Overwhelmed.

That’s how I felt when I first learned of the end of the Freeway League as we athletes at Sunny Hills know it.

The final vote in favor of releaguing across all schools in Orange County came on Tuesday, Jan. 30, when 77 Orange County schools approved the plan to releague sports teams into conferences instead of continuing the Freeway League starting next school year. During this process, football would be leagued separately from other sports.

Besides being game over for the Freeway League – made up of six high schools in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District – Sunny Hills athletic director told The Accolade about the following changes to occur starting with the 2024-2025 fall season sports:

• Sunny Hills will be joined by La Habra, Sonora and Troy to compete in a new conference – named, “Century”
• 14 other schools will join the Century Conference
• There will be three leagues under each Conference: Century, Freeway and North Hills
• Buena Park High School and Fullerton High School are the only two schools that will not join the Century Conference, but instead the Golden Empire Conference. 
• Teams will be placed in a league based on this year’s CIF power rank. Top five in Century, next five in Freeway and last five in North Hills.

Since all of these changes – more are anticipated for winter and spring sports over the summer – occurred during the spring semester, most student athletes who compete in fall sports – including me as a three-year Lady Lancers golfer – were kept in the dark about these exciting developments.

Hearing about the news through the athletic director, not my golf coach, made the news more surprising. 

Although unable to reach out to my team, I wondered how they would react and if this affected them with the same excitement I felt. 

Heading into my fourth year as a golfer, I have been quite comfortable with how the Freeway League season would normally go. I could usually count on easy victories over certain of the schools that will remain nameless. 

Troy, as always, would be the team we would have to beat if we were ever to win a league championship outright.

And now with this shuffling of new schools, I’m actually quite nervous about what lies ahead.

Will every match against every new school require us to play at 200% to secure a win? Will we ever have a chance to claim a league title without sharing it with Troy? How will I manage my five Advanced Placement classes, Accolade and sports, especially if my teammates and I may have to travel as far as away as nearly 24 miles south to Foothill High School in Tustin? Will I have to miss more class time? Does that mean I will be arriving home later after matches? 

And then the thought of the new golf courses only added to the anxiety I was feeling.

For the past three years, my teammates and I have gotten used to playing our league matches at our home course, La Mirada Golf Course. Yes, we had non-league matches at such locations as California Country Club and Alta Vista Country Club, but knowing that when league play starts, we would have that familiarity on the greens again provided that added confidence I needed to go out and perform at my best.

Finally, my worst fear could be the added transportation cost for each player on our team because of these unanticipated changes.

When talking to Jones about future costs athletes will be responsible for, he mentioned that as we start facing schools in further distances, less students would come watch the sports games.

Without many students paying to watch, the school would lose more money, causing the district to pay the school more money to make up for those losses. 

For the past three seasons, each player was asked to raise or donate $600 to cover for tournament fees, range balls and the team outfit consisting of two T-shirts, hoodie and a visor.  

Although my coach hasn’t communicated anything about the donation amount for this coming fall season, I fear it might go up as $800, maybe even $1,000. How else would we be able to get to such campuses as Crean Lutheran High School and El Modena High School, both about 30 minutes away, if they end up being in our new league?

The main reason Jones gave me as to why CIF has caused what amounts to an earthquake of epic proportions is this word that has surfaced quite often at the collegiate and professional level – parity.

After three years of playing in weekly matches against schools in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, I grew familiar with my opponents’ playing styles. With the termination of the Freeway League, I feel nervous about encountering new players that I’ve never competed against in one-to-one matches before. 

I realized how these new groups of players would lead to stronger competition and more tense matches since everyone is placed in the leagues based solely on skill level.

With this forty-year tradition coming to an end, I can’t predict what changes this will bring to my team, coach and other sports teams affected by the wipeout of the Freeway League. Nevertheless, I am confident that I’ll be able to develop into a better player and grow from this novel experience. 

I can only hope my senior year as a Lady Lancer golfer will lead to an above par performance than one that will end in a bogey.