With the beginning of a new school year, comes the beginning of a new sports season. Alongside a new set of sports seasons comes questions about sports divisions and leagues.

The Co-Athletic director and the girls soccer coach, Farrell Moore, said “[sports divisions are] a grouping of schools for playoffs to determine who they compete against”

“For girls tennis, it is determined by points. For boys and girls cross country it is determined by enrollment, points for girls volleyball, and points for boys water polo.” said Moore.

Football, for example, uses multiple variables. In fact, this year it caused the SJHHS football team to go up not one, but two divisions, from division four to division two.

The reason that SJHHS football went up two divisions is because football divisions are “determined by points, but more specifically; power points, playoff points, league rank, and school rank.” said Moore.

In order to prevent high schools from competing with other high schools that are hours away from one another, divisions also take in to account the proximity between school districts.

San Juan Hills High School only “plays teams from the Capo and Saddleback Districts.” said Moore.

Even in the same high school, the divisions from sport to sport vary. Boys and girls cross country has a high enrollment rate, so they went from division two to division one. Boys water polo’s season didn’t meet their expectations last year, so they are in division four.

Sports divisions are a convenient way to organize high school sports teams and to keep high school sports competitive.