Orange County school principals voted to accept a proposal from the Golden West League regarding Orange County league affiliations for the 2017-18 and 2019-20 seasons on Monday, May 8.
An appeal of the vote can be made up until June 1, said Laguna Beach High School Athletic Director Lance Neal, who predicts that when the dusts settles, Laguna will end up in a league with Irvine schools and Laguna Hills.
The current proposal has Laguna competing in all sports but football in the Sunset League, where it is the smallest of eight schools. The largest, Fountain Valley, has three times the enrollment of 1,110-student LBHS.
The league would be divided into two divisions based on the current SS CIF rating system that relies on results from the past two years and strength of competition.
Laguna’s sports division would be with three other schools from the eight-member conference. Only the top two teams in each division would be guaranteed to qualify for the payoffs.
Football would be in a similar conference set up with seven other schools.
Laguna would compete in these leagues for a total of 21 sports. Sand volleyball and surfing are club sports and not part of CIF.
Chances of Breaker teams winning league titles or qualifying for the playoffs would be substantially smaller than in any of the league affiliations of the past 84 seasons. Laguna’s two-year affiliation with the Sea View League in the mid-80’s would be the closest match to what is currently proposed.
Sunset League (All sports but Football)
With enrollment and school district
Fountain Valley 3,563 Huntington Beach HSD
Los Alamitos 3,334 Los Alamitos USD
Huntington Beach 2,957 Huntington Beach HSD
Edison 2,532 Huntington Beach HSD
Marina 2,410 Huntington Beach HSD
Newport Harbor 2,363 Newport-Mesa USD
Corona del Mar 1,755 Newport-Mesa USD
Laguna Beach 1,110 Laguna Beach USD
Golden West League
With enrollment and school district
Godinez 2,623 Santa Ana USD
Westminster 2,618 Huntington Beach HSD
Garden Grove 2,455 Garden Grove USD
Marina 2,410 Huntington Beach HSD
Segerstrom 2,402 Santa Ana USD
Western 2,000 Anaheim Union HSD
Ocean View 1,498 Huntington Beach HSD
Laguna Beach 1,110 Laguna Beach USD
[…] following year, LBHS will be moving to the more competitive Sunset League, where schools do compete in lacrosse. Sunset League schools […]