Proponents of County Section Will Attempt to Gain Support : High schools: Consultant for O.C. superintendents is expected to request a vote on the issue.

By TOM HAMILTON

Jan. 16, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BUENA PARK — Proponents of an Orange County section for high school athletics will address the Southern Section’s general council today in an effort to gain support from representatives of the section’s 66 leagues.

Maury Ross, former superintendent of the Tustin Unified School District, will represent the superintendents of the county’s public high schools at the meeting and is expected to ask for approval for 57 high schools to form a CIF section in 1993.

“We’d like to get a vote as soon as possible,” said Ross, a consultant for the county’s superintendents.

County high schools are currently members of the Southern Section, which reaches from Mammoth to San Clemente and Calexico to San Luis Obispo with the exception of the City Section.

County superintendents contend that members of the Southern Section are not equally represented in the council meetings, where rules and policies are set and voted upon. They also contend that competing in Southern Section playoffs is too expensive because of transportation costs.

“I think today’s meeting will give us a good indication of where the Orange County Section is going,” Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas said. “They’re going to ask the council for a vote and then move forward to the State Federated Council meeting (Feb. 7-8).”

Thomas said the next step would be to form a committee of five members from outside of the Southern Section, which would study the Orange County proposal and report to the state council at its next meeting May 8-9.

Jim Fleming, superintendent of the Placentia Unified School District, said he has written to CIF Commissioner Tom Byrnes requesting that the county section proposal be placed on the state council meeting agenda for the purposes of presenting a feasibility study to the council members.

“Hopefully, we’ll move forward to the state meeting in May and get a vote (to approve the section),” Fleming said.

Clark Stephens, principal at Liberty Christian High in Huntington Beach, said most of private high schools in the county have decided to remain in the Southern Section if a county section is formed.

Stephens, representing 15 schools with enrollments ranging from 40 to 600 students, plans to address today’s council meeting. The schools met Tuesday at Orange Lutheran and unanimously decided to remain in the Southern Section.

Representatives from Mater Dei, Rosary, Santa Margarita and Servite high schools also attended the meeting, but are undecided upon their future.

“I want to alert the council that this issue is detrimental to the smaller private schools,” Stephens said. “I was personally promised by public school superintendents in August that we would be kept informed, that we would be involved in committees.

“But I have not heard a word from those people since that day. We need to do a lot more homework before we start planning a project of this size. If this was my senior class planning a benefit to sell pizza with this type of planning and organization, I wouldn’t allow it to happen.”

The Southern Section council is also expected to abolish a rule that prohibits high school athletes from competing on club teams during his or her school season. The action has been anticipated since litigation was started by a member of the Santa Barbara girls’ volleyball team.

If the rule is abolished, athletes will be allowed to compete on club teams while competing for his or her high school team. The sports of girls’ volleyball and boys’ and girls’ soccer are expected to be affected.

“The way our rules are at the present, a Mormon basketball player can’t compete for his high school team on Friday night and for his church team on Sunday,” Thomas said. “There isn’t a judge in the country who would side with the rule.”

Among the non-action items, Corona del Mar principal Tom Jacobson will propose a rule that would guarantee entry of 50% of the teams in any league to the postseason playoffs in all sports except basketball. Currently, leagues are guaranteed only three entries into the playoffs.

Corona del Mar is a member of the Sea View League, which will become an eight-team league in 1992-93 with the addition of Irvine and Santa Margarita.

“The proposal might mean creating another division for the football playoffs, but I think it’s only fair that eight-team leagues get four entries when six-team leagues are guaranteed three entries,” said Tustin principal Duffy Clark, the Sea View League representative to the council.