After Realignment, Loyola No Longer in a Class by Itself

Over the last nine seasons, Los Angeles Loyola has dominated its regular-season football competition in compiling a 76-11-1 record. However, critics point out that many of the Cubs’ victories came against weaker Del Rey League opponents.

This season Loyola will get a chance to silence those skeptics. The Catholic Athletic Assn., which oversees league assignments for parochial schools, shelved the Del Rey League and moved the Cubs into the powerful Angelus League, joining La Puente Bishop Amat, Santa Ana Mater Dei, Bellflower St. John Bosco and Anaheim Servite.

So, after winning six Del Rey League titles in nine years over such schools as Encino Crespi and Mission Hills Alemany, Loyola is in what area coaches call the “super conference.”

“It’s a heck of a league, where all five teams are able to play against most anybody around,” said Loyola Coach Steve Grady, whose team has reached the semifinals in the Division I playoffs the last two seasons. “It is going to be a tremendous challenge playing the best every week. One thing for sure is that if you do get into the playoffs, you’ll know that you’ve earned your way.”

Loyola is not the only school affected by the realignment. Santa Fe Springs St. Paul and Torrance Bishop Montgomery move from the Angelus League to Division III and the newly formed Mission League, joining Alemany, West Hills Chaminade, Crespi, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Playa del Rey St. Bernard.

Joining the Cubs in the move from the Del Rey League to the Angelus is St. John Bosco. Santa Margarita, which opened in 1987, withdrew from the Angelus League in football because its officials felt its program was not ready. The Eagles will play an independent schedule.

“I guess they wanted the five biggest Catholic schools to play against each other,” Grady said. “But what will happen is one or two good football teams will not get into the playoffs because the league is so tough.”

Another factor Grady is not pleased with is the distance Loyola is from its new league opponents. Loyola, located near downtown Los Angeles, will have to make transportation adjustments. In the Del Rey League, the longest trip was to St. John Bosco. Now it’s the shortest.

“We don’t like the move because of the transportation problems created,” Grady said. “Not so much in football, even though it is tough traveling on the Santa Ana Freeway on a Friday night, but in the other sports. Traveling back and forth to Servite, Bishop Amat and Mater Dei is going to cut down on our support.

“It is probably a good decision in creating a super conference. However, I would have liked to stay with the people we’ve been with for so many years like Crespi and Alemany. But I don’t know if we could take it not being in Division I.”

Last year Loyola finished with a 10-2 record, losing to San Bernardino San Gorgonio in the playoffs, 21-12. With only one starter returning on offense and five overall, Loyola will have to rely on senior quarterback Corby Smith, who is the son of USC Coach Larry Smith, to direct an inexperienced team.

“He does not have much game experience at quarterback, but he looks good in practice,” Grady said of the 6-foot-2 Smith, who started at strong safety last season. “He is a good team leader who has a good arm with good speed. We need to have a good year from him because our line is not as big as in the past, and we do lack depth.”

This football season marks the first of the 1990-92 Southern Section restructuring and playoff-grouping cycle. There are 10 divisions in 11-man competition, with Division I making several changes. Along with the loss of the Del Rey League, Division I will add the Golden League (moved from Division II) and feature revamped Angelus, Citrus Belt and Sunset leagues.

Other changes include:

--In Division II, the San Gabriel Valley and South Coast leagues will replace the Bay (moved to Division III) and Golden leagues.

--In Division VI, the Montview League moves from Division V to replace the Suburban League, which moves to Division VII.

--In Division VII, the Pacific Coast League joins the Suburban and replaces the Ocean League, which moves to Division VIII along with the resurrected Pioneer League. They replace the Pacific Coast and Santa Fe leagues.

--In Division IX, the Santa Fe League replaces the Alpha League, which moves to Division X.

--The new Division X will be made up of the Alpha, Arrowhead, Desert-Inyo Small and the Freedom leagues.

The first full weekend of the Southern Section football season will begin Thursday, but several teams got an early start with games last week in other states.

Seven area teams traveled to Hawaii, and Robert E. Lee of Springfield, Va., played host and defeated Westminster, 15-7. Overall, Southern Section teams fared well. Five of the seven teams playing in Hawaii won.

Canyon Country Canyon had the biggest victory in the Pacific by routing Honolulu powerhouse St. Louis, 40-0, to end the Crusaders’ 55-game winning streak. Crespi defeated Honolulu Kuhuku, 21-14; and Chaminade tied Konawaena from the island of Hawaii, 6-6. Southern Section small-school power Van Nuys Montclair Prep lost to Honolulu Farrington, 28-7.

Orange County teams were undefeated in their matchups with Hawaiian teams. Capistrano Valley defeated Honolulu Damien, 29-15; Huntington Beach defeated Honolulu Iolani, 12-0; and Tustin defeated Honolulu Pac-5, 35-7.

City Section football teams begin their season September 14.

The Southern Section has denied high school football press credentials to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, which last year published stories about on-field racial incidents, the Associated Press has reported.

Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas told the newspaper’s sports editor that the Press-Enterprise would not be issued credentials, thereby denying reporters and photographers access to the field and press boxes.

The matter has drawn the attention of the Associated Press Sports Editors, a nationwide organization of newspaper sports editors.

Thomas reportedly told sports editor John Garrett last Thursday that he did not feel the paper could cover Southern Section teams “fairly and accurately.”

According to Garrett, Thomas also voiced objections to the Press-Enterprise’s use of the state open records law in writing stories about incidents of racial slurs being used on football fields.

“I think that it is obvious that the real reason for Mr. Thomas’ decision is his unhappiness with the stories,” Garrett said.

“Perhaps he also wishes to send a message to other newspapers that the CIF shouldn’t be subjected to the same scrutiny as other public institutions, that to do so will result in reprisals.”

Garrett said he has written the Southern Section’s president, asking that Thomas be instructed to issue the credentials. Executive Committee President Tom Jacobson said Friday that he wanted to talk to Thomas before taking any action.

In other fall sports, cross-country also will make changes this season, moving to an enrollment-based divisional structure. The state enrollment-based championships will have four divisions and the Southern Section will have two groupings within each division which is similar to the five-division basketball playoffs. The divisions will be labled I-AA (more than 2,550 students), I-A (2,550-2,026), II-AA (2,025-1,749), II-A (1,748-1,526), III-AA (1,525-1,249), III-A (1,248-901), IV-AA (900-363), IV-A (0-362).

In girls’ volleyball, defending state Division I champion Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, headed by senior Robin Ortigiesen, is again regarded as the team to beat in the 5-A Division. Arcadia, 21-2 last season, is the top team in 4-A, with La Habra, Arroyo Grande and Brentwood rated first in 3-A, 2-A and 1A.