The Rio Hondo League, Pacific League and Mission Valley League, which have remained relatively the same for decades, may see a major shake up when the Foothill Area that represents it votes on its next releaguing cycle on May 1 at the Whittier Union High School District office.

The changes would start in the fall of 2026.

The Foothill Area also represents several Whittier area leagues, which include the Almont and Del Rio leagues, as well as the Suburban Conference of 10 teams and 605 League.

There are six proposals that have been submitted for voting. Some have modest changes, and some have radical changes that include conferencing, which has become a popular way of grouping teams into league sport-by-sport based on competitive equity models, which several other areas in the CIF Southern Section have adopted.

Currently, the Rio Hondo League includes Monrovia, South Pasadena, Temple City, La Cañada, Blair and San Marino.

The Mission Valley League includes El Monte, Arroyo, Gabrielino, Mountain View, Rosemead, South El Monte and Marshall.

The Pacific League includes Pasadena, Muir, Arcadia, Crescenta Valley, Burbank, Burroughs, Glendale and Hoover.

In every proposal submitted, the Del Rio League, which includes El Rancho, La Serna, California, Whittier and Santa Fe, would be eliminated with teams sent to other leagues.

The Almont League, which includes Alhambra, Bell Gardens, Keppel, Montebello, San Gabriel and Schurr, is also facing major changes in most proposals.

The Pacific League’s proposal, which was submitted by Muir athletic director Alfredo Resendiz, calls for a major shift change to conferencing. It would group the Rio Hondo and Pacific leagues along with Gabrielino and Marshall into one conference of 16 teams. In this format, three leagues would be formed under the banner of the Pacific/Rio Hondo Conference using competitive equity. For every sport, it would group the top 5-6 teams in League A, and the next 5-6 in League B and the remaining 5-6 in League C.

Resendiz said they would use the CIF-SS computer rankings from the previous season for each sport to place teams in leagues based on competitive equity.

Resendiz explained why the changes are needed.

“Competitive equity, that’s where it ends and begins,” Resendiz said. “This is something that has been on my radar for a long time. As a teacher, I use to walk in a class every day and see our girls soccer team or softball team after taking absolute drudgings, losing by 12-13 runs every game, or 12-13 goals.

“Our numbers (in sports) continue to go down, so it was about competitive equity and placing teams in more competitive situations. The same thing is happening to Hoover and Glendale, they struggle in many sports too. So, it’s always been about competitive equity for me. This is something I was going to try and change for the life of me, and now we have that chance.”

Also part of the Pacific League proposal would be to combine the Almont and Mission Valley leagues, along with El Rancho into one conference of 12 teams. In this proposal, two leagues would be created sport by sport using competitive equity to place teams.

The final conference would be the Surburban Valley Conference, which would include all of the Del Rio League with the exception of El Rancho, to form a 20-team conference of three to four leagues.

The Rio Hondo League’s proposal would leave its league the same while proposing 10-team conferences for the Pacific and Mission Valley leagues, and sending the Del Rio League into a 20-team Suburban Conference.

Monrovia athletic director Jose Casagran helped draft the Rio Hondo League proposal. Casagran said he understands that conferencing is the way of the future, but he did not like the conference proposals being suggested for Rio Hondo League teams, particularly the Pacific League proposal that would group them together.

So, they opted to create a proposal that leaves the Rio Hondo League the same while making minor changes to other leagues that schools already wanted.

“I think everyone is open to competitive equity leagues,” Casagran said, “and maybe we’re for it in the next cycle when it comes to our league. But we don’t want to be forced into a league that we don’t think is the right fit for us.

“We’ve had some issues with the Pacific League, and don’t see it as a good fit right now. It’s not so much about conferencing, but we came up with our proposal because we didn’t like what was on the table, particularly the Pacific League proposal.”

The Mission Valley League’s proposal would leave its league and the Rio Hondo League mostly the same, while creating a 10-team Pacific Conference that would add Marshall and Blair.

The 605 League proposal would keep everything the same, except move all Del Rio League teams to a 20-team Suburban Conference.

The Del Rio League proposal is very similar to the Pacific League proposal of major conferencing, which would group the Pacific and Rio Hondo leagues together, as well as a major Suburban Conference of 20 teams. In this proposal, the Almont League would include El Rancho, Montebello, Schurr and Bell Gardens, while Alhambra and Keppel would go to the Mission Valley League to form an eight-team league.

The Suburban Conference proposal, like every proposal, includes a 20-team Suburban Conference that includes La Mirada, California, La Serna, Santa Fe, Whittier and Pioneer. This proposal would create a 12-team Almont League which combines the Almont and Mission Valley leagues, along with El Rancho. It would leave the Pacific League as is and bump the Rio Hondo League to eight teams by adding Marshall and Gabrielino.

“We like the Suburban proposal too,” Casagran said. “We’re going to vote for our proposal first, and if it falls, we’ll be voting for the Suburban next.”