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By Loren Kopff
Sport Editor | Follow X
June 29, 2026
This is the fourth 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.
GAHR HIGH-INSIDE THE NUMBERS OF THE EIGHT MAJOR SPORTS SINCE THE 2022-2023 SCHOOL YEAR WHEN THE ORIGINAL SUBURBAN VALLEY CONFERENCE OF 11 SCHOOLS WAS FORMED
Football: 13-5 league record, one league title, second place twice, third place once
Girls volleyball: 14-20 league record, one league title. third place once, fifth place twice
Boys basketball: 21-15 league record, second place once, third place three times
Girls basketball: 16-18 league record, first place once, third place once
Boys soccer: 20-16-2 league record, first place once, third place once
Girls soccer: 24-12-2 league record, first place once, second place once, third place once
Baseball: 36-12 league record, second place four times
Softball: 21-11 league record, second place three times, third place once
CIF-Southern Section divisional championships: One
CIF-Southern Section divisional finalists: Two
CIF-Southern Section semifinalists: Two
CIF-Southern Section quarterfinalists: Four
While the six-school 605 League was getting settled after beginning a new era at the start of the 2018-2019 school year, Gahr High was still in the San Gabriel Valley League until the end of the 2022 spring season. That league then merged with what was left of the old Suburban League and added Firebaugh High to create the original Suburban Valley Conference, which was divided into the Gateway League, or upper league, and Mid-Cities League, or lower league.
Now that the new SVC has been molded and created to put 20 schools from four leagues into where they seemed to be better suited, at least for the upcoming school year, another change recently took place at Gahr. Longtime athletic director Greg Marshall has stepped aside and handed the reigns to longtime baseball head coach, Gerardo Perez. Marshall, who will be entering his 24th season as the head coach for Gahr’s football team, will still be around as a consultant and provide more guidance for Perez.
“At the end of the [school] year, there was a lot of discussion because Greg is on the tail end and Iris [Najera] is the assistant A.D. who does a different role,” said Perez. “She handles a lot of the administrative paperwork stuff.
“I’m kind of blessed that Greg is still kind of here and serving as a mentor,” he continued. “He’s not far, so in the transition, I’m blessed and fortunate to be able to ask him any question regarding anything that goes with the job because there is a job description and then there’s a billion other things that have nothing to do with the job description.”
For the first year of the new SVC, the Gladiators will be in the Gateway League for girls flag football, girls golf, girls volleyball in the fall, boys basketball and boys soccer in the winter and baseball and softball in the spring. Boys cross country, football, boys golf and swimming will be situated in the Mid-Cities League while the other athletic programs will be in the lower two leagues. Yet to be decided as far as placement goes are boys and girls wrestling in the winter and girls beach volleyball and boys and girls track and field in the spring.
Even though Perez attended the monthly meetings with the other athletic directors towards the end of school year, he said the biggest thing about the SVC for Gahr is the excitement for all the athletic programs to be able to have competitive equity which leads to more teams having a chance to reach the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.
“You’re always going to be in a division you probably should be in,” said Perez. “And for whatever reason, if it goes really well, you have an opportunity to move up and if it doesn’t go very well, you have an opportunity to drop down, gather your breath, and catch yourself.
“I think you have some programs that are pretty established who are consistent; that’s why they are in the Gateway [League],” he added. “You have some programs that are up and coming, like flag football. You have a little bit of that and I’m pretty excited for that group and then you also have some equality coming across the board. On top of that, we’re pretty culturally diverse, which is a good thing.”
In the few monthly meetings that Perez attended with the other athletic directors of the SVC, he said he was most impressed with the ability to communicate, the ability to have a little compassion or understanding for the voices involved. He pointed out there’s tons of respect for the league and the ones who have been there for a long time, using Downey High athletic director, Mark Rand and Marshall as prime examples who have been around much longer than others.
“You have some people who have been around for years, and the ability for them to be able to communicate and voice their wisdom and to have all the other sports to have a respectful approach to the whole thing is really nice to see,” he added. “It’s kind of a team effort.”
Even though he wasn’t at as many meetings as the other athletic directors because of his recent hiring in the new position, Perez didn’t believe there were any issues with the placement of teams in their respective leagues; saying that it ‘feels pretty true to where everybody was supposed to be’. He went on to add that he thinks the Gahr athletic situation is good and that ‘everybody is good’ for right now. In addition, he said that everyone will evaluate the programs as the year progresses and see where everyone falls and go from there.
“I don’t have an opinion on ‘hey, this team should have been here and that team should have been there’,” said Perez. “I think sometimes you have to look at a body of work from a coach. Sometimes you have a new coach. We kind of live in the day of age of free agency too; kids move too. Kids can impact a program and stuff like that. We’ll just kind of take a look at where we’re at at the end of the year and see how things shake out.”
