Casa Grande, Petaluma league foes in 2018

New league alignment groups Petaluma and Casa Grande with Napa, Vintage and American Canyon.|

It’s official, Petaluma High School and Casa Grande High School will be in the same sports league next school year.

The California Interscholastic Federation North Coast Section Board of Managers unanimously approved last week a restructuring that will lump Napa, Vintage, American Canyon, Justin-Siena, Sonoma Valley, Petaluma and Casa Grande into an as-yet unnamed league in the North Coast Section.

Napa, Vintage and American Canyon were accepted into the North Coast Section in April leaving the Sac-Joaquin Section. Justin-Siena, Sonoma Valley, Petaluma and Casa Grande have always been members of the NCS. The new league will play in what is now the Marin-Sonoma-Mendocino Conference, although it is likely Napa will be added to the conference name.

The new league brings together seven schools from differing leagues - Napa and Vintage from the Monticello Empire League, American Canyon from the Solano County Athletic Conference, Justin-Siena from the Marin County Athletic League, Casa Grande from the North Bay League and Petaluma and Sonoma Valley from the Sonoma County League.

With the exception of the move of Justin-Siena, the Marin County Athletic League will remain intact.

The remaining “large” schools from Sonoma County - Analy, Cardinal Newman, El Molino, Elsie Allen, Healdsburg, Maria Carrillo, Montgomery, Piner, Rancho Cotate, Santa Rosa, Ukiah and Windsor - will be lumped in what has been called a “Super League.”

There will be two divisions, an upper and lower. Teams will be rearranged once every two years based on their performance. Placement would be by individual sports.

A team could be in the upper division in one sport and in the lower division in another. Teams could play their way up or down depending on their won-lost performance over the previous two years.

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