Playoff Change Baffles County’s Best Programs

Coaches of some of the county’s best athletic programs were dumbfounded by the Southern Section Council’s vote on Thursday that will prohibit teams from moving up in divisions for the playoffs.

“This is a joke,” Newport Harbor volleyball Coach Dan Glenn said. “I’m on the boys’ volleyball committee and I didn’t even know about this.”

Bill Clark, section assistant commissioner, said he, too, was dumbfounded--that coaches were unaware the issue was coming up for vote.

“I don’t know what the process is in each league for discussing these issues,” Clark said, “but this was not handled differently.”

He said the proposal went through the normal process, twice appearing as a discussion item on the council’s agenda before the vote took place.

The proposal, which is vaguely worded, states that it will take effect with the “2001 season.”

Division placement for the playoffs is enrollment-based for baseball, basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Schools with similar enrollment numbers are grouped together. However, any team can move up to a larger division if it declares its intention to do so before the start of its season. None can move down.

The new proposal would not allow any movement.

Villa Park boys’ basketball Coach Kevin Reynolds said he wasn’t aware the section was voting on changing the playoff structure but said the ramifications are huge for teams that move up in their division only when it is to their benefit.

“I could have told you back in August, when I saw how the divisions were spread out, that Long Beach Poly, Mater Dei, [Compton] Dominguez and [Lakewood] Artesia would win their divisions,” Reynolds said. “The fact of the matter is, those four schools will try to avoid each other as much as they can.”

Forty-four of a possible 76 votes were cast in favor of the proposal, which was presented by Los Alamitos Vice Principal Jerry Halpin on behalf of the Sunset League.

Though he doesn’t agree with the proposal, Newport Harbor Athletic Director Eric Tweit said he understands the rationale behind it. “A school shouldn’t be able to arbitrarily decide which division it will play in,” he said.

Glenn, who has led the Newport Harbor girls’ volleyball team to back-to-back Division I state titles and three consecutive Division I-AA section titles, said if the measure isn’t repealed, modified or brought up for vote again, the Sailors will likely be restricted to playing for Division II titles.

Corona del Mar’s highly successful boys’ and girls’ tennis programs, which have traditionally competed at the Division I level, would remain in Division III.

Curt Bauer, who has coached the Santa Margarita boys’ soccer team to four consecutive Division III titles, said he wanted to move the Eagles to a larger division next season, but now will be prohibited from doing so.

The Mater Dei boys’ basketball team, which has won nine section titles in a variety of large-school divisions, may end up in Division II, where it could face Artesia and Dominguez.

But fair is fair, according to the proposal’s proponents.

Last season, Halpin said, nine baseball teams moved up to Division I, taking some of the wild-card berths that would have gone to Division I teams--teams that had nowhere else to go.