Marmonte invites OCHS to join league for all sports

The Marmonte League has formally invited Oaks Christian to join its ranks for all high school sports beginning during the 2010-11 season.

A league-wide vote was cast during a regularly scheduled monthly meeting Tuesday in Westlake, said Marmonte League president Anna Merriman.

Under this plan Calabasas, which recently requested a move out of the Marmonte for football only, would likely replace Oaks Christian in the TriCounties Athletic Association.

"We invited Oaks Christian to come to our meeting and share their ideas about joining the Marmonte League," said Merriman, who serves as assistant superintendent of educational services for the Moorpark Unified School District.

"It was the consensus of the principals and athletic directors that it would be very difficult to have (Oaks Christian) only in for football and have Calabasas in for the rest of the sports. . . .

"Because we have strong connections with each other, I think we have fewer problems in the league. All the coaches know each other; all the athletic directors know each other. We want to keep that same consistency among the league. If Oaks Christian is going to join us, we want them in for everything," Merriman said.

In its current state, the Marmonte League includes Agoura, Calabasas, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Royal, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Westlake.

Oaks Christian athletic director Jan Hethcock, who attended a portion of Tuesday's meeting with OCHS headmaster Jeff Woodcock and principal David Cooper, said there was a positive exchange of dialogue between all parties involved.

"We showed up and it was basically a question-and-answer meeting that was very informative for both the Marmonte League and Oaks Christian," Hethcock said.

"It was run very well, very professional. There are a lot of quality people in the Marmonte League, everyone knows that. It's a well-run organization."

Last month, Calabasas principal C.J. Foss met with Marmonte principals and formally requested a move out of the league for football only for a four-year releaguing cycle.

Following a careful review of upcoming spring enrollment numbers, Foss concluded that the football team wouldn't see the spike in incoming athletes the school had hoped for.

"Once the spring enrollment process was upon us, I began to recognize that the same number of students were choosing to go to different schools, and many of them cited the athletic programs at different schools," Foss said.

"I didn't see the increase in our football team. I didn't see the possibility that we were going to get the new freshmen in that would enable us to build a team in a couple of years that would be able to compete with a chance of winning in the Marmonte League."

In addition, Foss said Las Virgenes Unified superintendent Don Zimring had expressed uncertainty as to whether or not Calabasas should continue to field a football squad at all.

"You can't have a high school without a football team," Foss said. "It sets the tone for the whole year."

According to Foss, Calabasas voted against leaving the Marmonte for all sports during Tuesday's meeting. The school plans to appeal the league's decision if things move forward as planned, she said.

While the Calabasas football team's struggles have been well documented—they're 247 alltime in Marmonte play—other sports programs such as water polo, volleyball, softball and swimming have also had a difficult time competing in league.

On the other hand, Calabasas has been competitive through the years in sports such as tennis, golf, baseball, track and field, wrestling and basketball.

"We meet the CIF Blue Book criteria for being in the Marmonte League in terms of geography, enrollment and competitive equity in many of our other sports," Foss said.

The Marmonte's invitation to Oaks Christian is by no means a done deal. There are still plenty of issues that must be resolved before the league can be reshuffled in any way.

First and foremost, Oaks Christian, St. Bonaventure, Grace Brethren and Santa Clara must win an appeal in front of the CIF Releaguing Committee on May 6.

During a Northern Area releaguing meeting in February, administrators voted to place those four schools in a footballonly league.

Hethcock said he still wants to discuss a possible move to the Marmonte with all of the OCHS sports coaches to get their perspectives on the situation.

A potential roadblock could be Oaks Christian's inability to field lower-level teams in all sports due to much smaller enrollment numbers than the public schools.

Hethcock added that Oaks Christian's current preference is to join the Marmonte for football only.

"The Marmonte League is being proactive before any of this goes down the road in saying that they're willing to take Oaks Christian," Hethcock said.

"We're very appreciative that the Marmonte League stepped forward and said, 'Let's talk' instead of taking it right down to the wire. Today was a good day."