Orange County high school principals meet in May to discuss and vote upon proposals for new league structures that would go into effect for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years. Fountain Valley principal Paul Lopez, who will chair the releaguing meeting or meetings, said this week he had not yet received proposals. But there are plenty of concepts being floated in the Orange County high school sports community. Some very intriguing concepts. The first item to keep in mind is that Orange County has football-only leagues. That will continue because it has worked to most people’s satisfaction. Outside of football, a movement that will get plenty of support is getting all of the private schools out of county public school leagues. Currently, Crean Lutheran is in the Century Conference that is a 15-team group divided into three leagues – Crestview, Freeway and North Hills – with league membership varying by sport. Crean Lutheran is the only private school in the Century Conference. Crean Lutheran is, outside of Trinity League schools, the private school with the most athletic success in a variety of sports. Private schools Sage Hill, St. Margaret’s and all-girls Rosary are in the Pacific Coast Conference and Calvary Chapel is in the Golden Empire Conference. A plan has the aforementioned private schools and perhaps a couple of others joining a Trinity Conference that would include the Trinity League group. Also a possibility for a Trinity Conference is Pacifica Christian, which has made the area placement change required to get Pacifica Christian in a league with Orange County schools. Pacifica Christian does play against Orange County’s Fairmont Prep in the San Joaquin League, but Pacifica Christian wants to be leagued only with Orange County schools. A Trinity Conference would be like other conferences, dividing its member schools in upper and lower leagues. An objection that could arise there is that some of those smaller private schools don’t field teams in all sports, like wrestling, for example, and lack lower-level teams in other sports. That creates scheduling issues that the larger private schools want to avoid. The five Irvine public schools – Irvine, Northwood, Portola, University and Woodbridge – might go to the Coast View Conference that now is a 10-school south-county group. Perhaps the five Irvine schools join with the current seven Sunset League schools to create a 12-school Sunset Conference. The Century Conference and Sunset Leagues could unite to form a giant 21-team conference. Large conferences came to Orange County high school sports several years ago because it was felt conferences would make scheduling easier and would group schools of similar size and athletic success. That worked. The conference concept might grow during the upcoming releaguing process. The first computer rankings for CIF-SS boys volleyball were released Tuesday, with the request in red type “Do not overreact to the initial report.” The top three teams in the rankings: 1. Mira Costa; 2. Loyola; 3. Huntington Beach. Samueli Academy, 17-2 through Wednesday, is No. 18 in the Southern Section and is No. 9 among Orange County teams in the CIF-SS rankings. … The Huntington Beach boys volleyball team is 18-2 after a 3-1 win over Newport Harbor on Wednesday that put the Oilers at 4-0 in the Sunset League. Their two losses are to Mira Costa and Loyola. … Villa Park baseball coach Burt Call got his 500th win last Saturday when the Spartans defeated El Modena 2-0 in a Crestview League game. Many of those wins happened when Call coached at Mater Dei where his teams won CIF championships in 2005 and 2010. … Villa Park’s baseball team handed Santa Margarita its first loss of the season Wednesday in a 2-1 Spartans nonleague victory. Villa Park pitchers Jack McGuire, Brady Wolfe and Logan Hoppie did some excellent work in that one. Villa Park scored 15 runs in a league win over El Dorado on Feb. 28; since then the Spartans have scored six runs over their past five games. … The 2025 nonleague football schedule for Mater Dei, which won CIF-SS, CIF State and national championships last season, includes, in order: at St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida state champion last year) in Florida; Bishop Montgomery at home; Kahuku of Hawaii at home; Centennial of Corona at Centennial; and Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas. Bishop Montgomery of Torrance was 5-4 overall last year and 2-3 in the Camino Real League, missed the playoffs and had a computer rating of minus-29.5 (Mater Dei’s was 113.1) and is said to be aggressively improving its football program. … The CIF-SS Council meets next Thursday. The Council, the Southern Section’s legislative body, will vote on whether or not to support a proposal that would create CIF State championships for boys and girls soccer. It has a good chance of getting CIF-SS Council support and CIF State Federated Council passage. … Whittier Christian senior soccer player Lauren Gravitt is one of six California high school athletes to receive the CIF Spirit of Sport award that goes to CIF athletes who exemplify the CIF’s 16 principles of Pursuing Victory with Honor. The six honorees each receive a $2,500 scholarship, a trophy and a commemorative patch and will be recognized at a CIF Federated Council luncheon on April 4 in Oakland.