Releaguing Process Might Be Delayed One Year : Southern Section: League representatives will vote to postpone process or continue it under revised timetable.

Members of the Southern Section general council members voted Thursday to reconsider the timetable for the 1992-94 releaguing cycle, a move that could ultimately postpone the process of placing schools in athletic leagues for one year.

The decision came only six days after the section’s Executive Committee, at a meeting in Palm Desert, rejected a releaguing plan for members of the section’s 10 geographic areas because of irregularities in the process.

After appeals by schools in five of the geographic areas, the Executive Committee had concerns about the procedure in which the schools were placed and returned all placement decisions to the releaguing committee for further review.

Stan Thomas, section commissioner, presented members of the general council with a revised timetable in which the releaguing committee would reconvene on Jan. 28 to hear area placement requests, then begin the releaguing process on April 29.

“This is such a sensitive issue that maybe we should step back, postpone the process for a year and maintain status quo,” said Tom Jacobson, president of the Executive Committee.

Council members were instructed to go back to their leagues and make a decision to either postpone the process or continue it under the revised timetable. Currently, the releaguing cycle is every two years. Leagues must express their wishes to the section office by next Thursday.

“A postponement would also allow a committee to look at the entire area placement process and perhaps make some revisions in how the releaguing committee should conduct its business in the future,” Jacobson said.

Not surprisingly, public schools in the Orange County area were most vocal in the geographic placement process. The county’s public schools have appealed the placement of two county Catholic schools--Mater Dei and Santa Margarita--into the Orange County geographic area, opening the door for Catholic schools to compete against public schools.

Currently, private schools in Orange County compete in league play only against other private schools in Orange and Los Angeles counties. But escalating transportation costs have forced administrators to look at alternatives beginning in the 1992-93 season.

Last November, section member schools were asked to submit to the releaguing committee requests to be moved to a new geographic area. Mater Dei, Santa Margarita, Servite and Rosary all requested to be moved from the private to the Orange County area. Requests by Servite and Rosary were denied last month.

Also at the general council meeting:

* The council voted to instruct representatives attending the State Federated Council meeting on Feb. 1 to vote in favor of a sex equity proposal that would allow female athletes to compete on male teams. The proposal, endorsed by the legal council of the State Department of Education, is expected to pass at the state meeting next month. The idea behind the proposal is to allow a superstar female athlete such as Olympic swimmer Janet Evans to compete on a boys’ team, where she would face stronger competition.

* The council voted to instruct representatives at the state meeting to vote in favor of expanding the girls’ state volleyball championship from three to five divisions beginning in 1991-92.

* Bob Packer of the Executive Committee informed the council that the Saddleback Valley Unified School District has hired a consultant, Barbara Wilson, to study the feasibility of a CIF Orange County Section.