Proposal to Realign Leagues by Geography Is Defeated

County principals rejected a proposal Tuesday to realign the county’s 10 leagues by placing the 59 public schools into three geographical areas.

Approval by 38 of 57 school representatives was needed for passage at Tuesday’s meeting at Fountain Valley High. But only 31 schools voted in favor. Costa Mesa and Orange did not attend.

The placement of Esperanza, which successfully appealed the county’s last proposal to remain in the Sunset League because of travel costs, was the main point of contention.

Esperanza has the largest population of any school in the north county, and the most prominent athletic program. Other north county principals did not believe there would be competitive equity with their schools and Esperanza, especially in football.

Of the 18 schools that would have been placed in the North zone, only El Dorado, Esperanza and Valencia voted in favor of the plan.

“The old process was not perfect,” Santa Ana Valley Principal Bob Nelson said. “But I don’t think [releaguing geographically] solves the Esperanza problem.”

Added Villa Park Principal Fran Roney, “I can agree with this philosophically. But . . . this seems only based on geography, and I think there’s a touch of hypocrisy after the Catholic schools were voted out on competitive equity.”

Tuesday was the seventh time since January 1997 that the principals have met to realign the county’s 10 athletic leagues.

Again they’ll start over. The principals are scheduled to meet Oct. 8 to consider alternatives.

Even if Tuesday’s vote had gone the other way, the new proposal would not have affected the 1998-99 school year. The principals are trying to agree on the next three years when Mater Dei, Santa Margarita, Servite and Rosary join the Catholic Athletic Assn.