Golden West Will Be Name of New League

The league created by Orange County realignment for the 1994-98 school years finally has a name.

The Golden West League was chosen by the seven league principals whose schools will comprise the six-team league that is to begin play next fall; the schools are Ocean View, Saddleback, Santa Ana, Servite/Rosary, Tustin and Westminster.

Principals met Wednesday night at Tustin High and reached an agreement in 30 minutes. Each school brought with it three potential names, and Santa Ana, Tustin and Westminster brought Golden West. It was the only duplicate.

“We felt it was a name that you could get a good graphic from and several of the schools are along the Golden West corridor,” said Ocean View Principal Carla Rush, who will be the league’s first president. “We wanted to establish a tone that’s positive; we’re going on past traditions that we have in our older leagues, but we’re building a league for the future that is going to be as good or better as any of the leagues that currently exist.”

On the second ballot, the principals voted 6-1 in favor of Golden West; the other vote was for Crestview, a league name that is no longer in use.

Modjeska and La Grande were the other two finalists.

Other suggestions were Alliance, Central, Chaparral, Champion, Harbor, Inland, Sun View and West Coast.

Sun View was a combination of Sunset and Sea View, two leagues that the existing schools are leaving for the new league.

“We disregarded Sun View League because . . . (we) decided we wanted to go forward and not be reminded of what we were, but what we will be,” Rush said. “And you would be amazed at the number of leagues that have ‘Sun’ in their name.”

There are five in the Southern Section: Sunbelt, Sunkist, Sunrise, Sunset and Sunshine.