MOORPARK HIGH ZONED OUT IN ATHLETIC-LEAGUE CHANGE.

Byline: Bill Schlotter Daily News Staff Writer

At a meeting to reconfigure high school athletic leagues in the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section's northern area Thursday, officials from 38 schools approved a plan that pleases most people affected by it - but not the Moorpark High School Musketeers.

With 1,600 students, Moorpark High officials say they have outgrown the Frontier League. The school had hoped to move into the locally based Marmonte League in 1998, when the four-year reorganization plan approved Thursday is to take effect. Instead, it was placed in the Ventura- and Santa Barbara-based Channel League.

Moorpark Principal John McIntosh, who plans to appeal the decision to the Southern Section, feels joining the Marmonte League would be in his school's best interest because the member schools are similar in size and close at hand - the farthest being Newbury Park, 20 miles away. And close opponents mean less time on a bus and more time in class for Moorpark students.

As a Channel League member, the Musketeers' closest opponent will be Ventura's Buena High School, about 20 miles to the north. And Moorpark will have to bus more than 50 miles one-way to games at Santa Barbara and San Marcos high schools in Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos High in Goleta.

Buena Principal Jaime Castellanos, whose school authored the plan, said it is in the Musketeers' best interest to be in the Channel rather than in the tougher Marmonte. Musketeers teams will fare better competitively, he said. And, he said, with Channel League games typically highly attended, the Moorpark student body will make more money from gate receipts.

But Castellanos was also candid in admitting that he was looking out for his school and his league in making the decision.

Without Moorpark, the Channel League, which loses three schools to an Oxnard-based league under the reorganization, would be reduced to five teams - creating problems in trying to schedule games in leagues with an odd number of members. ``It means having byes,'' Castellanos said. ``Who do you schedule when you have a bye week?''

An uneven schedule factored into the reasoning not to add Moorpark to the Marmonte League. The Marmonte League drops from eight teams to six under the new plan with the realignment of Camarillo and Channel Islands high schools with the new Oxnard league. Taking on Moorpark would give the league seven members - again, an undesirable odd number.

``I thought Moorpark had considerable rationale for being in the Marmonte League,'' said Joseph Pawlick, Westlake High School athletic director. ``But we will not (allow) a seven-team league - it's unanimous.''

Pawlick noted that Moorpark could have sought membership in the new Oxnard grouping, which will have five members when it begins in 1998. But Rio Mesa Principal Eric Ortega said the new league's schools - all members of the Oxnard Unified School District - probably would have opposed inclusion of an out-of-district school.

And a new district high school will enter the league in 2000, Ortega said, giving the league the desired even-number balance. Moorpark, if in the league, would have brought the number to seven.

McIntosh said his chief complaint with a Channel League affiliation is the class time students will miss in order to bus to games more than an hour away from campus, particularly for sports like baseball, softball and soccer that are played during the afternoon.

``It means they will be leaving school just after lunch,'' he said.

And McIntosh added that he is disturbed that administrators at other schools would put athletic scheduling issues ahead of keeping kids in the classroom. ``As an educator, I am deeply concerned. Athletics are great. They are an important part of young people's lives. But schools were created for academics.''

If Moorpark decides to appeal the plan, it has until May 8 to do so.