The Race is On, Part 3

Big 8! That's the name of the new league we'll be in. It's a creative name. Reflects the fact that the league will be made of 8 large (big) high schools. Oooooh.

Actually it's a blend of the Mountain View League and half of the Ivy League. King, Poly and North will be joining with the Corona schools -- Corona, Santiago, Norco, E.Roosevelt, Centennial.


Other than the names of the schools in the league, there will be some significant changes. First, dual meets will be no longer. Instead, the league will compete in "cluster meets", meaning, all 8 schools will compete three times in the season, including league finals. Each meet will be like an 8-team "invitational". The first meet, September 25, will be at our course.

The other main change will be the level of competition. This will certainly be a tougher league than the Ivy was, especially for the girls. Our girls have been unchallenged since we arrived in the Ivy League. Let's face it, there have been meets in league where we could run JV runners at the varsity level and still win easily. Those days are over.

Corona's girls are a power. They are well coached by Mark Gardner and have a similar history to ours: League dominence and CIF Finals berths. Santiago also had a decent girls squad last year, as did Poly.

The boys will have a deeper pool to wade through. In the past several years, it's been La Sierra and King at the top of the league heap. Corona's boys are as good as La Sierra, if not better, and in fact will most likely be one of the best teams in all of D1. Roosevelt is an up-and-comer and Santiago has always produced good teams, so it will certainly be a battle.

I like the challenges that confront us. Frankly, for our girls, league has been too easy and this will help make us better. Great challenges create great opportunities and that's the most obvious thing about heading into the Big 8.

Let's rise to it!