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June 15, 2026
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
This is the second in a series of stories on the new Suburban Valley Conference which involves 20 schools from the 605 League, Del Rio League, Gateway League and Mid-Cities League. The SVC will begin with the 2026-2027 school year and over the next month and a half, I will be getting comments from the athletic directors of the area schools on what it has been like the past year and the effects the new SVC will have on their respective schools this upcoming school year and beyond.
ARTESIA HIGH-INSIDE THE NUMBERS OF THE EIGHT MAJOR SPORTS WHILE IN THE 605 LEAGUE SINCE 2018
Football: 13-9 league record. one league title, second place four times, third place twice
Girls volleyball: 26-44 league record, third place three times, fourth place twice
Boys basketball: 57-18 league record, three league titles, second place three times
Girls basketball: 15-60 league record, fifth place five times, fourth place twice
Boys soccer: 61-5-7 league record, seven league titles, third place last season
Girls soccer: 39-18-7 league record, last two league titles, second place three times
Baseball: 27-36-1 league record, third place five times, fourth place once, last place once
Softball: 44-24 league record, third place three times, second place twice, one league title
Four CIF-Southern Section divisional championships
CIF-Southern Section divisional finalist: once
CIF-Southern Section semifinalist: three times
CIF-Southern Section quarterfinalist: six times
In less than two months, the 2026-2027 school year begins and with that, so will the new Suburban Valley Conference, a 20 school conglomeration of high schools stretching from Oxford Academy to the south, La Mirada High to the east, Lynwood High to the west, Whittier High to the north and 16 others in between. Artesia High, a longstanding member of the original Suburban League, was one of six schools that completed an eight-year stay in the 605 League.
Now, with the new conference and new leagues, the Artesia athletic program across the board feels it is in a better position than when the 605 League was formed as the Pioneers won 13 league titles in the major sports over the past eight years.
Artesia athletic director Matt Soriano was trying to put a master schedule together, but not all the sports have been decided in terms of how they want to determine who is in what league.
“It looks like we’re not complete on track and swimming, but everything else is done,” said Soriano. “Some of the golf matches look a little funny because Pioneer didn’t have a team this year but had a team the year before. So they weren’t included, and we had to add them late.”
Soriano added that for track and field, the debate is whether to go back to dual meets or stay in the recently used cluster meet format. He says the former San Gabriel Valley League does neither but instead had a preview meet in which you can go to or not go to, a league championship for all levels, and a CIF-Southern Section qualifier meet, in which only the first place team advances to the CIF-SS preliminaries. You could still advance based on your time or mark, but in terms of a team, only first place gets you to the preliminaries.
“You don’t have to go to the first meet; the next meet is for a league championship, but it’s before the sit-out period and then they have the [league] prelims and finals where only varsity runs,” said Soriano. “I said that’s going to give my freshmen runners one meet in the entire year.”
Soriano said proposals on how to conduct the track and field issue were submitted earlier this month and will be voted on next month. Another sport in which the leagues weren’t decided yet was girls beach volleyball, in which 10 schools are expected to compete in two leagues with Artesia being in the second league.
Although football has three leagues of six schools each for the upcoming 2026 season with the 605 League being omitted, at least for the first season of the SVC, Soriaro says that might change for the 2027 season as a new state proposal has been put on the table giving an odd number of berths to the playoffs instead of an even number.
For the fall sports, Artesia is placed in the Mid-Cities League, or second of the four, in girls flag football and boys water polo while the Pioneers will compete in the Rio Vista League, or third of the four, in girls golf, 11-man football and girls volleyball. In the remaining three sports-boys and girls cross country and girls tennis, the Pioneers will battle in the 605 League, or fourth of the four leagues. They are not in the top league, or Gateway League, in any of the fall sports.
“It’s funny because when we started this whole thing of how to place [teams] in league, and we said it was going to be strictly CIF-computer based…all these stats were posted so everyone could see,” said Soriano. “It looks wrong if I’m trying to sponge the numbers to make sure Artesia gets into a lower division. But I didn’t change any numbers anywhere. We’re basically in the bottom where we probably should be except for girls volleyball. And girls volleyball didn’t get any bonus points for winning CIF because [the CIF-SS] doesn’t release new rankings with playoffs included.”
He continued by remembering some 20 years ago when the CIF-SS gave basketball teams bonus points for advancing in the playoffs as opposed to losing in the first round, or a wild card game. Soriano said his teams are anywhere from the fourth to seventh place teams from the bottom in mostly every sport. Because of that, where the Pioneers are situated for the first year of the SVC makes it a perfect fit.
The girls volleyball team won the CIF-SS Division 8 championship last season despite finishing in fourth place in the 605 League, but the Pioneers lost a lot of seniors from that squad. They figure to nab an automatic playoff spot as Firebaugh High, La Mirada, Mayfair High and Whittier are in the same league.
