Laguna Beach Told to Keep Football in PCL Next Season

Pacific Coast League principals denied Laguna Beach High’s request to withdraw its football program from the league next season, Laguna Beach Principal Barbara Callard said Wednesday.

In a two-hour meeting, the principals decided to keep the Artists in the league through the two-year league cycle, which extends through next season. The Artists would be free to join another league or play a free-lance schedule after the 1993-94 season.

“The league is very sensitive about this,” Callard said. “We reached a consensus that it’s not possible to leave at this point.”

Laguna Beach officials wanted to move the football team into another league, preferably with smaller schools, or play a free-lance schedule next season. Laguna Beach is the league’s smallest school with 650 students, and is 0-15 in league football games the last three seasons. The Artists were outscored, 226-51, in league games this season.

But Callard said the principals thought it would be too difficult to replace Laguna Beach in the middle of the league cycle.

One county football coach, Foothill’s Tom Meiss, expressed some interest in joining the league in a Wednesday interview.

“I’m partial to that league,” said Meiss, who coached Orange when it was in the Pacific Coast League in the late 1980s. “We had some great experiences and a very good working relationship with the coaches and administrators while I was coaching at Orange. I like that league.

“We fit in that league and in their bracket of the playoffs with 1,250 students at Foothill. I don’t know how the water polo coach here or what of the other coaches at Foothill think, but I’d like to be in that league.” Foothill is currently in the Century League.

Callard said Laguna Beach will seek a new league for all sports in the four-year cycle, which begins after the 1993-94 school year.

Although they struggle in football, the Artists feature traditionally strong teams in tennis and volleyball, which makes it difficult to find a league that will suit all sports, Callard said.

“We have to look carefully at what league we want,” she said. “It will be a real dilemma for us.”

Times staff writer Tom Hamilton contributed to this story.