Corona del Mar Low on Options

Corona del Mar High principal Don Martin is still unhappy that there will be no realignment of the county’s 10 athletic leagues for at least another year, but instead of having another appeal rejected, he decided against asking the Southern Section at Tuesday’s section council meeting to switch from the Sea View League to the Pacific Coast League for the 1998-99 school year.

Martin has a final option--file another, final appeal with Jack Hayes, the state CIF executive director--but he is apparently not going to exercise that option.

“I will make a decision in the next couple of days, but at this point in time, I figure we will stay,” Martin said.

Martin has wanted to change leagues with Pacific Coast resident Aliso Niguel, but Aliso Niguel Athletic Director Mike Middlebrook says his school wants to stay put.

“From our standpoint, our athletic programs are not ready and competitively equitable for Sea View,” Middlebrook said. “In our four years of being open, we’ve only won five league titles, where Corona has won eight league titles in Sea View alone. They’ve also won five section championships; we’ve only won one.”