Why move to the San Jose based Blossom Valley Athletic League?
For Live Oak, the reasons have been multi-fold. School attendance,
transportation costs and convenience are the main ones.
Why move to the San Jose based Blossom Valley Athletic League? For Live Oak, the reasons have been multi-fold. School attendance, transportation costs and convenience are the main ones.
With the opening of Sobrato High, which will also compete in the BVAL next year, Live Oak’s attendance is expected to go down. If it stayed in the TCAL, Live Oak would have to compete against schools that would have twice the attendance in coming years.
“Our enrollment is going to be down pretty rapidly, and the (BVAL’s) power-league structure will allow us to compete against schools our size,” Live Oak athletic director Mark Cummins told the Morgan Hill Times in January.
Additionally, Solarsano Middle School principal Sal Tomasello, who served as the Gilroy High athletic director from 1984 to 2000, said much of the Morgan Hill community already has strong ties to San Jose.
“A lot of the community works in San Jose,” Tomasello said. “There’s always been that connection.”
Travel costs were also a concern. Having to travel to a farther distance to Salinas rather than San Jose to compete in TCAL contests was becoming a growing burden.
