It’s Time to Leave Moving Up in the Past

Sit down, shut up and stay put.

That’s my advice to coaches whining over the Southern Section Council’s recent vote to prohibit teams from moving up in enrollment-based divisions beginning with the 2001 winter playoffs.

Division placement for the playoffs is enrollment-based for baseball, basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Schools with similar sophomore-to-senior enrollments compete in the same playoff division.

In the past, a school could declare its intention before the season to move up to a higher division.

But the Southern Section Council approved a proposal presented by Jerry Halpin, vice principal at Los Alamitos High, on behalf of the Sunset League, which prohibits such movement.

The intent of the rule is to increase competitive equity within divisions and prevent teams from shopping for a division in which they could win a title. Also, since teams couldn’t move down in divisions, the old format was one-sided, providing an option for only elite programs, not average ones.

Of 76 league representatives voting on March 23, 44 were in favor of the proposal to prohibit movement to higher divisions.

The tide was so overwhelming, there wasn’t a need for a roll-call vote. A hand vote sufficed.

I suspect this ruling will affect, at most, only a handful of teams in the Valley/Ventura County region, since few have ever opted to move up.

That’s not to say some elite programs at schools with smaller enrollments couldn’t compete for a Division I title. It’s simply to point out that few have. And even fewer have chosen to move up on a consistent basis.

Moreover, some teams that should have moved up, like the 1996-97 Harvard-Westlake boys’ basketball team, did not take advantage of the old rule. The Wolverines that season featured senior twin towers Jason and Jarron Collins, but they chose to remain in Division III and waltzed to the title.

So who does this rule really affect in the region?

Too few to matter.

The ruling set off a firestorm of resentment among several volleyball coaches. Laguna Beach, Mira Costa, Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar and Santa Margarita rank among the best volleyball programs in the state, but they will no longer be allowed to compete for a Division I title after this season.

In the Valley, perhaps the most vocal critic of the ruling is Scott Muckey, the baseball coach at Crespi since 1987.

Muckey has insisted the Celts compete in Division I since he took over the program. In 2001, Crespi will play in Division IV based on enrollment.

Like many coaches of elite programs, Muckey believes the only championship worth playing for is Division I.

But let’s face facts. Crespi has never played in a major division baseball final, let alone win a title. The Celts might dominate in Division IV. Time will tell.

Make no mistake, I’m not picking on Crespi.

In 1998, Crespi was among six schools, all Catholic, that moved up to the Division I baseball playoffs. None made it out of the second round and St. John Bosco didn’t even qualify for the playoffs.

Clearly, talking the talk and walking the walk are distinctly different.

I may be wrong, but I would wager that this ruling has angered far more adults--coaches, administrators, sportswriters--than student-athletes, who simply love to compete for the sake of competing.

So let them play and let’s get on with it.