He believes the football team, which missed the playoffs for the first time since 2022 and the second time as a member of the 605 League, is in a great shape to win the Rio Vista League, which has Firebaugh, John Glenn High, Lynwood, Pioneer High and Whittier.
“I think we’re in a really good league for football,” said Soriano. “I know we’re young; I think we should be contending for a league title. The less number of non-league games I have to go schedule, the better. So, if it doesn’t cost us more playoff berths to have more teams in it, sure, I want a bigger league because then I don’t have to find other teams who want to play us.
“I think we’re two years away because most of our skill players next year are juniors,” he added. “But this may have to be the year we go [to the playoffs] because if we win league, we get promoted to the middle league. So then it will be a little more of a struggle, even though we may all be seniors that year and have three years of varsity experience under our belt, this may be the year.”
When it comes to the winter sports, the Pioneers are set up for success as they are in the Rio Vista League in boys basketball and boys soccer and the 605 League for girls basketball. In boys basketball, they will have Bellflower High, Norwalk High, Paramount High and Santa Fe High as league opponents while in boys soccer, they will face former Suburban League foes La Mirada and Mayfair twice, along with Firebaugh and Pioneer. The girls soccer team figures to be put to the test with California High, Cerritos High, Lynwood and Santa Fe as new league opponents.
“Our girls soccer team has improved over the years,” said Soriano. “They had a CIF title [in the 2023-2024 season and] lost in the semifinals in overtime last year going up a division. Coach [Hugo] Umana said they’re in a little tougher league, but that’s the caliber they should be with. It may be hard for them to get an automatic berth, but we won’t have league scores of 10-0 against Glenn anymore.”
The key concern for both basketball programs is that they were hit hard by the transfer portal since the end of last season. Had the players stayed, Soriano believes the girls basketball team would have had the inside track to win the 605 League over Bellflower, Firebaugh, Glenn and La Mirada, Now, he’s hoping that the team will be in the top three to nab an automatic playoff berth.
Its going to be a different situation in the spring where the Pioneers will reunite with former Suburban League rivals Bellflower and Norwalk in baseball and Norwalk in softball. Artesia was eliminated in the baseball and softball playoffs last month by 2-1 results that went nine innings and should be competitive in the Rio Vista League.
Other than swimming, the Pioneers will be in the Rio Vista League or the 605 League in six of the eight spring sports, thus creating better opportunities to finish in the top three and nabbing an automatic playoff berth.
“Baseball-wise, we’re going to struggle,” said Soriano. “I had seven seniors and six of them started and they’re also going to get hit with transfers because some of the players who were on varsity and contributed are no longer with us. Baseball might struggle a little in the [Rio Vista] League, but they will contend for a playoff berth. And I guess that’s the whole point of this new conference and league; that even if we lose people to transfers [and] even if I graduated people, I still have a chance to compete for that third playoff berth.”
He went on to say that the softball program is in a league where the competition might be better than what the 605 League offered the past eight seasons, but the point of the SVC is not to have contests that are run ruled. He also added that he envisions more teams finishing closer to each other in league, i.e., fewer teams going undefeated in league.
One major change in baseball will be the number of league contests everyone will play as all 20 teams will play a dozen league games instead of the home and home weekly series the old 605 League had been accustomed to. Playing each league foe three times had been the norm for the Gateway League and Mid-Cities League in the past, but unlike the former which plans to keep the same format of three games in a week, the other three leagues will have their teams face each other once before going to a home and home format for the other two league meetings.
Soriano says the reason for the first round, then the home and home format as opposed to the Gateway League’s format is due to smaller rosters and not enough pitching.
“It is less, once again, non-league games I have to schedule or who will have to try to find me,” said Soriano. “It should eliminate head to head ties because if you play someone three times, someone should win twice, and they should be competitive games.”
Over the past school year as the athletic directors and principals had their monthly meetings, Soriano says many votes taken went 20-0, or 16-0 if a school did not field a particular sport. He said the one big thing that did not go in favor of Artesia was the way the conference wanted to pick individual wrestlers for the CIF-SS playoffs. He says he still doesn’t understand what the other athletic directors voted on, but thought the process was rushed through.
Other than trying to work out the wrestling situation, Soriano said he had a positive look on the SVC when it was first presented; that it is good for Artesia athletics. The fact that the CIF-SS has been going through its own transformations in terms of staying with the competitive equity when it comes to determining playoff divisions is another positive factor for the lesser than ideal athletic teams.
“The thing about the CIF now is if you make the playoffs, you have a chance to win,” said Soriano. “There used to be years where when you were locked into a playoff division as it was, you would see some team run away with the division the whole time because they were ranked first the whole time.”
In conclusion, Soriano says he’s excited to see what happens and excited to see how it plays out, especially the comradery with the athletic directors. He stated it was easier with the six to 10 athletic directors while in the 605 League.
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