Foothill League ‘Out’ as Montclair Prep Option

As inviting as the offer might seem, Montclair Prep will not join the Foothill League next fall.

Officials of the Van Nuys private school, which was ousted from the Alpha League on May 6 by a vote of league members, checked the enrollment numbers of the Foothill League and decided their teams would be overmatched.

“The Foothill League is out,” Montclair Prep Athletic Director Greg Reece said. “Our student enrollment is so small that we couldn’t compete with those schools year in and year out.”

Montclair Prep, which was barred from postseason play in all sports this school year after admitting to recruiting violations in the football program, has a high school enrollment of 485. Burbank, Burroughs, Canyon, Hart and Saugus, which will make up the revamped Foothill League in the fall, average more than 1,950.

“There is no way we can compete with schools like Hart and Saugus in football,” Reece said. “We had only 18 players on our (football) team last year and seven were going both ways. We would be physically drained and players could get hurt. It would be different if all we played were sports like baseball where you don’t take a physical beating.”

Canyon football Coach Harry Welch was disappointed to hear that Montclair Prep would not be joining the Foothill League.

“This five-team league format is ridiculous,” Welch said. “I thought this would be a nice solution for the league and Montclair Prep considering their situation.”

Montclair Prep, however, is optimistic about getting its girls’ program into the Delphic League beginning with the 1993-94 school year. Reece met with Delphic athletic directors during a league meeting last week. The athletic directors will vote on the issue during their next league meeting Sept. 22.

Reece is considering applying to other five-team leagues for the boys’ program, including the Frontier League, which will consist of Calabasas, Moorpark, Nordhoff, Santa Clara and Santa Paula.

However, Susana Arce, the Nordhoff assistant principal and the Frontier League’s Southern Section representative, opposes the inclusion of Montclair Prep.

“Considering the improprieties that went on at Montclair Prep, I don’t think the league would accept their application,” she said. “Another factor is the distance between the schools. Coming in a year when fiscal problems are greater than before, I don’t think any of our schools want to pay the busing fees to travel that far.”