Disparity of leagues

Two weeks is a small sample size in gauging the balance among the new divisions.
The results, however, over the first two weeks of league play shows a lot of disparity among the four divisions.
 Six games last Friday were blowouts, with two of them being by 40 points or more. Opening week in league play among the four divisions saw eight teams win by 20 or more points.
 That breaks down to eight competitive games in the first two weeks among a possible a 22.
 No one said the format would be perfect. This isn't all that uncommon. Yet, the equity we had hoped for is still missing.
 Clearly some programs are seeing a resurrection. Gonzales is undefeated in the Santa Lucia Division. Monterey is chasing perfection in the Cypress.
 The Mission Division has five teams that on any given Friday night can beat each other, as evident by Watsonville's double overtime win over North Salinas.
The real disparity is in the Gabilan Division. There are four really solid teams and four programs in transition.
 Aptos, Palma, Salinas and San Benito are perennial playoff teams, with three of them having decade long plus playoff streaks.
 The remaining four teams aren't at that caliber of play. Quite frankly, all of them have struggled in their tenures in the Gabilan in the past when shoved into it.
 Alvarez, Christopher, Gilroy and Seaside have never had a winning record in the Gabilan Division during their pits stops in the upper division.
 In fact, the combined record of the four teams in league is 17-51. We're not even going to get into the lopsided losses.
 So this is a problem, a concern for coaches, whose programs have seen a decline in turnouts in recent seasons for various reasons.
 Fixing it a real issue. It's not going away. Someone has to be placed in that league. You can't have a four-team division. But who wants to be the sacrificial lambs?
 It's not impossible for another program to compete. We saw Monte Vista and Monterey both have success in the Gabilan Division -- albeit not for long periods of time.
 It's rare. To survive in the Gabilan Division, you have to have depth, numbers and some talent.
 One coach in the Mission Division said the biggest difference between the Gabilan and us is depth. If a starter goes down in the Mission, it often means you're replacing two starters.
 Looking into the future, there's no team in the Mission prepared to make that jump to the Gabilan next year. Not Alisal, not Carmel.
 Some will point the finger at Carmel for beating Salinas in Week 1. Or the fact that Alisal defeated Seaside and Alvarez.
 Keep this in mind. Carmel canceled its junior varsity game against Salinas because the coaching staff felt 18 plus freshman weren't physically and mentally prepared to face an 'A' league team.