacific and Golden leagues will remain intact.

“I think this will give our area the time to study the dynamics of growth that’s occurring in our area,” Hart Principal Laurence Strauss said. “I think it’s more appropriate to make those changes at the next releaguing cycle.”