Dealing with winning and losing is part of sports, but in the Pacific Coast Athletic League, you may find yourself in a different division if your team performs either well or poorly.
All sports are different and face different challenges depending on where they stand. Moving up a division gives players a chance to excel and moving down gives players the opportunity to learn, but also to be successful. One thing that can be sacrificed through this movement can be tradition rivalries, but the opportunity for teams to vie for a championship can outweigh tradition. The PCAL is broken up into many divisions, depending on the sport. For football, the PCAL is broken into four divisions, but for the volleyball and basketball teams it’s broken into five divisions.
Football, girls’ volleyball, and boys’ basketball were moved down a division, from the Gabilan to the Mission, due to their losing records in league last year. While a losing (or winning) record are the main reasons for teams to move, other factors can come into play. “It depends on how they finished the year before and other factors are how the lower levels did, how many returners, and how people are graduating,” Athletic Director and boys’ varsity basketball coach Jose Gil said.
The varsity football players were optimistic about moving divisions. “It was probably best for the team because we get to experience more competition and since we were lacking players last year and this year we actually got players,” Jesus Maciel said.
Coaches also don’t see this as a negative. “There’s obviously pros and cons to moving down or up, I think a big pro of being in the PCAL Mission division is safety, we’re not a big team in terms of numbers, we definitely have the players that can compete in this area,” Coach Flores said. The move has paid off so far, as the team is 3-1 through four league contests.
On the other hand, the volleyball team is struggling. “It makes me sad because we were playing at a higher division and it was more competitive than it is playing at a lower division,” Ashley Rodriguez said. “I’m just very saddened by it because I wanted to have a really good senior year where it would possibly give us a title, but I hope it happens for the girls coming up to varsity next year and I wish them the best,” Ximena Estrada said.
Gil is staying open-minded about the moves. “It’s fine because we’re trying to make the leagues competitive and equitable for our kids,” he said. “It can be beneficial because we can
compete and the whole purpose is to have equity and when you have equity you’re trying to level the playing field so that the kids have a chance to succeed.”
