Appeal will now go to CCS Board of Managers on April 29
HOLLISTER
The realignment that would move Gilroy High School from the Tri-County Athletic League to the Monterey Bay League beginning in the 2010-11 season, and also place Christopher High into the MBL, was appealed Monday by Palma High School in Salinas.
Monday was the final day schools could file any appeal regarding league alignments, CCS Commissioner Nancy Lazenby Blaser said. The appeal will now go in front of the CCS Board of Managers on April 29, at which point school officials will state their reasoning for an appeal, then present an alternative option.
Palma Principal David Sullivan said the primary reason for the appeal was to further discuss the situation with all the schools involved.
“We really want to work with the other leagues and I’m not sure we had enough of an opportunity to discuss all the implications,” Sullivan said.
“Essentially, I’d like to have another town hall meeting with the Southern Conference schools to discuss the grave concerns that we all seem to have … particularly to the three criteria.”
The three criteria Sullivan mentioned were the scope of each school’s program, referring to the amount of sports offered; the strength of the program; as well as the geographic proximity among the schools involved.
The realignment, voted on March 9 among the 36 Southern Conference schools, passed 20-16 in favor of moving Christopher High, scheduled to open its doors in September, and the TCAL’s Gilroy High into the MBL.
The move would increase the MBL from six to eight teams, while at the same time reduce the TCAL from seven to six teams, the minimum amount of teams necessary in order for a league to receive any automatic qualifiers toward the playoffs.
A loss of just one team at any point for any reason, for instance, would force the remaining five teams to compete for the postseason through at-large bids only.
Wanting to provide each athlete with a fair shot and healthy competition, as well as enough options to well-round themselves, Sullivan said he’s hoping to further discuss the particulars, which would include transportation costs among other areas of concern.
“All I’m offering is, can we talk about it a little more?” Sullivan said. “Do we know the implications of the realignment?”
The 16 votes in opposition were in favor of an equity league format, which would have combined the TCAL and MBL into a two-division “super” league, similar to that of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, which has 24 teams in three divisions. Gilroy, Christopher, San Benito and Palma high schools, among others, voted in favor of the equity league.
The equity league format places teams into specific divisions based on the skill and strength of the team itself. The divisions are then reevaluated every two years, at which point teams could be reshuffled based on the strengths of individual programs.
“We’re happy to join the MBL, but we’re hoping the equity league had caught on,” CHS Athletic Director Darren Yafai said following the March 9 vote.
“Our goal should be to allow all of our athletes and all of our sports teams to be competitive,” he added.
“I think it maximizes the competitiveness for your team and it gives all your teams the best chance to compete.”
Ken Kline, athletic director at King City High School, is a proponent of equity leagues as well, but voted in favor of moving Gilroy and Christopher to the MBL after listening to what both parties had to say.
Initially, Kline said he was in favor of the third proposal during the March 9 vote, which would have moved only Christopher High to the MBL, while keeping Gilroy High in the TCAL, but officials of those two schools said they preferred to compete within the same league.
“I thought it’d be better for GHS to stay in the TCAL and CHS in the MBL,” Kline said by phone recently. “But I spent time on it, listened to both sides and I was making the decision based on that.
“I voted for the proposal to move Gilroy and CHS to the MBL.”
Kline noted a school’s preference to identify with one league, rising transportation costs as well as the problem many schools have already with the use of just one gymnasium as three factors in his decision.
Having only one gym is a problem during the winter season already, Kline said, with basketball and wrestling jockeying for court time, and having an equity league with more schools competing each week would only compound the problem.
“It’s a bad situation made worse,” Kline said.
