Shawn Patchell returns to Laguna Girls Volleyball.
Former head coach Shawn Patchell is returning to lead Laguna for the 2017 season. Patchell served as the assistant varsity coach in 1997 and head coach for four seasons, going 80-45 reaching the CIF finals twice in 1999 and 2001.
Patchell was an English teacher at the high school leaving in 2002 to coach at BYU and he is currently the men’s volleyball coach at Concordia.
13 High Schools to leave Southern Section
After over 100 years of membership for some of the schools, 13 Central Coast schools are leaving the Southern Section after next season to join the 106 schools of the Central Section CIF based in the San Joaquin Valley. The departing schools are Nipomo, Templeton, Atascadero, Morro Bay, Mission Prep, Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, St Joseph, Pioneer Valley, Righetti, Santa Maria, Orcutt, and Paso Robles. Four schools that were members of the leagues that included the 13 decided to remain in the Southern Section (Lompoc, Cabrillo/Lompoc, Valley Christian/Santa Maria, Santa Ynez).
Laguna has had a long playoff history with the Northern schools dating back 70 years to the 1947 Football small school championships when they lost at San Luis Obispo. Recent playoff history includes boys basketball’s exciting win last season at Atascadero and girls volleyball’s five set victory over Arroyo Grande in 2015. The departure of the 13 is the fifth major defection from the Southern Section since their founding in 1914. The Central Section was formed in 1916, LA Unified schools left in 1935, San Diego County in 1960 and Imperial County bolted in 2000 to join San Diego.
Spring Sports CIF Playoff Divisions Announced
The Southern Section CIF announced the playoff division assignments for Laguna’s spring sports on Jan. 27. The team sports will be placed in divisions by individual school rather than by strength of league or school enrollment as previously used. The schools were evaluated by strength of schedule over the past two seasons and playoff success during that period. Details on this system can be found on the section web site.
