Releaguing Proposal for Private Schools Faces Vote Today

An Orange County releaguing proposal that places Mater Dei High School in the South Coast League, Santa Margarita in the Sea View League and Servite/Rosary in the Sunset League will be voted on today at Foothill High by representatives of the county’s high schools.

A simple majority vote is needed to approve the area’s final releaguing proposal for 1992-94 and send it to the Southern Section’s general council for approval in September.

Jim Ryan, principal at Foothill High, chaired a 10-member committee that considered four proposals Tuesday before reaching an agreement on the proposal that would go into effect for two years beginning in 1992.

The committee considered strength of program, enrollment and location of schools before making a final decision that Ryan said was not unanimous. The final proposal is expected to meet opposition in today’s meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. in Foothill’s library.

“We did not want to make wholesale changes, but merely tried to deal with placing the four private schools into appropriate public leagues,” Ryan said.

In another move, the committee proposed moving Irvine High from the South Coast League to the Sea View League. The Sea View League would become an eight-team league with the addition of Irvine and Santa Margarita.

Irvine’s move would place the school in the same league with Woodbridge and University, the other two high schools in the Irvine Unified School District. Irvine Unified is an open-enrollment district.

Aliso Niguel High will join the Pacific Coast League when it is scheduled to open in 1993, expanding the league to seven teams. The current alignment in the Century, Empire, Freeway, Garden Grove and Orange leagues would not be changed.

Administrators at the county’s Catholic schools were optimistic about the league proposal that places private schools into public school leagues for the first time.

“The consensus among most of our coaches is that they wanted to play on the highest level possible, and the move to the Sunset League is just what we wanted,” said Tom Vitello, Servite athletic director. “Financially, it’s also good for us. We should have some good football gate receipts playing in the Sunset League.”

For the past two years, the county’s private school administrators argued that traveling to athletic events in Los Angeles, La Puente and Torrance was costly and causing students to miss classes.

Gary McKnight, boys’ athletic director at Mater Dei, applauded the move, saying, “This makes a lot more sense than driving to Los Angeles to play a game. We were hoping to get into the Sunset League, but this is fine. It should be a great football and basketball league.”

Santa Margarita, located in the southeastern section of the county, had sought to be placed in a league outside of the Saddleback Valley area, where it draws many of its students. School officials got their wish when the school was placed in the Sea View League rather than the South Coast League.

“We’re definitely not ready for South Coast League-caliber athletics,” said Richard Schaaf, Santa Margarita’s boys’ athletic director. “This is real good. Of course, this is just a proposal, and as we all know, anything can happen in the months ahead.”

Still lingering is an appeal by five school districts regarding the Southern Section’s decision to allow the county’s four Catholic schools to participate in public leagues. The appeal, to be heard by a three-member panel from the State office of the California Interscholastic Federation, is scheduled May 10.

The 1992-94 releaguing proposals:

Pacific Coast League--Aliso Niguel, which opens in 1993, expands the current league to seven teams.

Sea View League--The addition of Irvine and Santa Margarita expands the current league to eight teams.

South Coast League--Irvine moves to the Sea View League and is replaced by Mater Dei.

Sunset League--Servite (boys)/Rosary (girls) expands the current league to eight teams.