Its membership includes most public and private high schools in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, and central and southern Santa Barbara counties.

Three of the ten CIF sections are individual current or former public school districts (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland).

[citation needed] For its first year of operation, the organization was called the Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Council (SCIAC).

The Southern Section was founded on March 29, 1913, when a group of high school officials joined forces to conduct a track championship meet.

On March 28, 1914, the Southern Section came under the administrative wing of the newly founded California Interscholastic Federation, and has since grown into one of the most progressive and respected organizations of its kind in the world.

Despite its lengthy history, the Southern Section lists just 10 Commissioners (the term Secretary dropped) with William Russell holding the post from 1951 to 1954, J. Kenneth Fagans being the administrative head from 1954 until his retirement in early 1975, Thomas E. Byrnes accepting the Commissioner's post in 1975, while Ray Plutko served from 1980 to 1986.

Still without an official office, the Southern Section moved its supplies to Helms Hall, a bakery in Culver City in 1949 and remained at the Venice Blvd.

[1] It was in February of that year that the Southern Section built its first ever administration office, located on the corners of Carmona and West Washington in Los Angeles.