Kennedy to Stay 4-A in Football

Kennedy High’s football team will compete in the City Section 4-A Division next fall after a vote by the Northwest Valley Conference representatives Thursday at Chatsworth High.

The conference passed a proposal that establishes a five-team 4-A league and a three-team 3-A league. Based on last year’s conference records, Granada Hills (7-0), Taft (5-2), El Camino Real (5-2), San Fernando (4-3) and Kennedy (3-4) will play in a 4-A league. Reseda (3-4), Chatsworth (1-6) and Cleveland (0-7) will play at the 3-A level.

City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness said the City will approve the measure even though it creates the only three-team league in the section.

“That’s their decision,” Harkness said. “They’re the ones that have to live with it.”

The City revamped its football playoff format last month, establishing two more-evenly balanced divisions by splitting each of the section’s six conferences into one 4-A league and one 3-A league.

The City suggested that the four teams in each conference with the best conference records from the previous year form the 4-A league and that the other four teams compose the 3-A league. However, it allowed each conference to establish its own plan for choosing league alignments, setting a May 15 deadline for proposed changes.

Kennedy, which was 7-5 overall last year, objected to its demotion to the 3-A Division under the City’s suggested alignment plan. The eight teams in the Northwest Valley Conference accounted for two-thirds of the 12-team 4-A Division last year.

Conference representatives voted on three proposals at Thursday’s meeting. First, they rejected the four-four split by a 6-2 vote, with Reseda and El Camino Real voting in favor of the plan. Then, a proposal for the entire conference to play at the 4-A level was passed by a 7-1 vote, with Reseda dissenting. Finally, the plan for a 5-3 split passed unanimously, and the conference agreed to forward that proposal to Harkness.

“We’re where we belong,” Kennedy Coach Bob Francola said. “I’m very pleased that other 4-A schools supported our effort to get in this division.”

Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer reluctantly agreed to the plan, taking solace in the fact that the 3-A teams have a better chance of earning automatic berths in the playoffs next fall. Under the plan that calls for two 16-team playoff brackets, the top two teams in each league earn automatic playoff berths.

“I’m 100% against all (conference) teams going 4-A because that undermines what I think is a good plan,” Schaeffer said. “I don’t necessarily like being in a freak league. It’s a diluted situation, but we have a better chance of getting into the playoffs. I hope the (4-A teams) aren’t sorry about that down the line.”