Rational Leagues an Elusive Goal

Think of the television show “Survivor,” and then you’ll understand how league realignment works in the Southern Section.

It’s all about building secret alliances, then making sure no one stabs you in the back.

Every four years, schools get together in nine different areas and decide what changes to make in the various sports leagues.

“I haven’t seen it yet where everyone is happy,” Los Angeles Loyola Athletic Director Chris O’Donnell said.

And that’s the problem: Everyone is out to help himself.

“Everybody’s job is to represent the interests of their community,” said Dan Burch, principal at Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro and chairman of the Orange County committee.

League realignment is mostly an unpleasant process. Compromises are sought, but along the way, emotions usually boil over, with friends turning into adversaries.

“I never equate it with being fun,” Southern Section Commissioner Jim Staunton said of realignment. “It’s 40 miles of bad roads, and you have to get through it.”

Schools in Orange County have until Friday to submit proposals. Votes will be taken March 2 and 11 before a final recommendation is sent to the Southern Section Executive Committee for approval on May 25. The new leagues take effect in 2006.

Football hovers over everything.

Mission Viejo has replaced Santa Ana Mater Dei as the school no one wants to have in their league because of its dominating program.

“Mission Viejo has had a tremendous amount of success,” Anaheim Esperanza Athletic Director Gary Meek said. “[Coach Bob Johnson] has done it by the rules and is able to get kids in who live outside his district, and it’s legal.

“Some of us have to play by a different set of rules.”

Similar gripes can be heard in Ventura County, where Ventura St. Bonaventure and Westlake Village Oaks Christian are private schools with football powerhouses and the recipient of mostly “You’re not welcome” signs.

St. Bonaventure is in the Channel League for football alone and will likely stay there despite other schools’ not liking it.

“I don’t think they have any real choice right now,” football Coach Jon Mack said. “You have to be placed in a league within your geographic boundaries.”

Oaks Christian is expected to be part of a 13-school small schools association that will determine placement based on league records.

Loyola is another football school on the “Do No Want” list because it competes in Division I, and the rest of its Mission League members are Division III or lower.

Put Mission Viejo, St. Bonaventure, Oaks Christian and Loyola in a football league together, and most of the behind-the-scenes bickering would end.

“Call it the national championship league,” Mack said.

Esperanza is trying to leave the Sunset League for the Century League, citing transportation costs and student hardship in travel time. Esperanza’s average travel distance is 49 miles, according to Meek.

“When you look at what’s best for kids and academics, we have suffered worse than any other program in Orange County,” he said. “Our kids have endured above and beyond the call of duty in traveling.”

But the Sunset League, which also includes Huntington Beach Edison, Los Alamitos, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach Marina, would have to find a replacement for Esperanza.

Next month, the Catholic Athletic Assn. will decide what to do with its members, and it’s always entertaining to see priests debating monsignors and nuns taking on principals.

Their big dilemma is dealing with Loyola and La Puente Bishop Amat, Division I football schools without a league now that Mater Dei, Santa Margarita, Anaheim Servite and Bellflower St. John Bosco have switched to an Orange County placement.

Loyola will not make any proposal at the start because it doesn’t want to alienate its fellow Mission League members who plan to go kicking and screaming to avoid playing Division I football.

“We’re searching for every way possible not to affect schools that don’t want to play Division I,” O’Donnell said. “It may be impossible.”

The school with the biggest target on its back is Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, which has won three consecutive Division III football titles but doesn’t want to play in Division I.

If the Knights find a way to stay out of Division I in 2006, they would deserve the grand prize in this mini-”Survivor” game.

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There are strong indications that John Barnes of Los Alamitos, the winningest football coach in Orange County history, is headed to Servite.

That’s the message being sent out by Los Alamitos alumni. Servite has scheduled a news conference today to introduce its new coach. Getting Barnes would be the steal of the year.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.