New playing field: CIF releases spring sport divisions

By: Nathan Brown, The Desert Sun | January 27, 2017

Friday afternoon, the CIF Southern Section released the divisional placements for all springs sports teams according to the competitive equity format that had been expanded to all sports at the start of this school year.

Pitcher Jeremiah Estrada pitches during the Aztec’s win over El Segundo, May 27, 2016.

Though each sport used slightly different weighted point systems that helped rank teams and split them up into divisions, the competitive equity system generally takes teams’ performance over the last two seasons into account, awarding them predetermined point totals for wins and losses in the regular season as well as postseason performance. Wins and losses against teams in higher divisions receive a higher weight, the same as a similar length postseason run in a higher division.

Baseball: The Palm Desert baseball team, who made it to the semifinals in Division 3 a year ago, headline the valley in Division 2, with La Quinta, Shadow Hills and Indio in Division 4. Palm Springs, Xavier Prep and Coachella Valley were slated into Division 5, with Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage in Division 6 and Desert Mirage and Desert Hot Springs in Division 7.

Softball: The La Quinta softball team, who fell in the Division 4 semifinals a year ago, got bumped up to Division 2, with Palm Desert and Palm Springs in Division 4. Shadow Hills, Indio and Coachella Valley qualified for Division 5, with Xavier Prep, Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage in Division 6 and Desert Mirage and Desert Hot Springs in Division 7.

Boys’ tennis: The Palm Desert boys’ tennis team highlighted the valley’s spring sports squads, landing in Division 1 after their stellar performance in the section’s top division recently. Xavier Prep, La Quinta, Palm Springs and Cathedral City landed in Division 2, with Indio and Coachella Valley in Division 3. Rancho Mirage, led by CIF girls’ tennis coach of the year Owen McIntosh, is in Division 4 along with Shadow Hills, while Desert Hot Springs and Desert Mirage round out the valley in Division 5.

Swimming: With boys’ and girls’ swimming division designations, teams in the same league were all slated in the same division by calculating all boys and girls teams’ performance over the last two years and averaging it out for one number across the whole league. The Desert Valley league landed in Division 3 with the De Anza League in Division 4.

Track and field and boys’ golf: Track and field and boys’ golf will continue to use their own postseason formats separate from the competitive equity model. Identical to girls’ golf, boys’ golfers all compete out of the same pool in the postseason in predetermined regional sites based on location. Track and field divisions are based solely on a school’s enrollment.

La Quinta and Coachella Valley landed in Division 1 for track, with Shadow Hills the lone local school in Division 2. Xavier Prep landed in Division 4, while the rest of the valley (Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Indio, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Rancho Mirage and Desert Mirage) will compete in Division 3.