CROSS COUNTRY: SMALL SCHOOLS FACE NEW ISSUES WITH COMPETITION : CIF RULES CREATING PROBLEMS.

Byline: Kirby Lee Special to the Daily News

Desert Christian High senior Pam McLaren was anticipating this would be the season when the Knights finally brought home the Southern Section Division V team title after finishing an agonizing second in 1998.

McLaren, however, might never get an opportunity to hoist the championship plaque because of the quirks in the State CIF enrollment-based divisions. Instead, the Knights could be fighting for a top-five finish.

The enrollment figures include only 10th through 12th grades and does not count freshmen toward its divisional enrollment.

The oversight allows ``new'' schools such as Northwood in Irvine to become an immediate powerhouse in Division V. Northwood, which has only freshmen and sophomores, has picked up three runners and coach Randy Rossi from last year's Irvine High team which won the State Division I title.

Northwood has catapulted to No. 1 in the State Division I rankings and is heavily favored to unseat three-time defending state champion University of San Francisco, not to mention delivering a crushing blow to the Desert Christian girls.

Desert Christian coach Dean Spoelstra has two proposals to prevent similar scenarios from arising in the future and to ``ensure fairness and equality for the real, true and established small schools.''

The 10th-year coach believes the policy similar to the regulation of all boys' or girls' schools should be applied. The enrollment figure is doubled as an estimate to put it in line with a traditional school. Spoelstra believes schools such as Northwood should base their enrollment on projected figures with a junior and senior class.

In addition, Spoelstra said the new schools should report actual enrollment figures as of Oct. 1 for the year's competition until they expand into a complete three- or four-year school.

``I am thinking mostly about the seniors at our small schools who are inhibited from realizing their athletic goals by a larger school `bomb' being dropped into the mix,'' Spoelstra said. ``This is especially poignant when the bomb is only around for one year as the enrollment numbers catch up to reality.''

Although Spoelstra concedes his proposals are biased toward small schools, he argues that students at the ``new'' schools would have at least two more seasons to achieve their goals at a division which would be truly their ``home and worthy of their accomplishments.''

Brad Peters, the coach at first-year King High in Riverside and former coach at Division I Ayala in Chino Hills, sympathizes with Spoelstra's frustration but said competing against small schools gives new schools the most equitable chance of fair competition.

``I find it hard to imagine how my young, green, inexperienced kids will do any `bombing' of older, more established programs this year,'' Peters said. ``They could care less what division their opponents were in. All they knew is the guys standing next to them looked like Goliaths. The coaches of the so-called true Division V schools ought to use our youth and inexperience to their advantage.''

It has been argued that counting freshman would help alleviate the situation, but Paraclete High coach Tim Bachman believes that it is too difficult to predict freshman enrollment and suggests that sophomore, junior and senior enrollment numbers do not change drastically except in schools such as Northwood and other newly opened facilities.

Instead, Bachman suggests adding more divisions. Football has 13 divisions to balance competition and protect small schools.

``Each school needs to use the enrollment figures to make divisional changes for the benefit of athletic competition,'' Bachman said. ``Why have only five divisions? If we have too many schools, create another division. Not to water down the competition, but to make the number of schools within each division easier to manage.''

Solid as a rock: The Quartz Hill girls, buoyed by the 11th- and 12th-place finishes of junior Jenny Yadon and freshman Tarah Novelli, finished second to Peninsula, the State's top-ranked team, in the Division I race of the Kenny Staub Invitational at Crescenta Valley Park on Saturday.

The Rebels, winners of the first Golden League meet, had five scoring runners among the top 20, with Shell and Laura Blevins and Amanda Morgan in 17th, 18th and 19th. Quartz Hill figures to improve as the season progresses with the development of junior Katie Schettig, the 1998 Golden League runner-up, who is working her into shape after adjusting to a growth spurt over the past year.

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Photo: (Color) Quartz Hill runner Tarah Novelli finished 12th in the Div. I race of the Kenny Staub Invitational on Saturday.

Kirby Lee/Special to the Daily News