Switch Would Limit Play of City, Southern Section

A proposal by the Los Angeles Unified School District to move its winter high school athletic programs to fall would limit participation between the City and Southern Section teams in nonleague competition, Southern Section Associate Commissioner Dean Crowley said Thursday.

The district begins a year-round school schedule on July 1, 1991, but fewer than 10 of the district’s 49 high schools will be open all year. The remaining schools will follow a new calendar, with the majority closed from late December until mid-February.

Under the proposal, the 1991 winter sports season would begin in late September or early October and finish by the end of December. The move would affect wrestling and boys’ and girls’ basketball and soccer.

Several City teams now participate in nonleague basketball tournaments with Southern Section teams in December. A switch to fall would mean City teams would instead be playing in their league and section championships at that time.

And at the beginning of the City season, winter teams in the Southern Section would not even have begun practicing yet.

“The only ones they (City teams) would have left to play against are themselves,” Crowley said.

Hal Harkness, the City Section commissioner, said the City will ask the California Interscholastic Federation to allow teams to continue participating in the state basketball and wrestling tournaments. Harkness said the seven-week break “certainly wouldn’t help” in tournament play.

Tom Byrnes, CIF commissioner, said City participation in the tournaments likely will be discussed at the state federation’s council meeting February in Sacramento.