The clock is on.

There are only 101 days left before the first high school football game of the 2008 season in Southern California.

Expect 3-5 games involving Ventura County teams in Week 0. The first full schedule of football games is Sept. 11-13 weekend.

County schools will have five new coaches; Hueneme is close to naming its replacement for Steve Ruedeflores, who resigned after one season.

I know it's hard to believe, but there are three items — the association rule, private vs. public schools in playoffs and releaguing — that could be bigger on the minds of athletic officials this summer than football.

The elimination of the section's association rule, which now permits high school coaches to spend more direct time with their athletes during the offseason, will be closely watched.

There is a core of athletic directors angered with the ruling because it: 1. Puts pressure on coaches to delegate more of their free time to training athletes during the summer and school year. 2. Creates an unfair advantage for schools that have year-around training programs; giving more selection incentive for incoming freshmen. 3. Could detract athletes from competing in two or more sports as they focus on spending more time with a coach during the school year.

This fall could bring forth renewed debate on whether to separate public and private schools for the playoffs.

A section playoff proposal to do just that was withdrawn last month. The subject was placed in the hands of a committee, which was to research the success of private schools in the postseason.

Releaguing meetings don't begin until January, but there has already been a flurry of activity over the past year.

Most notable was the decision by the Tri-Counties Athletic Association to sever its relationship with Oaks Christian after the 2009-10 school year.

How the Oaks Christian issue is resolved — will the placement of the school's five-time defending section championship football team elsewhere relieve tensions? — could be one of the biggest issues next winter.

Big spring: Thousand Oaks closed out the 2007-08 school year with the best spring season among area large schools.

Lancers teams had a combined .739 winning percentage and finished either first or second in the Marmonte League in seven of its nine sports.

It was the second straight sports season the school's teams won 100 or more events.

Camarillo finished well, too.

All nine of its teams placed either first or second in the Pacific View League and combined for a .688 winning percentage.

Rio Mesa won five PVL spring sports titles.

The right call: Redlands East Valley coach Steve Hernandez wasn't about to play the waiting game for the Division II playoffs.

With his school's field soaked after a heavy rain last Thursday and the prospect of more on the day East Valley was to host Oxnard in a quarterfinal baseball game, Hernandez was quick to surrender home-field advantage.

East Valley traveled to Oxnard Saturday, winning 2-1 to advance to the semifinals for the first time in program history.

"If we had one more drop on Friday, we couldn't have played at home," said Hernandez. "And it did rain again."

Being on the road was a better alternative than the prospect of playing three games in four days, which could have been the case had the matchup with Oxnard been moved to Monday in Redlands.

By the luck of the draw, East Valley is on the road again today for its semifinal game against Palos Verdes. It means that No. 1 seed East Valley will have only one playoff home game — a first-round win over Redondo.

Next generation: As the high school track and field season comes to a close Friday and Saturday with the CIF State Championships at Cerritos College, Ventura County finds itself well stocked with up-and-coming talent for the next years.

Rio Mesa's Valexsia Droughn is the state's No. 1-ranked freshman in the girls' 100-meter dash and No. 2 in the 200. Droughn will be one of the favorites at the state meet.

She's not the only county freshman elite track athlete.

Hayden Wooff of Camarillo is the state's No. 2-ranked 3,200 runner. Newbury Park's Sean Grumney is No. 3 in the boys' 800 and 1,600. Johnathan Cabral of Agoura is No. 3 in the boys' 110 hurdles.

Anthony Lopez (boys' 300 hurdles) and Alexandra Morgan (girls' discus) of Ventura and Oak Park's Madison Stark (girls' pole vault) have No. 4 state-best performances in their events as freshmen.

The area's top sophomores include: Travis Edwards, boys' 1,600, and Paul Jesson, boys' 3,200, of Royal; Tara Blanchard, La Reina, girls' 800; Tayler Johnson (girls' high jump and long jump), Melissa Skiba (girls' 3,200) and James Goldstein (boys' 1,600), Oak Park; Liberty Miller, Simi Valley, girls' 1,600; and Thomas Garner, Royal, boys' hurdles.

— Derry Eads' e-mail address is deads@VenturaCountyStar.com.