San Andreas League says no to Indian Springs High School

Indian Springs, the newest school in San Bernardino, was rejected for early admission into the San Andreas League on Wednesday.

The school which has only freshmen and sophomores this year and won’t have play a varsity sport until the fall of 2013, was asking the San Andreas League for admission next fall, a year before the new league alignment goes into effect in the fall of 2014.

In a meeting of San Andreas League principals and athletic directors, the league voted 6-0 to deny Indian Springs admission for next fall. As a result, unless Indian Springs can find another league to accept them, the school will have to play a freelance schedule for the 2013-14 school year.

Pacific Athletic Director Carmel Brand said there were several reasons why the league denied Indian Springs entry into the league.

“They would be overwhelmed,” she said. “They have a small sophomore class for athletes (this year) and they would have a tough time. It’s just not fair. The other thing is being in a seven-team league isn’t good for anybody. No one wants a (football) bye Week 9 .. or Week 10.”

The league sent an email to Indian Springs on Wednesday informing them of the decision and declined comment until Thursday.

Brand said another concern is that if the SAL expands to seven teams next fall, the league could be stuck that way. As releaguing meetings begin in the next few months, the league could be seen as a seven-team league and other ;eagies might vote to keep the SAL status quo when its member schools would prefer to be a six- or eight-team league for the next releaguing cycle in 2014.

Indian Springs wanted to join a league to make it easier to schedule games. Brand said despite Wednesday’s vote, many of the SAL schools will schedule Indian Springs in nonleague contests.

Indian Springs Athletic Director John Anderson had previously indicated he would pursue early admission into either the San Andreas or Mountain Valley League for next fall. It is unknown if he still plans on pursuing the Mountain Valley after the SAL rejected the school.

It is expected to be an interesting series of releaguing meetings coming up as there are four new schools to be added to the CItrus Belt Area, including Indian Springs, Adelanto, Riverside Hillcrest and Rancho Mirage.

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