Realignment virtually complete in south half of Sac-Joaquin Section

The quadrennial realignment process is virtually wrapped up for the southern half of the Sac-Joaquin Section, while the situation for the northern schools is much less clear.

During Thursday’s Sac-Joaquin Section realignment meeting at the Reserve at Spanos Park in Stockton, only one team from the south was moved – Linden crossed the north-south border with a move from the Trans-Valley League to the Sierra Delta League – while everybody else remained where they were after the last meeting on Jan. 26.

Though there was only one move in the south, there were several other attempts at movement made by other schools.

Modesto Christian requested again that it not be realigned into the Tri-City Athletic League, but rather move to the Valley Oak League or the Modesto Metro Conference.

Lathrop, proposed for a move from the VOL to the Western Athletic Conference, lobbied for a move in the TVL, and Mountain House requested that it join the VOL instead of the WAC.

All three proposed moves were voted down.

Athletic director Greg Pearce said Modesto Christian will keep trying.

“I think we’re going to continue to fight,” Pearce said. “From my perspective, we’ll continue to fight and challenge this committee to do what’s right.”

Modesto Christian superintendent and high school principal Jonathan Burton laid out his position in a letter submitted to the committee by Pearce.

Burton reminded the committee of its three main criteria for realignment: competitive equity, scope of program and enrollment.

Modesto Christian argues that since the move to the TCAL is solely for its basketball teams, scope of program (the number of varsity, JV and freshman teams fielded in various sports) clearly doesn’t matter.

And since MC’s basketball teams are currently placed in a Division II league with an enrollment of less than 200 students, size also isn’t the issue.

Haggling over northern realignment centered on the section’s northwest corridor (Napa-Fairfield-Vallejo) and movement from the Metro League to the Sierra Foothill and/or Delta leagues.

In the end, Grant was placed in the SFL for football only, joining Folsom, Del Oro, Granite Bay, Oak Ridge, Rocklin and Whitney, making it, on paper, the toughest football conference in the entire section.

The Napa-area schools – Napa, Vintage and American Canyon – were basically given the green light to leave for the North Coast Section, though it still depends on an official vote.

The next meeting is March 10, which a provisional meeting scheduled for March 21.

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Realignment virtually complete in south half of Sac-Joaquin Section."