The goal was “competitive equity” and Sonora football coach Kevin Oberlander figures that goal likely was achieved when new Orange County football leagues were formed for the 2024 season.
“I think we’ll see a bunch of teams finishing 3-2 and 2-3 in the six-team leagues,” he said. “There won’t be many 5-0 teams any more.”
Orange County athletic directors and principals radically reworked, and renamed, county football leagues for the ‘24 and 2025 seasons. The new system uses Calpreps.com ratings of the previous two seasons to group teams into leagues.
The result: 13 leagues, of which almost all of them look extremely balanced.
Sonora football players run onto the field prior to the game between Sonora vs. Troy in a Freeway League football game at La Habra High on Friday, October 20, 2023. (Photo by Michael Kitada, Contributing Photographer)
The Freeway League had the same membership since 1981. Now those six teams – Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, Sonora, Sunny Hills and Sonora – are spread over four different leagues.
The Trinity League was not part of the Orange County releaguing process, so it remains the same. Current O.C. Trinity League teams have been in leagues with public schools, but that’s never going to happen again.
Almost every county public school coach hates being in playoff divisions with even the smaller private schools in every sport, so there is no way Trinity League schools would ever be allowed to mix in with public schools in a league and Trinity League people are fine with that.
Private schools Calvary Chapel and Crean Lutheran are in leagues with county public schools, but they are not like the football behemoths of the Trinity League.
The new leagues, which are for football only, have new names, too.
“We felt that it would be best to use the Greek alphabet as a starting point,” said El Dorado athletic director Ray Elliott. “We then chose to change a few of the names to military terms.”
Some of the league names have multiple associations that are not the greatest. Omicron is connected to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down high school sports a few years ago. And Foxtrot in military usage … well, you can look that one up on your own.
The new leagues start with the Alpha League, a four-team group. Alpha teams have the four highest Calpreps ratings of the 69 teams in the 12 new leagues.
Coaches are not fans of being in four-team leagues because they have to play seven nonleague games. Finding a team to play in a nonleague game in October when most teams are in the league portion of their schedule is difficult.
“We’ve got to go all the way down to San Diego to play because we couldn’t find anyone else to play us,” said Los Alamitos coach Ray Fenton, referring to the Griffins’ game on Oct. 5, a Saturday.
Maybe the Orange County school leaders should have made the No. 1 league a six-team league to make it easier for the top teams to schedule nonleague games, and make the lowest league a four-team league. While many football coaches will avoid playing a power like Mission Viejo in nonleague play, they probably have no problem scheduling a nonleague game against a team that hasn’t had a .500 record in several years.
The new leagues have created some very long bus rides for some teams.
La Habra’s Kenneth Saucedo makes a huge gain early in the game between Sonora vs. La Habra in a Freeway League football game on Friday, October 27, 2023. (Photo by Michael Kitada, Contributing Photographer)
La Habra plays at Huntington Beach in an Epsilon League game. Neither school is close to a freeway.
Yorba Linda plays at Tesoro in a Bravo League game. That’s also a long drive.
The Yorba Linda moms and dads making that trip already know they’re going to have to get on the road hours before kickoff. Wait until they discover the horrors of getting onto the Tesoro campus. Parking lot accessways there were designed by lunatics.
Here is a look at the new leagues:
Alpha: Edison, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, San Clemente.
Los Alamitos and Edison have played each other for years in the Sunset League, and Mission Viejo and San Clemente have been at each other’s throats in the South Coast League for a long time. Mission Viejo looks like the best team here. Only the top two teams in a four-team league like this one are guaranteed playoff berths, so it would be rough if the Alpha’s Nos. 3 and 4 teams are shut out of playoff participation.
Los Alamitos tight end Davon Mitchell, center, races toward the end zone on a pass reception to set up another Los Alamitos touchdown against Western in a non-league football game in Anaheim on Friday, August 18, 2023. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Bravo: Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor, San Juan Hills, Tesoro, Villa Park, Yorba Linda.
This is a great-looking league, a group of teams that have been consistently good for many years. For the 2024 season, Yorba Linda could be the strongest of the lot.
Delta: Capistrano Valley, Cypress, El Modena, Trabuco Hills, Tustin, Western.
The Delta League is the most-balanced league of the bunch. Tustin might have its best team in years. A Tustin-Western game could have a combined score of close to 100 points.
Epsilon: Crean Lutheran, El Dorado, Foothill, Huntington Beach, Laguna Hills, La Habra.
If Crean Lutheran wins this league’s championship there will be carping about why a private school with growing athletic ambitions still is in a league with public schools. Huntington Beach could be the chief challenger to Crean.
Foxtrot: Laguna Beach, Northwood, Orange, Fountain Valley, Aliso Niguel, Dana Hills.
Decent geographic proximity exists in this league. Laguna Beach has the league’s best quarterback, Minnesota-committed senior Jackson Kollock (6-3, 225) who threw for 41 touchdowns with only five interceptions last season. Aliso Niguel has plenty of returnees. Northwood again will be a confident and spirited group.
Iota: Canyon, El Toro, Irvine, Santa Ana, Sonora, Troy.
Sonora has eight starters returning on defense and a fine set of offensive linemen from last year’s team that was 9-3 and shared the Freeway League championship with La Habra. The Raiders’ longtime Freeway League rival Troy might be their top challenger, although El Toro and Irvine might have something good going, too.
Kappa: Brea Olinda, Esperanza, Garden Grove, Segerstrom, St. Margaret’s, Westminster.
This is one of those leagues that could have three teams finish 3-2 and tie for the league title. St. Margaret’s could be the team to beat. Segerstrom has collected some transfers from Santa Ana, Esperanza looks to be improving and Brea, Garden Grove and Westminster have new coaches.
Lambda: Beckman, Fullerton, Kennedy, Marina, Sunny Hills, Valencia.
Again, another league with no obvious favorite. Fullerton and Sunny Hills move in from the dismantled Freeway League, Kennedy and Valencia from the disassembled Empire League.
Omicron: Buena Park, Katella, Pacifica, Portola, University, Woodbridge.
Some rivalries of leagues past live on. That happens in this group, with Portola, University and Woodbridge moving in from the Pacific Coast League. Buena Park needed to get in a better-fitting league, so this is a good slot for the Coyotes.
Sigma: Calvary Chapel, Estancia, Los Amigos, Ocean View, Rancho Alamitos, Santa Ana Valley.
Los Amigos and Rancho Alamitos were Garden Grove League co-champions last season and could finish similarly this season. Ocean View will contend, too.
Tango: Anaheim, Bolsa Grande, Costa Mesa, La Quinta, Loara, Santiago.
There is a lot of Garden Grove League flavor here. Bolsa Grande, La Quinta and Santiago were Garden Grove League mates for decades and Loara recently joined the group.
Zeta: Saddleback, Godinez, Savanna, Magnolia, Century.
Five football programs that needed a competitive break got one when this league was created. These teams’ combined record over the past two seasons is 14-86. None of them made the playoffs over the two seasons. The top three teams in a five-team league like the Zeta will go to the playoffs.
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