Five of the six schools in the Freeway League have constructed appeals to Orange County’s planned new league structures that would be in place for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
The proposal that came out of Orange County releaguing meetings this past spring would create conferences specifically for football and large conferences for other sports that would encompass up to 15 schools. The schools in the Freeway League, for decades a six-team league of the same membership, would be dispersed into different conferences.
The appeals include additional travel time as a reason for the appeals. Freeway League schools are within 5 miles of each other; Troy’s appeal states that for Troy to play a Century Conference match or game against Crean Lutheran would be a 41-mile round trip. The appeals also state that CIF releaguing procedures were not properly followed during the releaguing process.
Freeway League schools Fullerton, La Habra, Sonora, Sunny Hills and Troy are appealing the plan. Buena Park is not.
The appeals are not about the football-only proposal in which county high school football teams would be grouped together into leagues by their power points profiles. The Trinity League is exempt from the football-only plan.
The appeals will be heard at the CIF Southern Section Executive Committee Thursday, Sept. 21, before going up for vote by the CIF-SS Council on Sept, 28. The Council is the CIF-SS legislative rules-making and rules-changing body.
During the Orange County releaguing process the Freeway League was the group most against the releaguing plan that county schools approved in April.
