Sunset League Shuffle
By Rachel McMillen, Sports editor
Girls water polo had an easy win this year against league-mate Esperanza but a close loss to Huntington. Had the league been as it will be next year, they may not have made it to CIF playoffs.
For the past five years, FVHS athletes have considered their games against Esperanza, Edison, Newport Harbor, Marina, and Los Alamitos highly anticipated league events. League games usually draw the largest crowds and are prepared with the most intensity.
However, five years ago, the athletes considered Huntington Beach High School a key part of their league and Newport Harbor a faraway member of the South Coast League.
Every so often, the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) determines a need or desire for change, and the leagues go through a “releaguing” process – a shuffling of teams in the various leagues. The leagues consisted of the same teams for the last five years, but this year the releaguing process is happening again.
The CIF governs all California high school sports. It is broken into different sections and a number of different divisions, the higher the division, the harder the competition. These divisions are then divided into leagues, each league consisting of anywhere from five to ten teams.
For many years, FV has been a part of the elite Sunset League. However, the teams accompanying us have changed a number of times. For the most part, the leagues are based on location, which is why Edison, Marina, and Fountain Valley have always been tied together.
In the last releaguing process, Huntington Beach was replaced by Newport Harbor. This was mainly due to Huntington Beach\’s developing football team. This year, after a trial run in a division II league, Huntington decided it would be in the best interests of their other teams to return to the Division I Sunset League.
“I\’m excited to see what Huntington will bring back to the Sunset League, especially for aquatics,” says swimmer Erika Lucas (‘10).
But with Huntington excited about returning, Esperanza has put in a bid to get out. Esperanza will no longer be in the Sunset League as of next year. Instead, they will be moved to the Century League. Many believe this is due to Esperanza\’s frustration with the extended traveling time to their opponents\’ schools in the Sunset League.
Other big league news includes the creation of a ten team South Coast Conference, and a Pacific Coast league which includes all five of the Irvine schools along with Corona del Mar.
It will definitely be interesting to see how the league shuffling affects Fountain Valley\’s sports teams next year, and CIF as a whole.
