Davis High School athletics is changing leagues

By Alessandra Trask

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

For 10 years, Davis High has been one of six schools competing in the Delta Sports League along with Franklin High, Elk Grove High, Sheldon High, Cosumnes Oaks High and Pleasant Grove High.

Every four years, the Sac-Joaquin Section, an athletic section of California composed of 206 schools, undergoes a realignment process to see if each school is a good fit for its league.

It was decided that DHS, St. Francis High, and Jesuit High should move to the Sierra Foothill League (SFL) for competitive and geographical reasons.

“We were assigned to the SFL, which is one of the most competitive leagues in the section, which represents our performance across the board of all sports,” DHS Athletic Director Mark McGreevy said.

The other schools competing in the SFL are Oak Ridge High, Rocklin High, Del Oro High, Granite Bay High, Folsom High and Whitney High. These schools have highly competitive athletic programs, which will be a challenge for DHS this school year.

The schools in the SFL are significantly further than before. In the Delta League each competition was between 20 to 23 miles away, while moving to the SFL will now require traveling 30 to 36 miles.

The further distances means that student-athletes will have to leave class earlier, and the transportation fee will increase. “We’re kind of on an island. There’s not a lot of D1 schools near us,” McGreevy said.

The trade off for having to travel further is the higher competition which will help improve and grow the sports programs. “I think it’s fantastic. Moving to a league where top to bottom there is not a sport where it is not competitive… it is just more fun,” varsity men’s water polo coach Tracy Stapelton said.

Water polo and swimming have always finished very high in the Delta League and in playoffs. The move to the SFL will give the teams more competitive play on a regular basis.

“Several teams in the [SFL] league we’ve always played them as non-league opponents as well because we felt that we were somewhat likely to see them in the playoffs,” Stapleton said.

Players have had to make adjustments going into a completely new league. Junior Mehr Jaijee has been playing on the varsity girls golf team since her freshman year and has noticed differences being in the SFL.

“Playing in the league so far has been really good, I think it puts us out of our comfort zone as we are playing courses we haven’t been to before and traveling to new places,” Jaijee said.

She enjoys the challenge of difficult courses and higher ranked teams. Jaijee has always been a solid asset for the team and has been working hard to adjust to the change.

“The courses we are playing are a lot harder than the ones from the Delta league,” Jaijee said.

By being placed in a higher level league, Davis’s athletics programs will be subjected to better competition and conditions.