By Ed Piper
Being out of the loop--obviously--I was astounded last week to find that La Jolla High's boys basketball team, after one year outside the Western League, has been moved back into the league, with its accompanying lineup of opponents like Cathedral Catholic and St. Augustine.
I was checking to see if the team's 2017-18 schedule was posted yet, having found on a previous occasion that, no, it hadn't been posted. And, lo and behold, there were the Dons and Saints, in addition to Lincoln, Mission Bay, Patrick Henry, and Kearny, on the incomplete-but-filling-out slate of games for the season beginning in December.
The Eastern League didn't seem so bad last year, taking off the unrealistic--as I saw it--pressure of having to vie with the Dons, who at the time featured a 7-foot center and several other highly-skilled players, way above La Jolla's proud, disciplined, but neighborhood team.
The Saints were another matter. They were led by Taeshon Cherry, a 6'7" star who is a major college commit.
Now, I'm not against tough competition. And I'm not against big challenges. But, as I saw it from my 13 years of covering Viking basketball, my favorite sport, the move to the Eastern League a year ago due to realignment (based on performance rather than school enrollment) allowed for a more even, fairer chance to excel.
An aside, which I talked about with someone as recently as yesterday (Sept. 21), is that the private schools could easily be grouped in their own league to beat up on each other. In other states, this is the case. The thinking is that a private school, unlike a public school, can entice students with free tuition which, otherwise, enrollees would have to pay. This, with the other perks a private school can offer, can be quite an inducement for young potential transfers.
Country Day gains athletes this way, and so does Bishop's. Daniel Anderson, a 300-pound lineman with an impossible 30-inch vertical leap, played for the Knights, and in the package received free tutoring during school time from professional teachers to help him on his studies.
Some states, with more schools in their interscholastic associations, separate the private religious schools from other institutions, and have them compete among themselves on a level playing field.
Back to my original flow of thought: I just think being moved back into the Western League for boys basketball entails unnecessary headaches and bodes for mediocrity overall sprinkled with moral victories against the behemoths. I haven't attended CIF council meetings or talked to section officials. This is where I would have been in the loop on realignment.
My understanding was that regrouping of schools in leagues would take place every two years, but apparently not.
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