I know I’ve spotlighted Covina’s football team as the team hurt most by the recent CIF-SS playoff re-grouping. Yes, the rest of the Valle Vista League is involved and they can’t be happy either. But Covina was one of the top teams in the area last year and it returns Tribune Player of the Year Mike McDonough (QB) next season and should again be one of the Valley’s best.
I just don’t see one Valle Vista League football team hurt more by this because there was wide opinion that the Colts would’ve been one of the favorites in Division IX this coming season … if there were a Division IX.
Anyway, I got Colts coach Darryl Thomas to share some of his thoughts on Wednesday after it was learned the initial Valle Vista League appeal was shot down by CIF after the first wave of the appeals process was completed. It’s likely nothing will change again when the council meets to officially put into effect the new playoff groupings.
“I think they just use us as the filler,” Thomas said. “They tried for an Orange County division. We proposed an all-San Gabriel Valley division, but they wanted to take care of Orange County, which is nothing new.
“Somebody mentioned to me that the fact we have state bowl games next year is why they put Oaks Christian in with us – because they want them to run the table. Maybe there’s some validity to that.”