Panel Denies Appeal by Esperanza to Move

The Southern Section Executive Committee denied Esperanza’s request Wednesday to be moved from the Sunset League to the Century League in the 1999-2000 school year.

Despite the appeal of Principal David Flynn that the geographic makeup of the league made unreasonable travel demands on Esperanza--an argument supported by the other five Sunset League schools--the committee will recommend the section Executive Council approve the county’s realignment proposal for the 10 athletic leagues that would take effect beginning in the fall of 1999.

The proposal, which passed on a two-thirds majority vote by county principals on Oct. 8, will be considered by the council at its Jan. 28 meeting.

Esperanza can file another appeal to be considered at the council meeting, but Flynn could not say if he planned to do so.

In January 1997, then Esperanza Principal Ray Plutko argued that because of the school’s location in the county’s northeast section, it was unfair to keep it in a league consisting of teams in the southwest near the Pacific Ocean. The 63-member council voted to send the realignment proposal back to county principals for further consideration.

Geography, competitive equity and school enrollment are the criteria used in assigning teams to leagues.

On Wednesday, Flynn said the latest proposal still does not address Esperanza’s travel problems.

“We have to go from 45 miles to 61 miles round trip for league games,” Flynn said. “Our students have to miss fifth period to travel for away games.”

Flynn said Esperanza athletes lost a total of 2,867 classroom hours last year because of travel time, and said if his school was in the Century League “we could cut that by two-thirds.”

But other county principals argued that competitive equity should take precedence over geography, and also pleaded with the Executive Committee not to keep sending them back to the drawing board.

In other matters, the committee tentatively turned down the appeals of Mission Hills Alemany and Santa Fe Springs St. Paul to be moved from the Del Rey League as part of the Catholic Athletic Assn.’s league makeover next year. The CAA will include county parochial schools Mater Dei, Santa Margarita, Servite and Rosary.

The committee, however, agreed to a request from Jerome Porath, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, for more time to review the CAA’s new leagues. Porath and the CAA executive committee will have until Dec. 1 to submit an alternative proposal.