Valley / Ventura County Sports : CITY SECTION FOOTBALL PREVIEW : Releaguing Presents A Fresh Challenge To Sylmar’s Streak : In new Valley Mission League, Spartans will attempt to add to their 67-game winning streak.

Sylmar High must negotiate a couple of speed bumps as it fliesdown Record Road.

That’s the major effect the recent round of releaguing had on City Section football teams, at least in the Valley.

Six eight-team conferences are now eight six-team leagues. All 17 Valley teams are grouped in three leagues. The change applies to all sports and is in effect for four years.

To Coach Jeff Engilman of Sylmar, the change spells doom. His team’s 67-game winning streak in league play could be in jeopardy.

He likes the new Valley Mission League. He just likes to downplay his team, too.

“I wanted this a while back,” he said. “I just wish I had a team that could compete in it.”

Sylmar’s new league includes geographical rivals San Fernando and Kennedy, as well as fellow former Valley Pac-8 Conference members Monroe, Van Nuys and Reseda.

Kennedy and San Fernando offer more than the prospect of increased game attendance. They traditionally field strong teams--conceivably strong enough to knock off Sylmar, which last lost a league game in 1989.

The structure will at least slow the Spartans, preventing them from catching state record-holder Salinas Palma, which has a current league winning streak of 68 games. While in the eight-team Valley Pac-8, Sylmar gained two victories a year on Palma until the Central Coast Section school moved into the 10-team Monterey Bay League last season and went unbeaten.

Now, Sylmar can win only five league games. Palma can put more distance between them, but the chances of getting beat have increased as well.

“I’m not really keeping track of that stuff,” Engilman said. “We’ve never played Kennedy and we’re looking forward to it. We played San Fernando in the ’91 playoffs and it was standing-room only at Birmingham High. It was great.”

Most coaches are comfortable with the new alignment. And the protests of those who aren’t get about as much attention as the howls of coyotes in the hills.

“The way this releaguing is done comes down to the squeaky wheel getting the oil,” said Joel Schaeffer, the coach for 21 seasons at Reseda.

The leagues were made smaller primarily to eliminate the need to play three games a week in basketball, baseball and softball. It took more than two years to settle on the configuration.

The main criteria in grouping teams were quality of program, enrollment and proximity.

“Can you ever make 62 schools happy?” said Barbara Fiege, City athletics commissioner. “Of course not. The releaguing committee felt this was the best plan for the most number of schools. We went through a painful process and it’s a done deal for the next four years.”

Schaeffer’s griping won’t change anything.

“I can’t think of a whole lot of pluses,” he said. “We’re playing 10 games and five are practice games. I have a problem with that.”

Several City coaches refer to the nonleague games that fill the first five weeks of the schedule as “practice games.” It’s time they took the lead of their Southern Section counterparts and began thinking of the games as interesting matchups against a variety of opponents from far-flung locales.

In other words, think of them as an educational opportunity.

One trend is toward more interdivisional play. Sylmar has played Southern Section powers Notre Dame, Antelope Valley and Hart in recent years, and rivalries between North Hollywood and Harvard-Westlake, El Camino Real and Westlake, Granada Hills and Royal, and Verdugo Hills and Calabasas are developing.

Also, Cleveland will play Calabasas, Chatsworth will face Alemany and Valencia, and Kennedy will meet Palmdale.

Once league play begins, the strongest City teams are divided evenly among the Valley Mission and the West Valley, which includes defending City champion Taft, City semifinalist Granada Hills, City Division champion Chatsworth, Cleveland, El Camino Real and Birmingham.

Should losses pile up, Schaeffer might look longingly at the Sunset Six League, which includes no team that won more than three games last season.

The champion of each league is assured a berth in the 16-team City Championship playoffs, although seeding is not guaranteed. The next 16 play for the City Division title.

Releaguing didn’t change that.

“It doesn’t change much, really,” Coach Sean Blunt of San Fernando said. “We still have three or four tough league games.”

Releaguing had a similarly minor effect south of the Valley. Dorsey and Crenshaw left the powerful Southern Pacific Conference for the new Coliseum League. Southern Pacific teams, which included Banning, San Pedro and Carson, won 19 of the past 24 City championships. Banning, San Pedro and Carson are now in the Marine League.

One overjoyed coach is Don Scott of Verdugo Hills, the only Valley team that competed in the former Northern Conference. The Sunset Six offers a bright future.

“We are part of the Valley,” Scott said. “We might get more kids to play football. We’ve got a roster of 43 right now, and that’s the most in my five years here.”

Sylmar is counting, too. Counting victories. The Spartans last league loss came against Reseda, 20-6, on Oct. 20, 1989. Regent tailback Joey Tushnet ran for 200 yards in the game.

That’s a topic that can bring a smile even to Schaeffer.