Perez said it was too soon to determine if there’s anything wrong with how the SVC will look like in its first year, stating that you have to go through a full year before thinking about what changes need to happen for the 2027-2028 school year and beyond. He did acknowledge that it will be different geographically, going from Firebaugh to Whittier High in football or Oxford Academy to Whittier in boys soccer. Perez added that the different facilities that the 20 schools have will eventually come into play, as will the transportation.
The makeup of the leagues in several sports will seem unchanged or close to unchanged from the past several seasons. For example. In baseball, Gahr will still be league opponents with Downey, La Mirada High and Warren High with La Serna High now in the same league. In softball, Gahr remains league rivals with Downey, La Mirada and Warren while welcoming California High as a new league foe.
“I think in talking to [Gahr softball head coach] Rey [Sanchz], I think it’s a little bit different; maybe a little bit more difficult with Cal High,” said Perez. “I think they’ve been pretty established; they’ve had some pretty good years. For baseball, I don’t think it’s going to be that much of a difference. I think for Rey, it might be a little bit more of a competitive fight with Cal.”
Perez believes the one sport that could have the biggest challenge with new league opponents is girls flag football. The Gladiators are in the Gateway League for the first season with Bellflower High, California, Downey, La Serna, Mayfair High and Warren. Last season, Gahr finished in third place behind league champion Warren and second place Downey while Bellflower was a game behind the Gladiators. Over in the former Del Rio League, California and La Serna were the top two teams and overall, the seven flag football teams in the Gateway League this season had a composite overall record of 100-41-1.
“I think they’re going to be challenged more than they’ve been used to, because usually it’s been them, Downey and Warren,” he said. “I’m excited to see how they do in addition to the other teams.”
One area of concern with the athletic directors, especially with the schools coming over from the original 605 League and Del Rio League centers around the traveling of the boys and girls basketball and boys and girls soccer teams. Not too long ago, it was customary to have girls and boys doubleheaders against the same team while one of the two soccer teams would be home against the same opponent as their basketball counterparts. Now, that won’t be a guarantee for every league team. In fact, the Gahr and Mayfair basketball teams, while in different leagues, will be playing a traditional doubleheader, thus saving a bit of a transportation nightmare.
“We were just going through this,” said Perez. “It just creates, obviously, the organizational part and the arbiter part; the [referee] part and the transportation part…it creates a little bit of a differing road. That’s going to be, definitely, one of the challenges. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be a lot better for the student athletes. At least when you travel, it should be somewhat of a competitive game, every game. You’re not just playing a game just because a varsity game is playing here.”
Since joining forces with the remaining four ex-Suburban League schools-Bellflower, La Mirada, Mayfair and Norwalk High, the Gladiators have won one CIF-SS championship, been to the divisional finals twice, lost in the semifinals twice, and fell in the quarterfinals four times in the eight major sports. In the previous 23 seasons before that, mostly in the former San Gabriel Valley League, Gahr won a pair of CIF-SS divisional championships, lost in the finals four times, the semifinals 10 times and the quarterfinals 11 times.
The disparity in those numbers can mostly be attributed to the CIF-SS revamping its playoff divisions recently to make things more competitive, hence the phrase ‘competitive equity’ that has been used recently.
“I think [the CIF-SS] now has a better handle on the way it should be more than anything else,” said Perez. “So I would expect that if you’re where you’re supposed to be, you have a better opportunity to advance [in the playoffs].”
As two city rivals who are in the same school district, one of the questions has been why haven’t Gahr and Cerritos High played each other more often in all, or most of the sports? Their football programs have faced each other pretty much every season as the Silver Milk Barrel is up for grabs and the boys basketball programs, who at one time co-hosted an early December tournament, have played each other every season. There have been other sports in which the schools have squared off against each other, but not every season.
In fact, the two city foes will be league rivals for the first year of the SVC in girls golf and girls volleyball with boys and girls track and field, girls beach volleyball and boys and girls wrestling yet to be determined. But don’t expect Gahr’s baseball team to face Cerritos anytime soon. Even if Cerritos were to win the Mid-Cities League sometime in the future, which is an invitation to move up to the Gateway League in place of the last place team from the Gateway League, the move may not happen. One of the big issues with baseball, especially with the Gateway League sticking with three league games in the same week and the other three leagues going with a first round, then a home and home series, centers around the pitching depth the teams have, among other things.
“I don’t know [if that would happen]; there’s so many variables for that one,” said Perez. “But if it does happen, I would more than welcome it. I think it would be good for the area. In a perfect world, you want to make sure it’s highly competitive, and if it lands that way, that’s even better. I don’t know if it’s going to happen for all the sports. But I think it would be exciting for the community.”
As it relates to the other two ABC Unified School District rivals, Gahr is in the same league with Artesia High for boys volleyball, boys tennis and swimming and with Whitney High for boys and girls golf.
In closing, Perez believes this is an exciting time and a great opportunity for student athletes to have the ultimate high school experience and for the schools involved to build their athletic programs and have the relationships with the student athletes.
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