Principals Approve Original Proposal

Area principals have spent nearly a year trying to realign the 10 county athletic leagues. Despite the various proposals they have considered, the 62-member committee keeps coming back to the same plan approved last February.

The principals met for four hours Thursday at Fountain Valley High School and voted, 42-18, to resubmit the two-year proposal that would keep Mater Dei and Santa Margarita in public school leagues but not allow them to compete for varsity league titles in 11 sports, including football, basketball and baseball. It’s the same plan Esperanza Principal Ray Plutko successfully appealed at the Southern Section Council meeting last October.

The Southern Section Council must approve any plan adopted by the county principals. The group will meet Jan. 29.

Loara Principal John Dahlem said he was glad the principals decided to stick with the plan first approved last February, but said “it should not have gotten this far.

“To say whether there are winners and losers, well there are no winners today,” Dahlem said.

“This is not a perfect solution, but when you have 62 principals involved there are lots of different situations that come up. I do feel confident that if it’s appealed again that--based on the fact our body has dealt with this three times and come up with the [same] decision--it would not behoove any group to overturn it.”

Plutko, who had proposed keeping Esperanza in the Sunset League for football only, made it clear he would appeal again.

Mater Dei Principal Pat Murphy, who abstained from voting, would only say after the meeting, “We’ll have to live with it.”

Under the plan approved by principals on Thursday:

--Mater Dei would move from the South Coast League to the Sunset League, and Santa Margarita would go to the South Coast from the Sea View League. Both schools will compete as independents in varsity competition. They would be guaranteed playoffs spots by winning 60% of their games.

The junior varsity, sophomore and freshman teams can still compete for league championships.

--The Pacific Coast League becomes a five-team league, losing Aliso Niguel and Laguna Hills to the Sea View League, and taking in Corona del Mar from the Sea View. When Northwood, which opens in 1999, is able to field varsity teams it will join the PCL.

--El Toro and Dana Hills will switch leagues, Dana Hills going to Sea View and El Toro moving to South Coast.

When asked if the process was over, Huntington Beach Principal Jim Staunton--the committee chairman--replied, “I don’t know. We’ll still need some clarifications about how [any new] appeals can be made. And even though we got the necessary two-thirds, the closeness of the vote tells me there are still people out there who are concerned about these configurations.”