By Tim Peterson
The Foothill Area re-leaguing voting took place Thursday and some big changes are coming. Proposal C, which was brought by the Pacific/Del Rio Leagues, won with a vote of 63 percent. It will consist of four conferences and will be broken down into leagues to create competitive equity within each conference.
Here are the new conferences in the Foothill Area. Note: The changes will be effective in 2026.
Conference 1: Arcadia, Burbank, Burroughs, Crescenta Valley, Glendale, Hoover, Muir, Pasadena, Blair, La Canada, Monrovia, San Marino, South Pasadena, Temple City, Gabrielino, Marshall.
Conference 2: Arroyo, El Monte, Mt. View, Rosemead, South El Monte, Alhambra, Keppel, San Gabriel, Bell Gardens, Montebello, Schurr, El Rancho.
Conference 3: Bellflower, Downey, Firebaugh, Gahr, La Mirada, Lynwood, Mayfair, Norwalk, Paramount, Warren, California, La Serna, Santa Fe, Whittier, Artesia, Cerritos, Glenn, Oxford Academy, Pioneer, Whitney.
Conference 4: Canyon, Castaic, Golden Valley, Hart, Saugus, West Ranch, Valencia.
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It’s open to the public and so obvious! Just audit Monrovia football team’s varsity defensive stats from last year. Defensive players have more solo tackles than the other team has tackle available plays…and a bunch more assists too!!
Add up the total for carries, completions, and KR/PR against them. SP game has 55 total tackle available plays for Monrovia’s defense. Monrovia finished with 46 solo tackles & 27 assists. And SP scored some TDs where the defense shouldn’t have been credited with a tackle!!
LC game had 42 tackle available plays. Monrovia’s players have 38 solo tackles with 36 assists. With 11 passes defensed on only 9 incompletions. Just totally inflating player stats over there. All on brand.
Whole school & school district has been shady with the “virtual school” too and enrollment. If they don’t make changes, the board will be saying all that shady behavior is ok. Monrovia will fit right in with the recruiters & cheaters at Muir, PHS, and Burbank.
So Monrovia has kids that are online only playing football and the coach is still scheduling City section teams and crying about playing Muir? SMH.
LS & Downey haven’t played in a dozen years, but back between 2010-2012 they split 4 games.
@Downey 35, LS 24 (2010)
@LS 42, Downey 7 (2011)
LS 28, @Downey 27 (2012)
Downey 33, LS 25 (CIF Championship (2012)
Ya, I definitely wouldn’t say LS is going to dominate vs Downey. To me it looks like it will be a very competitive matchup & whichever side wins, they will consider it a huge win.
La Serna’s record over the last 20 years vs their most probable new league opponents
7-6 vs Warren
2-4 vs La Mirada
2-3 vs Downey
1-0 vs Mayfair
1-0 vs Paramount
13-13
Granted, some of the games were prior to 2010, when LS was a different animal then they have been the last 15 years but it looks very competitive.
In regards to Monrovia’s AD/HFB Coach, any word if he’s feeling the heat now that the Principal will be gone (along with the other two assistant principals)?
Will the new administration allow for a player to participate in sports, while attending the District’s “virtual” school, while only stepping on campus for practices and games?
What happened to LS this last season? I guess the Lancers only get into gear if they’re paired with Mater Dei, Bosco or Corona Centennial, right?
@ Winning with the boys: Oh yeah, teams making the playoffs with regular-season records of 2-8 or worse. That’s just one thing which is seriously wrong with the current CIF Southern Section playoff system, and I hope that gets trashed, too.
La Serna will dominate Downey, Warren or anyone else they put in front of us. Besides the way Cal Preps works losses will help us to dominate in lower divisions with a 2-8 record.
From T. Peterson: La Serna won’t dominate Downey. I guarantee that. If they can beat them it will be a huge win.
@ FBFan: Your comments are right on the mark; I couldn’t agree with you more.
It’s about time that Monrovia plays in the same league with Muir and Pasadena; throw in La Canada and South Pasadena as well if those schools can remain good at football. At the moment, that league could be rounded out by including Burbank, Burroughs, and Crescenta Valley. The other eight schools ought to be in the lower league within Conference 1.
Conference 2, with 12 teams, is tailor-made for two leagues. It appears to me that the top-tier league in that conference should be made up of El Rancho, Schurr, Bell Gardens, Arroyo, El Monte, and South El Monte, while the lower league should include Alhambra, Mark Keppel, San Gabriel, Montebello, Mountain View, and Rosemead. (I concur with The Watcher’s take on this one.)
Being an optimist, I look forward to a time (hopefully sooner rather than later) that Alhambra will be able to barge into that upper league and contend for a title against, say, El Rancho or Schurr.
