The proposal has been out for a week. The emotions haven't gone anywhere.
When the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section released a nearly hour-long video Sept. 3 explaining its initial realignment plans, it laid out a potential shakeup that could erase decades of league history in San Joaquin County.
The section says the goal is competitive equity, program stability, reasonable travel and meeting the overall needs of its member schools while promoting fair and balanced competition.
The potential cost, though, is significant.
The Trans Valley League, founded in 1959 and currently including Escalon, Ripon and Ripon Christian, would disappear.
The San Joaquin Athletic Association, founded in 1972, would meet the same fate.
"It's infuriating," Ripon football coach
Cole Williams said. "It's ridiculous. To potentially disband what I believe is one of the best leagues in the state is a travesty."
And the movement wouldn't stop there.
Other programs across the county would be shifted into new leagues or divisions, creating a much different landscape beginning in 2028.
"They've taken the human element out of this proposal, and that's dangerous," Escalon athletic director and football coach Andrew Beam said. "You can look at the numbers, but they don't account for the TVL's tradition and everything it's accomplished."
'This isn't right'
The potential end of the Trans Valley League has left its members "infuriated."
Not simply because it could disappear.
It's why.
"I am still very disheartened that we could just abandon, in my opinion, the greatest small-school football league in California," Beam said. "It's a slap in the face to all of that tradition that has been built over the last 70 years."
Start with competitive equity and how enrollment factors into it.
Escalon and Ripon would be sent to the Valley Oak League, while Ripon Christian would join the Central California conference.
Escalon, with 758 students, would be the smallest of the 14 proposed VOL football members, according to the Realignment Data School Enrollment. Sonora is next at 781, followed by Hughson at 878 and Ripon at 977.
All four currently compete in the TVL.
Take them away, and the other 10 schools average about 2,016 students. Every one has an enrollment of at least 1,500.
"At our small schools, we pride ourselves on punching above our weight class," Beam said. "We can do that once or twice a year, but running that type of gauntlet is different when our guys are going two and three different ways and playing sports year-round."
Ripon Christian's enrollment gap would be even larger.
The Knights have 287 high school students. Lathrop, the next-smallest county school making the move, has 1,441.
Remove those two, and the other 14 schools average about 1,769 students.
"I understand they're not taking enrollment into account, but what about the scope of the program?" Ripon Christian athletic director Kevin Tameling said. "The other schools have 24 to 26 athletic programs. We have 18."
Then comes program stability.
"Look at the roller coaster that comes with being a small school," Beam said. "Three years ago, we had won our fourth straight section title. Over the last three years, we have a losing record."
Williams added, "You don't see those roller coasters as often when you have more students."
Then there's the mileage.
The longest proposed trip for Ripon Christian would be 65 miles one way to Pacheco. Four road trips would exceed 51 miles, two more would stretch 42 and 44 miles, and another would be 37.
Average all 15 potential road trips.
It's about 32.8 miles one way.
"When it comes to travel, most of the time you're doing it during rush hour," Tameling said. "That alone can add anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. We understand everyone has to travel. For football, doing it once a week isn't that bad, but for other sports that have to do it more than once a week, it becomes taxing.
"At the end of the day, are they student-athletes or athlete-students?"
Competitive equity and program stability can be measured. Enrollment has a number. Travel has a distance.
The TVL's value, however, can't be fully captured on a spreadsheet or explained in a video.
It's rivalries. Tradition. Generations of athletes growing up with the same matchups and eventually becoming part of them themselves.
And practically everyone is fighting to preserve it.
Because to them, that's what makes the TVL special — and what makes losing it so hard to accept.
"Go to any TVL game, and the place is packed," Williams said. "It's kind of that old feeling of college football before NIL. I know my lane. I know my job title. But whatever we've got to do, we'll do. This isn't right."
'Iron sharpens iron'
Support for preserving the TVL stretches beyond the schools that call it home.
Coaches elsewhere in the county have also questioned why one of the state's top small-school leagues would be broken apart.
"It's upsetting," Manteca football coach Mark Varnum said. "Obviously, it doesn't affect us, but the TVL is one of the best small-school leagues in the state. The way they completely exploded that league, I don't understand the thought process."
Ask those same coaches about where their own programs could be headed, and the reaction changes.
There's optimism.
Chavez is among them.
The Titans, along with seven other county teams, would leave the SJAA and become full-time members of the TCAL.
Chavez would be the only one of those football teams to start in the Capital tier. Under the proposal, Capital would serve as the higher of two tiers, with Valley below it, both operating under the TCAL.
"It's good for football in this area," Graves said. "Being a Stockton kid, you always want the opportunity to play against the top dogs, and now this is our chance. People have wanted to say the only reason we're winning is because we're in a weak league, but I think the last three years have shown we've had quality wins. We're continuing to build our program for an opportunity like this."
Manteca would also make the move to the TCAL, leaving behind a VOL history that stretches to the league's inception in 1947 and includes nine football section championships.
"Iron sharpens iron," Varnum said. "You've got to go against the best to be the best. Our goal every year is to win league championships, section championships and state championships. To do that, we've got to prepare the right way. We're not looking for easy games. We're not looking for an easy way out.
"Our kids don't run from competition, and our program doesn't run from competition."
This article originally appeared on The Record: Exclusive: TVL schools call proposed CIF SJS realignment ‘a slap in the face’
