RHS sports to move down a league

Roseville High School will be moving out of the CVC into the FVL by 2024. Over the past handful of years, Roseville High School’s sports teams have played in the Capital Valley Conference (CVC). This league has faced RHS athletics with matchups against Woodcreek, Inderkum, Antelope, Bella Vista, Yuba City, and River Valley on a yearly basis.

Every four years the Sac-Joaquin Section undergoes what is called, “league realignment.” This is where schools potentially slide up or down to new divisions. This move is to make sure the leagues stay fairly competitive and one team does not dominate their respective league for an extended period of time.

In April, the CIF approved the plans for new leagues across the Sac-Joaquin Section, and Roseville is going to be in quite the different league than they have been in for the last several years. Roseville, Del Campo, Nevada Union, Placer, River Valley, Twelve Bridges, and Yuba City will be the seven teams to compose the new Foothill Valley League (FVL).

Roseville moving down to the FVL from the CVC is really a product of Roseville High School’s decreasing enrollment numbers in recent years. Being in a league with schools like Woodcreek, who have far higher student numbers, it started to bring a slight talent disparity to the CVC.

With Roseville sliding from the division two CVC to the division three FVL, there is more of an opportunity to take more league banners home.

Unfortunately, the big downfall with this new league for Roseville athletics is that there will be less rivalry. Woodcreek is staying in the CVC, meaning that the cross-town rivalry may have run its course. To be fair, there will be a strong effort to schedule non-league games with Woodcreek, but the sheer magnitude and importance of the games against our rivals will be non-existent.

In a previous proposal for a league realignment, Oakmont was in the FVL instead of Twelve Bridges. For a moment, it looked like the old Roseville-Oakmont rivalry was going to make a return. That ship sailed though, as Oakmont dropped to division five and was replaced by Twelve Bridges in this league.

The blaring issue with this new league for Roseville is there will be no sense of rivalry, and likely a decreased sense of passion because of it. The other big-time issue happens to revolve around an already tough issue in the CVC: travel.

The only two teams that carried over from the CVC to the FVL with Roseville happen to be the two schools that are the longest distance away from #1 Tiger Way. Having to travel to two different schools in Yuba City was already something athletes hated about the current CVC. This problem won’t be going away any time soon, and Roseville athletes will have to become accustomed to the nearly hour-long car ride that comes with road games at River Valley or Yuba City.

It’s not like the other teams in the new FVL are super close to Roseville either. Nevada Union, Placer, and Del Campo aren’t right around the corner, but they aren’t any worse than having to take a bus ride to schools like Inderkum like the current RHS athletes have to right now. 

Despite these two major flaws with this new league realignment, there are some positives to take away as well. This new league should bring a new sense of league competitiveness that had really gone stale in recent years.

Roseville and Placer have had their fair share of battles over the past few years, and now getting a guaranteed league matchup with the Hillmen should make for some fireworks. Both schools’ have had entertaining matchups on the football and baseball fields in recent years, and there is no reason for that to not continue.

Twelve Bridges just opened up in 2021, and their gradual improvement should make for some great matchups with the Tigers down the road. Twelve Bridges will likely take a good amount of students from Lincoln High School, which has been a solid athletics school over the past decade. Twelve Bridges will have the talent and the facilities to make for a tough out in the near future.

Although having road games against them may be annoying, Yuba City and Roseville have also had their fair share of battles over the years. The Honkers aren’t going anywhere, and Roseville will have popcorn-worthy matchups with them, no matter what conference the two teams stand in.

The new league realignment will go into effect in the Fall of 2024. That means there is only one year left in the current CVC for the Tigers, and they have a chance to go out with a bang. Roseville’s football, girls volleyball, boys basketball, wrestling, and other sports teams are being set up to have really solid teams next year and have a chance to leave their mark on the CVC before they kiss it goodbye.