When it comes to Palos Verdes High School sports, it has become common to see the Sea Kings clash with familiar opponents in Bay League play.
However, due to a complete realignment, all sports have seen a change in the league that will completely change dynamics and rivalries for each and every sport.
Nineteen schools make up the SBAA (South Bay Athletic Association). These schools were placed in North and South geographic groupings.
Nine teams make up the Northern section. The Northern schools include Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Culver City, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Leuzinger, Inglewood, Morningside and Centennial.
Ten teams make up the Southern section. The Southern schools include Palos Verdes, El Segundo, Wiseburn-DaVinci, Torrance, South Torrance, West Torrance, North Torrance, Peninsula, Mira Costa and Redondo.
From here, the Northern and Southern groups are divided into a higher competitive equity league and a weaker competitive equity league.
The North divides into the Ocean League and Sky League. The South is divided into the Bay League and Pioneer League.
“Just recently we decided that we should change our leagues into what we call a competitive equity model, where the strongest teams are grouped together and the weakest teams are grouped together,” Athletic Director Brian Shapiro explained.
“We’re trying to create more competitive balance in the leagues.”
Every sport has its own completely unique league. For example, girls basketball and boys basketball are in two separate leagues.
“Girls and boys basketball being in two separate leagues will make things look weird on gameday,” Shapiro explained, “but it results in more of a balance in these games.”
In all sports except football, there is now relegation. Every two years, the team from the higher competitive equity league that finishes with the lowest record over the two year span will drop to the lower league.
Likewise, the team with the highest record from the lower competitive equity league will move up.
These major changes create a lot of change in the world of Palos Verdes sports.
One major example of change can be seen in Bay League football. Culver City and Mira Costa remained in the league with Palos Verdes, but there were three new additions. These additions include Leuzinger, Lawndale and Inglewood, which replaced Peninsula, Redondo and Santa Monica.
The Homecoming football game will be played against Lawndale, a team that was not previously in the Bay League.
“It’s going to be weird playing against Lawndale for the homecoming game,” junior Nick Yakubik said.
“We’re excited to see new people in our league, and we’re preparing every day to win these games against teams we haven’t played before.”