EC plays their way down to D4

By Taylor Dingman, Associate Editor

In the 2024-2025 school year, El Camino athletics will be moving down to division four, which is the second lowest division for high school sports teams in California. 

EC is currently in division three, playing high schools such as Vista Del Lago, Christian Brothers, Rio Americano and Del Campo. When EC moves down to division four, the games will consist of high schools such as Capital Christian, Rio Linda, Woodland, Dixon, Natomas and Sutter. 

EC has been a division three school since the early 2000’s and before that, EC played in division two, with girls basketball winning state championships. As the years went by, the school had slowly begun moving down the division three rank, performing progressively worse against teams in their own division.

Athletic Director Ron Conckin expresses exactly why we are moving down a division.

“One, it has to do with the student population—the other has to do with the overall win-loss record with all the sports combined,” Concklin said. 

Swim and Water Polo Head Coach Cory Stowell is excited about moving down so we can play against schools at our athletic level. However, he’s also worried about bus costs and travel for friends and families to the schools, since the travel distance in division four is significantly greater than the distance of the division three schools.

“It’s going to be challenging because there’s so many schools that are far away—in regards to getting buses and things like that,” Stowell said. “It’s going to be difficult for [friends and families] to travel, so I’m not sure how that’s going to look at a basketball or football game.” 

Girls Varsity Soccer Player Zoe Daffron (‘25) will be a senior when EC moves down to division four, and expresses her thoughts on the division switch.

“It was hard to lose every single game, but our team was so together it made us feel better about it,” Daffron said. “I feel mixed about moving down because at the same time, I like playing Rio and Del Campo—it’s what I’m used to, and some of my friends are on those teams—but at the same time, we need to move down.” 

Daffron enjoys playing against teams that historically have been EC’s closest rivals, but recognizes the need to also play against players of their similar skill level.

Assistant Boys Basketball Coach Alan Posner thinks it’s a great idea for EC to move to division four.

“We have 1,200 kids, but other schools have close to 1,700—we’re competing against much bigger schools,” Posner said. “The population matters because athletes are a percentage of the population and the more population, the more athletes.”

EC staff, who have been heavily involved in the athletics program, and student athletes will hopefully face greater opportunities by moving down and playing a collection of new high schools, but will overall miss the familiarity of the teams they have played against for so many years.