The 2023-2024 school year has come to a close and along with it a very successful year of high school athletics. We experienced some tremendous milestones and a few new initiatives. Here is a short summary of significant happenings this past school year.

The inaugural season of Girls Flag Football as a CIF sport was something many were excited to see at the beginning of the year. However, I don’t believe its exploding popularity is something anyone could have predicted. We had over 150 schools field a girls flag football team last year and we are likely to see almost 100 more come online in 2024. Not to mention the addition of lower-level teams in many of the existing programs.

The proposal to change the bylaw governing our playoff grouping method to use same season data in our team sports passed by an overwhelming 79-8 majority vote. This new method we will use to establish playoff divisions has worked quite successfully in Football the last three years and we are excited to roll this out for our other team sports in 2024-2025. More details coming soon. Three health and safety bylaw revisions passed this last year that will have significant implications for all Southern Section schools. 503.K(1) – Heat Illness Protocol, mandated that schools use WBGT measurements to determine practice safety as well as established an acclimatization period for Fall outdoor sports. 503.K(2) – Air Quality Index Protocol, established an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 151 or higher as unsafe for practice or game activity. Bylaw 503.L – Emergency Action Plan/AED Protocols, mandates that all schools must have venue specific Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) and they must be rehearsed at least once each season. Also, AEDs must be available on school campuses at least three minutes from a potential cardiac arrest.

We successfully spent the remainder of the grant monies secured by the CIF State Office from the State of California following the pandemic. Sport fees, Summit registration, Golf Fees and more were covered by this grant. Most of these funds were earmarked to support member schools in some form or fashion. With the final allotment of our grant money, we were able to provide 336 schools with an AED to assist in meeting the requirements of newly revised bylaw 503.L.

And finally, we were able to expand opportunities for Unified Sports Athletes by integrating Unified Sports into our Swimming Championships along with hosting our third year of Unified Sports Track and Field Championships. We will continue to investigate other options for the Unified Athletes and their partners in the coming years.

Looking Ahead The 2024-2025

The school year will be an exciting one. First, we will have our inaugural Girls Flag Football Championships at the end of the Fall season. We anticipate our first tournament being divided into four divisions with 32 team brackets in at least 3 of those divisions. The Championship venue is still to be determined.

The implementation of our new competitive equity playoff model is something everyone is looking forward to. The season preview for each sport will outline the system that individual sport will be using to rank teams in the Section. I cannot understate the importance of accurate schedules and scores being posted by all our member schools. All the systems we will use relies on this accurate data to place teams in the proper order. Be prepared to see frequent reminders to that effect during the season.

Believe it or not, area placement and releaguing will take place for the 2026 – 2030 cycle starting next Fall. Area placement will begin September 13th with a survey to member schools for their area placement requests. This process will end in March at which time releaguing will commence. Final releaguing plans will be due in the CIF Southern Section Office by June 19th.

Have a great summer everyone and we will see you back on campus in August.

Mike West, Commissioner of Athletics, CIF-Southern Section

Upcoming Events – Summer Eligibility Workshops. These workshops cover important eligibility requirements. Knowledge of these rules/requirements and processes are mandatory for every athletic program.

Citrus Belt Area – Thursday, Aug. 1

Orange County Area -Tuesday, Aug. 6

Foothill-Citrus Area – Monday, Aug. 12

High Desert Area – Tuesday, Aug. 13

Northern Area – Monday, Aug. 19

CIF Southern Section Office – Friday, Aug. 9 and Friday, Aug. 16

For more information visit www.cifss.org.