Here’s where each Merced County team will play after Sac-Joaquin Section realignment

With this fall marking the start of the Sac-Joaquin Section new league realignment cycle, many leagues featuring Merced County teams have been shuffled.

The realignment committee worked with athletic directors and administrators to make changes to leagues in hopes of bringing more balance competitively with football mostly leading the way.

All four leagues that the 14 Merced County schools call home saw some type of change, including Los Banos leaving the Western Athletic Conference for the Central California Conference, the Trans-Valley League getting even tougher with the addition of three powerhouse programs and Stone Ridge Christian moving up to the Southern League.

Here’s a look at what the CCC, WAC, TVL and SL will look like for the Merced County football teams after realignment with the first official day of practiced scheduled for Monday.

Central California Conference

The CCC becomes an all-Merced County conference with Patterson leaving for the Valley Oak League and Central Valley vacating for the WAC.

The CCC will now be comprised of Merced, Golden Valley, El Capitan, Atwater, Buhach Colony and Los Banos.

Los Banos returns to the CCC. The Tigers actually won the CCC championship during their last season in the CCC in 2009.

Los Banos enters the CCC after going 14-0 the past two seasons in the WAC, winning back-to-back championships.

“It is what it is,” said Los Banos coach Dustin Caropreso. “I think we got punished for having success in our league. I think it’s a punishment rather than a reward, but we’ll be ready to step up to the challenge.”

Caropreso doesn’t like that Los Banos will be the smallest school in enrollment size with somewhere between 1,400 and 1,500 students. The other five CCC schools all have enrollments north of 1,800 students.

Caropreso was an assistant coach under Dennis Stubbs when the Tigers were in the CCC before.

“I don’t know if that will help,” Caropreso said. “We were a one-school town back then. We had a little more kids to choose from at our school. It does give us an idea of what to expect. The question is can we withstand the beating we get every Friday night because we are the smallest school.”

Western Athletic Conference

Los Banos and Mountain House were both moved from the WAC and Livingston makes the move to the conference from the TVL along with Central Valley from the CCC.

The WAC will now be comprised of Beyer, Ceres, Davis, Johansen, Lathrop, Pacheco, Central Valley, and Livingston.

Los Banos leaving splits up the Tigers with crosstown rivals Pacheco from the same conference. The two teams have scheduled a non-conference game for Sept. 6. at Pacheco High.

Livingston coach Scott Wine didn’t mind the move to the WAC.

“I’m looking forward to the new league,” Wine said. “I think there are going to be a bunch of close games.”

Wine admits he hasn’t seen many of the WAC teams play recently.

‘”In the TVL, all the teams were in one-school towns,” Wine said. “Now Livingston is the only school like that in the WAC. Some of these Modesto schools, I haven’t seen play in a long time. It’s going to be fun getting to know what every team runs.”

Trans-Valley League

The TVL was already considered one of the toughest small-school football league in the state. Adding three perennial powers like Orestimba, Ripon Christian and Sonora makes the run to a TVL championship extremely tough.

“I’m looking forward to watching to see how that plays out from afar,” Wine said. “I don’t mind not being in the middle of that. That league is going to be brutal.”

The TVL had two teams – Escalon and Hughson – win Sac-Joaquin Section championships last year.

The TVL will now consist of Escalon, Hughson, Hilmar, Modesto Christian, Ripon, Orestimba, Sonora and Ripon Christian.

“All three teams coming in our really legit teams,” said Hilmar coach Frank Marques.

Ripon Christian (12-2), Orestimba (9-4) and Sonora (9-2) all won at least nine games last year and advanced to the playoffs.

“The good thing is we were already playing Sonora,” Marques said. “I think they are the next juggernaut coming in. Orestimba has a lot of talent. There’s not going to be any breathers.”

“It’s going to be a challenge for all of us,” Marques said. “It’s going to be tough for one team to run the table.”

Southern League

With the exit of Ripon Christian and Orestimba the Southern League loses its top two football teams from last year.

The Southern League will now be comprised of Delhi, Denair, Gustine, Le Grand, Mariposa, Waterford, Stone Ridge Christian, and Delta Charter.

The addition of Stone Ridge Christian will bring an ambitious program that has been short on numbers, but not on talent.

In preparation for making the jump from the Central California Athletic Alliance to the SL, SRC upgraded its schedule last year. The Knights throttled two SL teams Gustine and Mariposa by a combined score of 109 to 20.

Stone Ridge Christian returns one of the top running backs in Merced County in junior Daijon O’neil, who rushed for 1,449 yards and 15 touchdowns. O’Neil was also the leading scorer for the Knights section championship basketball team.

Here’s what the four leagues which feature Merced County football teams will look like this year:

CCC

Atwater

Buhach Colony

Central Valley

El Capitan

Golden Valley

Merced

Los Banos

Southern League

Delhi

Denair

Gustine

Le Grand

Mariposa

Waterford

Stone Ridge Christian

Delta Charter

TVL

Escalon

Hilmar

Hughson

Modesto Christian

Ripon

Orestimba

Sonora

Ripon Christian

WAC

Beyer

Ceres

Davis

Johansen

Lathrop

Pacheco

Central Valley

Livingston