Orange County athletic directors and principals agreed to a new league configuration for the county’s football programs, effective this fall. The change, which was finalized on Dec. 12, is an attempt to create more equity and balance in league play and California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) play-offs.

The change was implemented to reduce blowouts and to group teams of similar skill level.

“The change of league will give us a greater probability of winning league games, and CIF,” Elijah Sanchez, junior and varsity football player, said.

The Wildcats’ new league is called the Kappa League, a name derived from the Greek alphabet (the top division is “Alpha,” the smallest, “Zeta”), and will consist of St. Margaret’s, Segerstrom, Westminster, Esperanza, and Garden Grove high schools.

This year, Wildcats varsity football started their season 4-1, but went 0-3 in the Crestview League and were outscored 170-13. Crestview’s Villa Park, Yorba Linda, and Foothill high schools compete in divisions 3, 4, and 5, respectively, while the Wildcats competed in division 10.

Despite the late-season struggles, the Wildcats advanced to the CIF-Southern Section Division 10 play-offs. They fell to Elsinore High School, 17-6.

“These new leagues are so much more balanced skill-wise than they were before,” Jack Dooley, junior and first team All-Crestview League offensive lineman, said. 

There are 12 leagues with new names, with the teams placed in leagues based on a rating determined by calpreps.com. The recent year’s record accounts for 65 percent of the rating, and the previous year’s record is 35 percent. 

“Every year they are going to look at how the teams do in their leagues and in the playoffs, then reshuffle it from there so leagues can potentially be moving every year; hopefully BOHS will be moving up,” Justin Villasenor, varsity football coach, said.

Despite the benefits of league and play-off equity, concerns were expressed about the new configurations ending traditional league match-ups. Teams that had developed longtime rivalries with neighboring schools — like BOHS and Yorba Linda — are now in different leagues.  

Issak Rivas-Melendez, junior and varsity football player, is looking forward to developing new rivalries, including a rematch against new league foe Westminster, whom the Wildcats defeated 28-26 in last season’s home opener. 

“Since it was a close win and a hard-fought game, I think the team agrees that they have become our new rival,” Rivas-Melendez said.

Head coach Villasenor is also looking forward to the realignment. “[We] have a better shot at winning some league games,” Villasenor said.