Council Votes Down Proposed New Section : High schools: Orange County group expected to meet next week to plan next move, if any.

The CIF’s Federated Council, voting Friday, defeated a proposal to form an Orange County athletic section, 52-48.

There were two abstentions and two voters were not in attendance.

Superintendents from the county’s 15 public high school districts are expected to meet next week to regroup, according to Ed Seal, co-chairman of the steering committee created to establish a new section.

“It’s up to them now,” said Seal, who retired last year as superintendent of the Brea Olinda Unified District. “They have to decide whether to let it go or take it further.”

Seal said the most extreme option was for Orange County schools to withdraw from the Southern Section and form a section unsanctioned by the state. They could then reapply to the Federated Council.

That would be an unprecedented move but could provide leverage.

The CIF is empowered by the State Legislature to run high school athletics in California. Declining admission to an Orange County section, even one created without approval, could prompt the legislature to rescind the CIF’s right to govern, or at least that was hinted by Seal.

“It all could end up in the State Legislature,” he said. “That’s a can of worms that we don’t want to get into. A lot more than an Orange County section could be decided if it goes that route.”

The other route would be to bring the issue to the Federated Council for another vote at its January meeting.

A county section proposal was overwhelmingly turned down by the council in 1992. Friday’s vote was considerably closer.