southern section division V AA & V A placements for 2000

Contrary to popular opinion, the largest Division in CIF Southern Section is not Division I. It's actually Division V, the division with the smallest enrollment schools. D-I combined (I-AA and I-A) has 145 teams (I-AA has 73, and I-A has 72), while Division V combined has 154 teams (each of the sub-divisions, V-AA and V-A has 77 teams). That's more than the combined numbers in both Divisions III and IV, and almost double the size of Division II (which has 90 teams in both A and AA). This is a large, extremely large pool of teams. Not all of them are what you might call "competitive," but most are, and there's more parity among the teams in this division than many people would like to admit. Probably only 10 or 20 teams will be real standouts this year, but there are a lot of small schools out there with some excellent teams, and that's why they have a season, instead of just mailing in the results. This is high school basketball, and anything can, and often does, happen.

Size-wise, Southern Section Division V is the single largest competition pool of any CIF grouping. It's larger than the entire LA City Section (63 teams) by more than a factor of two, and it's also larger than the entire San Diego Section (89 teams), and the entire Central Section (85 teams). Division V in the Southern Section is also larger than any of the NorCal CIF sections: It's bigger than the North Coast Section (145 teams), the Sac-Joaquin Section (130 teams), the Northern Section (69 teams), and the Central Coast Section (109 teams), and it absolutely dwarfs the San Franciso Section (12 teams), and it's 25 times as large as the Oakland CIF "Section" (which, at 6 teams is really a league, but for historical purposes continues to exist as a "Section". Admittedly, it's very competitive, and it has the defending D-I State Champ among it's members).

Simply stated, D-V of the Southern Section is the single largest pool of competition in the entire State of California, in terms of sheer numbers of teams participating and contending for a title. Again, many will say it's not the "most competitive" in the sense that most of the teams competing in these two divisions don't or can't compete "evenly" with some of the larger divisions, but then that's why these two divisions exist. Which is not to say that college coaches won't find Division I college talent at some of these schools, because they will. The players are there, it's just that you have to look a bit harder for them because they're not found in the same numbers as one might find at, for example, a lot of D-IAA schools. But recruiting, after all, is not the primary purpose of high school basketball. Instead it's about like schools competing against like schools, with similar student enrollments (or at least that's the theory).

One other interesting facet of the sheer size of Division V is that that same size, and limited numbers of playoff spots has led to some movement among the powers that be in the Southern Section and among coaches to have 3 subdivisions in D-V instead of just 2, (i.e., V-AAA, V-AA and V-A) in order to (a) give more teams an opportunity to qualify for the playoffs, and (b) for the CIF and the schools to make additional playoff gate money, and it's hard to argue against either of these positions, because it will expand the potential playoff pool and make more people happy. Well not everyone, but certainly more.

The same push for additional playoff divisions is also being made in Division I as well (and we hear there's also a move in D-II to do the same thing). In fact, we're willing to predict that by next year, you'll see a three division type of format eventually worked out, in order to remedy the situation created last year, in which some teams with winning records didn't make it to the playoffs, whereas some teams with losing records did make it in some of the smaller divisions (III and IV). There's been talk of doing it this year, but we don't think there's really time to work out all the logistics in time for the playoffs, which, as we noted above, are just six weeks away.

In any event, we're again posting this list up alphabetically, rather than by enrollment figures (the CIF sent us two different lists, but alphabetical is the only really useful one for our purposes). If we miss a school, or there's one missing from the list, well, blame the CIF Southern Section office not us. We don't make 'em up, we just report them Here's the list for all of Division V:

Division V-AA	Enrollment		Division V-A	Enrollment
Academy of Academic Excellence AGBU Apple Valley Christian Aquinas Arrowhead Christian Academy Avalon Bell-Jeff Bethel Christian--Riverside Bishop Diego Bloomington Christian Boron Brethren Christian Buckley Cal Lutheran Calvary Chapel Downey Calvary Chapel Murietta Campbell Hall Capistrano Valley Christian Cate Chadwick CSDR Desert Desert Christian --Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian--Lancaster Desert Hot Springs Dunn Excelsior Education Center Fairmont Faith Baptist Flintridge Prep Glendale Adventist Grace Brethren Hamilton Hesperia Christian Holy Martyrs Kilpatrick La Sierra Academy Linfield Lone Pine Los Pinos Lucerne Valley Lutheran--La Verne Lutheran--Los Angeles Mammoth Masada Mesa Grande Montclair Prep Oakwood Ojai Valley Ontario Christian Ppacific Hills Pilibos Poly--Pasadena Ribet Academy Riverside Christian San Gabriel Academy Santa Clara Serra* (move to D-IV-AA) Shalhevet Sherman Indian South Bay Lutheran St. Anthony St. Margaret's St. Michael's Pprepp Thacher Trona Twin Pines Valley Christian--Santa Maria Viewpoint Village Christian Villanova Prep Webb Western Christian Whitewater Windward Woodcrest Christian Yeshiva	88 171 93 229 257 136 280 97 267 142 160 232 190 96 213 136 281 203 201 223 150 280 88 237 260 124 300 179 153 294 250 119 196 96 119 222 149 130 116 246 216 101 120 228 85 99 205 217 89 261 137 128 259 124 125 168 224 275 118 225 136 232 203 110 185 94 88 93 154 244 186 272 281 188 163 231 268		Aciawood Prep Ambassador Christian Antelope Valley Christian Arshag Dickranian Baker Valley Baptist Christian--Hemet Bethel Christian--Lancaster Big Pine Calvary Baptist Calvary Chapel--Redlands CEDU Christian Center Academy Coornerstone Christian Coutin Cuyama Valley Delphi Academy Desert Chapel Eastside Christian (Heritage) First Lutheran Gateway Christian Happy Valley Highland Hall Hillcrest Christian--Granada Hills Hillcrest Christian--Thousand Oaks Immanuel Christian Jack Weaver School Joshua Springs Laguna Blanca Lake Arrowhead Christian Lee Vining Liberty Christian Light and Life Christian Lighthouse Maricopa Mesrobian New Roads Newbury Park Adventist Noli Indian Schoool North Copunty Christian Oak Grove Orangewoood Academy Owens Valley Oxford Pacific Christian Palm Valley Pilgrim Ppioneer Bapptist Praise Temple Price Rancho Capistrano Rio Hondo Prep Rolling Hills Prep Saddleback Valley Christian Samaritan San Fernando Valley Christian Santa Clarita Christian Shandon Skyward Christian South Bay Southern California Christian Southlands Christian Southwestern Academy Stoneridge Prep Summit View Tarbut V' Torah Trinity Lutheran Upland Christian Valley Torah Ventura County Christian Victor Valley Christian West coast Christian West Los Angeles Baptist West Valley Christian Westmark Westview Wilsono Creek Zinsmeyer	75 63 43 59 34 60 62 46 34 59 53 78 57 70 88 62 Fr. 51 66 32 71 56 59 40 46 69 67 73 25 16 70 20 20 78 59 51 69 40 73 24 50 32 43 36 44 76 35 7 41 18 61 86 50 40 54 61 79 30 30 70 48 77 36 7 23 42 62 80 79 79 42 48 49 84 67 22 31