By Lauren Hyland
After eight years of battling on the football field in the Sunset League against tough teams such as Huntington Beach High School and Los Alamitos High School, Fountain Valley High School’s (FVHS) football team will be switching to a lower-level league next season.
“The main reason behind it is safety,” FVHS Athletic Director Roger Holmes said when discussing the reasoning behind the change. “The physical part of [games] are so different [between each team].”
Holmes further stated that there are many schools in FVHS’s current league, Sunset League, with super-strong and large players, a status FVHS once held and has been striving to regain over the years. A similar situation of switching leagues can be seen at Marina High School when they were getting, as Holmes describes, “beaten up” and decided among the coaches and supervision to move down a division.
Currently, the decision of which teams make the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) playoffs for a given year is based on a “Competitive Equity Model”, which determines the ranking of each team based on wins, losses, margin of victory and other factors. Next year, this system will create the leagues with the top eight teams making up Division 1, the next 16 making up Division 2 and so on.
“It’s been discussed for years that we should implement this method of division for football leagues in the county, not only for playoffs,” Holmes said. After much discussion over two releaguing cycles, spanning four years, about “80% of schools voted for this system to be implemented.”
As of now, it’s not known which schools will be joining FVHS in this league, nor what the league’s name will be. This information will become available after the state playoffs, around early December.
“This year’s rankings for next year’s league will count for 65% of what goes into [the decision for who joins this league]. 35% of rankings from 2 years ago will also go into the formula,” Holmes said.
After two years of participating in this new league system, each team will be re-evaluated. Teams performing better will move to a higher level in the league, while teams performing worse will move down.
One concern some have voiced is the increase in travel for FVHS football. This could be due to the chance that FVHS may be in a league with Irvine or Northwood depending on their outcome in the Competitive Equity Model.
“But, really for football, you’re making those trips twice one year and three times another year because [each team] flips home and away,” Holmes said, countering this worry. “So, I think [this system] is worth a shot.”
But what does this mean for the Bell Game, an annual football rivalry between FVHS and Edison High School for the past 54 years?
“Teams and leagues are free to play whomever they want in the five-game pre-league schedule,” Holmes said. “So we’ll always play Edison [and] yes, we will play the Bell Game.”
The difference between the current Bell Game and the future Bell Game is simply timing. Instead of the ninth week of the season, the game may be around the fourth week of the season to play Edison before the league starts.
“The beauty of [determining which team is in which league] is there’s no emotion to it; it’s just strictly by the numbers,” Holmes said.
Furthermore, not only will football begin this Competitive Equity Model to determine league placement, other sports will adopt this system for the CIF playoffs.
“CIF does have a formula for moving teams up and down divisions, but it’s not as equitable as it should be. So, CIF is going to move toward a Competitive Equity Model for all other sports,” Holmes said.
Holmes acknowledges that if this new system does not work out, teams are able to move back to their previous league divisions.
The change to football’s league placement system has generated new discussion, including within FVHS’s sports teams.
“Actually, our football coaches were hesitant about the change. They wanted to keep trying to compete and get to a higher level,” Holmes said. However, he goes on to say that if FVHS football does achieve a higher level and excels in the new league, they will move up a level. “So that’s the nice thing about it: you’ll find your level, whether you’re doing poorly or great.”
How do the main subjects of this experimental decision, football players, feel about the alteration? Some players believe that in spite of any advantages or disadvantages, the confidence and determination of players will remain.
According to Fountain Valley varsity football player Brady Tomko, “[Despite this change, FVHS football] will continue to work hard and try to win league. [Baron Football] has equal opportunities every year as long as we work hard and persevere.”
The hope is that future games will be decided by a final touchdown or a field goal rather than an immense lead from either team. Close, competitive games will allow previously beat-up teams a chance at a league championship.
Overall, “it’s definitely worth looking at,” Holmes said.
