SLO County schools will compete in Central Section this fall. The new leagues look like this

The move of 13 Central Coast high school sports programs from the massive CIF-Southern Section to the Central Section that was approved two years ago will go into effect this fall.

The shift from a section that includes mostly Southern California schools to one focused in the San Joaquin Valley meant officials had to reconfigure local leagues.

Athletic directors from 13 schools from the PAC 8 and Los Padres leagues formed the Central Coast Athletic Association, spending the past year figuring out the best way to realign programs.

What they came up with, using the competitive equity model, was two leagues: the Mountain and Ocean leagues. The Mountain League is made up of the top teams based on success in recent years, while the Ocean League consists of programs that have been less successful.

For example, football has been divided like this: Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Paso Robles, Righetti and St. Joseph will compete in the Mountain League; Morro Bay, Nipomo, Pioneer Valley, San Luis Obispo, Templeton and Santa Maria will play in the Ocean League.

But the leagues differ for each sport.

Each sport will also receive a Central Section Division assignment based on recent success that will determine playoff placement. For football, Arroyo Grande, St. Joseph, Paso Robles and Atascadero will compete in Division 1. Nipomo and Righetti will compete in Division 2, and the rest of the schools will play in Division 3. Mission Prep will compete in the eight-man division for football.

A full breakdown for each Central Section Division sport can be found at CIFCS.org.

The Central Section voted unanimously in January last year to welcome 13 Central Coast high schools into the fold, finalizing a move that was in the works for more than a year.

The schools — Nipomo, Templeton, Atascadero, Morro Bay, Mission Prep, Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, St. Joseph, Pioneer Valley, Righetti, Santa Maria, Orcutt Academy and Paso Robles — had been a part of the Southern Section, a highly competitive region with around 600 schools that stretched from south of Los Angeles to northern San Luis Obispo County.

The schools now join the much smaller Central Section currently made up of 102 schools.

Local athletic directors said the move will cut down on travel time and allow local teams to compete for more titles. The Central Section also allows its schools to keep 30 percent of the money made from ticket sales during playoff games, Central Section commissioner Jim Crichlow told the Tribune, while the Southern Section allows school to keep 20 percent.

This story was originally published June 20, 2018 at 10:44 AM with the headline "SLO County schools will compete in Central Section this fall. The new leagues look like this."