The process to update high school sports leagues for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years will soon begin anew in Orange County.
League structures for those years were approved by Orange County principals in May. But Laguna Beach and St. Margaret’s did not like their league placement – Laguna Beach in the north county Century Conference, St. Margaret’s in the Trinity Conference – and appealed to the CIF Southern Section Executive Committee, the Southern Section’s 19-member administrative body.
The CIF-SS Executive Committee supported the appeals by Laguna Beach and St. Margaret’s, so the Orange County releaguing process has to start over.
Orange County school principals, accompanied by staff, will meet Sept. 8 or later that week to examine and vote on proposals that will be submitted by schools, leagues and the Orange County Athletic Directors Association.
They must resolve the issue quickly. The CIF-SS Council, the section’s legislative body, meets Sept. 25 to vote on releaguing proposals.
Orange County releaguing chairman Paul Lopez, principal at Fountain Valley High School, said a final proposal must be constructed two weeks before the Sept. 25 CIF-SS Council meeting.
The Sept. 25 CIF-SS Council meeting is the last opportunity for Orange County schools to appeal their league placement.
The winning proposal that came out of the May releaguing meetings created new groupings and eliminated others. Among the changes was the expansion of the Trinity League to a Trinity Conference that would have Rosary return to the Trinity group after a couple of years in the Irvine-heavy Pacific Coast Conference and the additions of private schools Crean Lutheran, Pacifica Christian, Sage Hill and St. Margaret’s to the Trinity group.
Crean Lutheran appealed its placement in the Trinity Conference; its appeal was denied by the CIF-SS Executive Committee.
Current Trinity League schools were not in favor of the additions, because some of the schools that would be joining the conference do not field lower-level teams in some sports and do not compete at the varsity level in others.
Laguna Beach protested its placement in the Century Conference because of travel concerns.
The location and the precise date of the Orange County releaguing meeting had not been decided as of Friday morning. The releaguing meeting in May was held at Mariners Church in Huntington Beach.
There are two likely league or conference destinations for Laguna Beach. It could be placed in the South County-oriented Coast View Conference that in the May releaguing meeting was expanded from 10 schools to 15 schools with the additions of Irvine, Northwood, Portola, University and Woodbridge from the dismantled Pacific Coast Conference. Or the Pacific Coast Conference could be reassembled with Laguna Beach in that mix.
St. Margaret’s, in San Juan Capistrano, would seem to have the Coast View Conference in its future or maybe a reassembled Pacific Coast Conference.
Given the strong feelings that Orange County public school leadership has about keeping the county’s private schools out of public-school leagues, St. Margaret’s and other O.C. private schools might have a difficult time finding a league home in which O.C. public schools are the primary residents.
Also, Orange County schools sometimes can’t get much sympathy or interest from CIF-SS Council members of non-Orange County schools when it comes to presenting to the Council the issues that arise in Orange County high school sports.
