Football coaches react to Laguna Hills and Dana Hills moving to PCL beginning next season

Laguna Hills Coach Mike Maceranka welcomes the league change. (Photo courtesy Harrison Zhang, For OC Sports Zone)

Orange County high school principals on Monday approved a releaguing plan for the Pacific Coast League that adds Laguna Hills for all sports and Dana Hills for only football beginning with the 2020-21 school year, Woodbridge Athletic Director Rick Gibson said Tuesday.

The Pacific Coast League has been an all-Irvine six-team league but will expand to eight teams for football with most likely two divisions and seven teams for all other sports, Gibson said.

“The OC principals voted to add Laguna Hills making us a seven-team league,” Gibson said. “We also added a football only member Dana Hills. This is the first process where we releagued after two years rather than four.

“The idea was to allow teams seeking relief the chance to move after just two years instead of having to wait a specific class whole high school career. Laguna Hills had been asking relief the last two releaguing cycles and our PCL principals thought it best to help them in their plight, while keeping ‘all-Irvine’ together.

“Seven teams for most sports is not ideal but again it was the right thing to do. The addition of Dana Hills is also welcome as they too have suffered in the CVC (Coast View Conference). We will probably split into a conference in football with each conference getting two representatives to the playoffs. We, PCL principals and ADs will have to meet over all the changes in the coming year.”

It is not clear yet how the league schedules will be handled for football and the other sports in the new-look Pacific Coast League.

Dana Hills and Laguna Hills are currently in the Sea View League for football with San Juan Hills, Aliso Niguel and Trabuco Hills.

The Pacific Coast League has consisted of Northwood, University, Irvine, Woodbridge, Beckman and Portola, which joined the PCL last year to replace Corona del Mar, which moved to the Sunset League.

The change, which will be in affect for two years, was welcomed by Laguna Hills football Coach Mike Maceranka.

“It is the relief we have been looking for,” he said. “While we are a geographic fit for the Coast View Conference we were not a competitive fit. This will give our athletes a chance to compete playoff spots and league championships. We are a school of 1,450 students competing with schools of over 3,000.

“Academically and athletically we are more similar to the Pacific Coast League schools. In football Dana Hills and us will compete in an eight-team league. I am not sure how it will be broken up, if it is a one league eight teams or two four team leagues. That will be discussed and decided upon by the principals and athletic directors. In football, all of our Calprep rankings are similar which should lead to competitive equity.

“In the Coast View there have been  huge gaps in competitive equity at the top of the league compared to the bottom of the league. Laguna Hills and Dana Hills are Division 11 and 12 and San Juan Hills is in Division 4 and top 10 in the county. There will be no such gap in the PCL. Overall, it’s a good fit for the Hawks.”

Dana Hills football coach Phillip Skinner said he also likes the plan.

“I feel like it’s a great move,” he said. “The new league will truly be about competitive equity. We’ve played Irvine four times in the last six years and split two and two with them. We played Woodbridge for the last four years in a scrimmage and that has been very competitive. We just played Northwood and won in an overtime victory. That was a wild back-and-forth game that could have gone either way. University, Beckman, Portola, and Laguna Hills are all in about the same boat. Looking forward to the new league.”

Reactions were mostly favorable among several Irvine football coaches.

“I actually think the 8-team situation for the PCL can be a good thing,” said Portola Coach Peter Abe. “I remember being in the eight-team Century Conference during my time at Villa Park, and with 2x 4-team leagues (and a 2-year rotation cycle), it kept things competitively equitable for most.  If your school is down, then you stayed in one league, and if you school was in a high performance cycle, you stayed up.

“It can be switched up by entire school, or in our case then, it was switched sport to sport… There was much flexibility with that situation, including not having to worry about scheduling so many pre-season games with teams who may/may not be able to field all levels.  I know the 8-team groupings have been in numerous proposals the past few releaguing cycles, and I’m excited to see how it might work for us.

“I know things still need to go through the executive board for approval and/or review of appeals, but however things work out, things can always be revisited at the next releaguing cycle, so either way the Bulldogs will continue to put one foot in front of the other and keep working towards our goals however things turn out.”

“I for one welcome both teams,” added Northwood football coach Paige Nobles. “I believe adding Dana and Laguna Hills will strengthen our league and make us even more competitive than we already are.

“The only thing I hope they do (CIF) is split our new eight-team league into two four-team brackets, that way we can play more teams in the preseason before we start league games.”

“I’ve got to say I’m a little disappointed,” said Irvine football coach Tom Ricci.  “I liked our little city league. Not too many schools have an opportunity like that. I know the Orange league where I came from is very similar and leagues like that have a special feel.

“It creates fun rivalries. The kids all know each other and it’s fun to compete against each other. But I understand why it is necessary.  Those schools need relief. I just feel like having only three preseason games doesn’t prepare you very well for league.”

Dana Hills will remain in the Coast View Conference for all other sports, according to Mark Cunningham, PCL coordinator.

“The CVC becomes a nine-team conference for all sports except football and an eight-team conference for football,” Cunningham said.

In games involving Sea View League and Pacific Coast League teams this year, Laguna Hills defeated University 42-8 and Dana Hills topped Northwood 35-28 in overtime.

–Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com