When you mess up something badly, it’s time to start over.
The process of updating Orange County high school sports leagues for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years is starting over.
When the releauging meeting to create the leagues ended in May, Laguna Beach was placed in a multi-league conference with schools in north Orange County, with schools in Brea, Fullerton, La Habra and Yorba Linda. And the Trinity League was expanded into a conference that added five small private schools: Crean Lutheran, Pacifica Christian, Sage Hill and St. Margaret’s and Rosary.
These league adjustments are for non-football sports.
Unhappy with its placement, Laguna Beach filed an appeal to the CIF Southern Section Executive committee. This month the committee supported the appeal and voted 18-0 to have Orange County come up with a new releaguing proposal. St. Margaret’s appealed its placement in the Trinity group and also won.
The easy fix is to place Laguna Beach with other south county teams in the Coast View Conference. Putting Laguna Beach with north county teams in Century Conference was callous. It was not a “kids first” move.
It won’t be easy, but the Pacific Coast Conference, an Irvine-heavy group that was dismantled in the May releaguing efforts, should be brought back and Laguna Beach placed there.
And what happens to the small private schools that the Trinity League does not want, with the possible exception of Rosary, which now is in the Pacific Coast? The county’s small private schools do not have all of the sports or lower-level teams that fill Trinity League schedules.
Leagues are meeting this week and next to figure out what to do. The deadline to submit proposals of league configurations is Aug. 28. O.C. principals vote on proposals the week of Sept. 8. Their final proposal then must gain the approval of the CIF-SS Council that is made up of representatives of the 92 leagues in the massive (555 schools) Southern Section.
The CIF-SS Council meeting is Sept. 25. Plenty of time to fix the mess.
NOTES
• This is known as “Week 0” in CIF-SS football. There are 35 games game this week in Orange County, with several teams playing out of the county. The “Week 0” name was invented many years ago when teams were allowed to open the season a week early, especially teams travelling out of state to places like Hawaii that begin their football seasons a week earlier than California at the time. With so many games now being played this week, it’s really Week 1 of the 11-week football regular season so we should officially call it that. …
• With the heat coming on strong in the second half of this week, CIF coaches and athletic administrators statewide are required to regulate practice and game activities using the WetBulb Globe Temperature tool to measure the heat stress in direct sunlight, which takes into account temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover. WetBulb readings of extreme conditions in Orange County forced some games and practices to be moved to later in the afternoon or into the early evenings. …
• Mater Dei’s football game in Florida on Saturday against St. Thomas Aquinas of Fort Lauderdale, is part of the Broward County Classic. The Broward County Classic pays for lodging, ground transportation and some meals. Airfare costs are covered by Mater Dei fundraising and additional donations. …
St. Thomas Aquinas plays NFL Academy, the NFL’s international development team, in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Oct. 8. …
Tickets for Yorba Linda’s football game against Mayfair at SoFi Stadium on Thursday cost $41.95 (including fees) and spectators had to sign a waiver to be admitted. …
• Cypress will play its first varsity football home game on its on-campus field on Aug. 29 against Brea Olinda. Seating is limited to 1,200 spectators. The facility has been used in recent years for varsity soccer and flag football. Cypress will play its other home games this season at Handel Stadium on the Western High campus. …
• Brenda Villa, an Olympic gold medalist who guided Orange Lutheran girls water polo to a pair of CIF-SS Open Division championships and two SoCal regional titles, has accepted a coaching position at Stanford. …
• Nick Giarrusso, a 6-5 senior point guard, has transferred to Crean Lutheran from Oaks Christian. Giarrusso averaged 13 points, five rebounds and five assists last boys basketball season when he was All-Marmonte League first team. …
• A Celebration of Life for longtime Esperanza football coach Gary Meek will be at Friends Church in Yorba Linda on Aug. 29 at 10 a.m. Meek, 76, died July 10 while in hospice care at a skilled nursing facility in Yorba Linda. He coached Esperanza (with style and class) to two CIF championships, six league titles and 15 playoff appearances. He had a record of 144-50-5 in his 17 seasons in charge of Aztecs football. …
• A Celebration of Life for longtime Orange County high school baseball and football coach Mike Dodd will be held Sept. 19 at 10 a.m. at First Christian Church of Huntington Beach. Dodd, 72, died on June 17. Dodd was Huntington Beach’s baseball coach from 1982-2000 and was Marina’s football coach from 2001-06. …
•The CIF State organization reports an all-time high in sports participation during the 2024-25 school year, with 821,586 student-athletes having competed.