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Demons of the long road

DHS thrown into football league with teams from Colorado Springs
Durango High School head football coach David Vogt and the Demons will have a fair amount of traveling to do for league games this year. Monday they were placed into the Class 4A Pikes Peak League, featuring Colorado Springs and Monument schools.

Durango High School had known for awhile it was going to be placed into a new league for football. Monday it found out where.

The DHS Demons found themselves in a geographically confusing Class 4A Pikes Peak League, where they will be joined by Air Academy, Liberty, Palmer Ridge, Rampart and defending Class 4A state champion Pine Creek. All five of the other schools in the league are in either Colorado Springs or Monument.

“With the two-year cycle, there are changes all the time. This is pretty significantly different, not necessarily negative,” said new DHS athletic director Dave Preszler.

The seven new Class 4A leagues officially were set Monday by the Colorado High School Activities Association football committee and were approved by the Classification and League Organization Committee as well as CHSAA’s legislative council.

The Demons previously played in the Southwestern League, a mix of 4A and 5A schools that included Fruita Monument, Grand Junction, Grand Junction Central and Montrose.

Montrose, last year’s state runner-up to Pine Creek, also is moving to a league dominated by Front Range schools. The Indians are in the Foothills League with Falcon, Mesa Ridge, Sand Creek, Vista Ridge and Widefield.

Durango and Montrose have a good rivalry history and still will play during the non-league season, but both will travel three times a year to the Front Range.

“Rivalries are always fun, but playing new teams is always a positive thing,” Preszler said. “I think the strength of our new league is extremely strong. You have to play good teams to become good, and that is a positive thing about it.”

DHS will have to travel 336 miles to Monument to face Palmer Ridge on Oct. 10. It is 328 miles to Air Academy, 330 miles to Pine Creek and 326 miles to Rampart. All of the trips could take six hours by bus.

With school spending budgets already tight, it will cause another strain on travel expenses. However, Preszler said that problem always exists for Four Corners area schools.

“Certainly budget always is a concern, but we are geographically challenged living where we live,” he said. “There are not many 4A teams in our area. We know we always will have to do some traveling.”

The Southern League, which features Cheyenne Mountain, Coronado, Palmer, Pueblo Centennial, Pueblo South and Pueblo West, might have made matters easier on DHS as far as travel goes. The games in Pueblo could have helped significantly cut down on miles with Pueblo South 65 miles closer than Palmer Ridge.

“It is what it is. CHSAA sets it, and we accept it,” Preszler said.

In other regional changes, Montezuma-Cortez dropped from Class 3A to Class 2A and will join Bayfield, Gunnison, Olathe, Pagosa Springs and fellow newcomer Alamosa in the Class 2A Western Slope South League.

Bayfield’s league lost Aspen, Basalt, Coal Ridge and Grand Valley, which all moved to the Western Slope North League with Battle Mountain, Moffat County and Roaring Fork.

Ignacio’s league, the Class 1A Southern Peaks League, includes Centauri, Center, Dolores, John Mall and Monte Vista. John Mall, based in Walsenburg, replaces Del Norte, which dropped into 8-man football.

Practice for the upcoming football season officially opens Aug. 11.

jlivingston@durangoherald.com,

Class 4A Football

Foothills League

Falcon, 1,253

Mesa Ridge, 1,330

Montrose, 1,361

Sand Creek, 1,231

Vista Ridge, 1,239

Widefield, 1,240

Longs Peak League

Adams City, 1,768

Greeley West, 1,518

Longmont, 1,180

Loveland, 1,521

Thompson Valley, 1,238

Windsor, 1,225

Mountain League

Aurora Central, 2,084

Denver South, 1,380

George Washington, 1,436

Golden, 1,289

Standley Lake, 1,344

Wheat Ridge, 1,307

Northern League

Broomfield, 1,428

Fort Collins, 1,517

Greeley Central, 1,407

Mountain View, 1,180

Silver Creek, 1,129

Skyline, 1,352

Pikes Peak League

Air Academy, 1,402

Durango, 1,075

Liberty, 1,576

Palmer Ridge, 1,095

Pine Creek, 1,467

Rampart, 1,524

Plains League

Dakota Ridge, 1,545

Green Mountain, 1,105

Ponderosa, 1,161

J.F. Kennedy, 1,259

Lincoln, 1,517

Littleton, 1,383

Southern League

Cheyenne Mountain, 1,309

Coronado, 1,498 Palmer, 1,986

Pueblo Centennial, 1,251

Pueblo South, 1,357

Pueblo West, 1,368

Durango Herald



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