The PAL has a problem: Too many struggling football teams. The league's officials thought they had a reasonable answer. They combined the PAL with the SCVAL (football only). The aim was to isolate the worst programs in both circuits into one large C division, the Lake. Eight teams. All ranging from awful to horrendous. For the most part, it worked but the number of forfeits, at both the varsity and JV levels, grew as the season wore on. Eight may not be enough. What to do about rapidly fading entities like Gunn and Jefferson, both currently in B divisions, El Camino and Ocean respectively? Woodside won the Lake this year. It will be moved to a B division in 2023. So which team (s) will be relegated to the Lake? Gunn or Jefferson? Or both? Then what? The coaches will have to decide. And, of course, there are other possible movements up and down the PAL pecking order as well. The overall state of public school football along the Peninsula and in CCS generally is not great. Too many programs in varying stages of life support. The expanded PAL Lake Division was supposed to be the solution. In some ways, it is. But there is a glut of failing programs. Good luck addressing this reality.
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