2011 Warriors
The Garces-Tehachapi rivalry will have a little more meaning beginning in 2012 as the Warriors
move into the Southeast Yosemite League with the Rams. The 2011 season will mark the final year
the Warriors compete in the South Sequoia League after a 20 year membership.
Posted by Andy Boogaard, The Fresno Bee, on April 27, 2011 Central Section Realignment Affects 14 Schools
Warriors Moving To SEYL In 2012
The latest Central Section league realignment will affect 14 schools – the majority in the South Valley.
The section's CIF Board of Managers, in a 25-10 vote Wednesday in Porterville, approved a proposal that will include flopping Sunnyside and Madera South, reducing the cumbersome East Yosemite League from nine to six schools and shifting Tehachapi from the South Sequoia to the Southeast Yosemite.
The realignment, always done in two-year cycles, is set for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years.
Schools have 15 days to file appeals, and section commissioner Jim Crichlow said he expects there to be a couple. Any appeal would be reviewed by the Board of Managers, which consists of two representatives from each of the section's 14 leagues, three area superintendents, one school board representative and three of the section's elected officers.
The Tehachapi switch was the only real contentious issue, Crichlow said.
Tehachapi is a school no Kern County league wants because it's located 40 miles southeast of Bakersfield and at an elevation of 4,000 feet.
But travel for all involved will be significantly reduced by placing the Warriors in the SEYL, which also includes Garces, North, East Bakersfield, Highland and Foothill.
Trips involving Tehachapi games were longer in the SSL with Wasco, Arvin, Taft, Bakersfield Christian and Shafter.
The Sunnyside-Madera South trade will return the Wildcats to the North Yosemite League from the County/Metro Athletic Conference while the Stallions will go from the NYL to the CMAC, where they'll join neighbor Madera as preferred.
Sunnyside athletic director Roger Oliver said his coaching staff is split on coming back to the NYL, which can't match the CMAC's overall athletic strength.
But the Board of Managers' alternative proposal called for the Wildcats staying in the CMAC and Madera South still coming over, creating a seven-team configuration while leaving five schools in the NYL. And the 7-5 alignment would have caused crossover scheduling problems between the league in nonconference games.
"We certainly didn't want that," Oliver said, "and the 12 schools were unanimous in that regard."
The new NYL will match Sunnyside with Fresno, Hoover, McLane, Roosevelt and Reedley. The CMAC will have Madera, South, Madera, Edison, Memorial, Bullard and Sanger.
Pleased with Wednesday's vote is Coalinga, which will move from the Central Sequoia League to the West Sierra League, where the Horned Toads will be expected to be more competitive while decreasing their overall travel. They will join Avenal, Dos Palos, Firebaugh, Mendota and Tranquillity in the west-side league.
Also relieved are the six schools who will remain in the EYL, where a nine-team arrangement has caused a scheduling headache in general. As examples, it has limited football teams to two nonleague games and forced basketball teams to begin league play in early December.
Staying in the EYL will be Delano, Mission Oak, Monache, Porterville, Tulare and Tulare Western. Leaving will be Granite Hills (East Sequoia), Chavez (South Sequoia) and Kennedy (South Sequoia).
Central Section League Realignment 2012-14
Southeast Yosemite: North, East, Foothill, Garces, Highland, Tehachapi.
South Sequoia: Arvin, Bakersfield Christian, Chavez, Kennedy, Shafter, Taft, Wasco.