The possible combinations could be endless in Conference 3, with its 20 schools. It looks as if there’ll be three leagues, and I have to say that the top-tier league must include La Serna, Downey, and Warren. It would be a travesty if La Serna gets to continue dodging top-level competition in league play year after year.
Conference 4 appears to be one tough league!
@The Watcher,
Previous year’s Calpreps ratings will be used to group leagues together.
@All Fall Down
They want LS in a competitive league that’s what they’ll get. They put other with like schools and it’s a problem. I totally get what you’re saying. How does the releaguing win? Put all those 18 teams in a hat and pull them out?
@All Fall Down,
Dude you just don’t get it. No one pretends that Mt. Union’s national title is as good as Alabama’s but it still gets celebrated. And Mt. Union should never play Alabama!
Should Downey play Firebaugh? No! But that doesn’t mean Firebaugh shouldn’t celebrate a win over Pioneer because that’s the same level!
The mom and pop donut shop isn’t gonna outsell Starbucks that’s across the street but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try to beat out the other donut shop a few blocks away.
As The Watcher’s prediction for leagues shows, we’re going to essentially have four 605-type leagues and one quality league. This entire exercise is one of skimming the cream from the crap, then pretending the football being played between the downer clubs is just as respectable as the good stuff.
Can you put La Serna there because they go and compete for a CIF title every year too, I could see a team that might have a cakewalk league title like arroyo used to and get bumped in the first round.
How was it determined that Gabrielino and Marshall belong in Conference 1 opposed to Arroyo,Alhambra,San Gabriel
From T. Peterson: More than likely they will be placed in a league with Glendale, Hoover and Blair.
WHAT ABOUT GABBY AND RIO HONDO PREP
From T. Peterson: Gabrielino is listed. See Conference 1. Rio Hondo Prep is staying the same. Status quo for now.
Based solely on the comments by the Monrovia AD, the voting pattern of RHL teams in the meeting, and the SM principal’s comments at the meeting. Surprised those communities that are so elitist are suddenly concerned about an equitable playing field…in athletics.
@ Pacific League Rep, were you at the meeting? Did all the Rio Hondo Schools speak? Or is your comment based on Monrovia’s Football Coach/AD public comments about being against it? It seemed obvious too me why Monrovia was against it. They have dominated the RHL in football for the last upteen years with some challenges from the other schools. I think they are worried that won’t be the case anymore moving forward with the new Conference format.
I am going to have to change my tag to “Former RHL Fan”. LOL
Nobody will ever be happy (especially has-been high school athletes with nothing better to complain about). It does not affect better schools in the area, but at least lower-performing schools can be excited about such a change.
@ All Fall Down and Day and Age,
So does that mean that a school like La Serna should keep beating up on Whittier and just tell them to “get better” but then La Serna never has to compete?
Should Hoover just “get better” and get their teeth kicked in by Muir ever year?
Keppel and Schurr has always been a great matchup (sarcasm).
If you’re telling those bottom schools to get better what your saying is that those top schools should just enjoy their cakewalks to league titles????
Some of these lower schools can have Nick Saban as their HC and they still won’t be competitive and some of the top end schools can have Danny the Dad down the street and can still win when the league isn’t matched up.
I think this is a good model because coaching comes into play more here, not just God given talent.
Rio Hondo League people are grumpy! 🤣
Weirdest attitudes I’ve ever seen from a bunch of communities & schools that think they’re better than almost everyone else.
They should have had Pioneer, Cal, and Whittier placed with the El Monte schools…
I don’t see many getting much better or worse from Cal, Pioneer, Bellflower and Artesia could move from bottom league to middle conference and Montebello, SG, EM and SEM could move between conferences but this is what I see happening in 2026.
1. Arroyo, Bell Gardens, Schurr, El Rancho, El Monte and South
2. Keppel, Alhambra, MtView, San Gabriel, Montebello, and Rosemead
1. Downey, La Mirada, Mayfair, Paramount, Warren and La Serna
2. Santa Fe, Cerritos, Norwalk, Gahr, Lynwood and Pioneer
3. Bellflower, Firebaugh, Whittier, Artesia, Glen and Cal
@AFD…..,yes , this is the new model . It gives everyone a chance at success; but it also gives the illusion of quality to mediocrity or worse . D 14 football is bad , but don’t tell BG or Pioneer.
I view this as matching weakness with similar weakness. The lousy teams in these conferences have no reason whatever to improve, knowing they will gratefully be dropped into a pool of equally failed opponents. Just give all these bottom-dwellers a CIF championship and be done pretending it means anything.
This is the future. After decades of not having any change, kudos to the Foothill area for doing something very modern that can be used as a model for other areas.
The Muir AD needs to be commended for his ability to move the masses. Anyone who complains about this probably oke who is resistant to progress or upset that their own agenda isn’t being followed.