Colorado high schools have new football league alignments announced by the Colorado High School Activities Association after finalizing the arrangements earlier this year.

CHSAA realigns leagues every two years based on enrollment figures, which can lead to shuffling of teams and a break up of longtime rivals.

The new leagues take effect starting in August with the 2014 high school football season.

Middle Park

Middle Park will compete in the newly formed 2A Frontier League for the 2014 and 2015 football seasons alongside previous rivals The Academy and Pinnacle. Rounding out the Frontier League will be Bennett, Strasburg, Jefferson, Sheridan and KIPP Denver Collegiate.

“The new league is something we are excited about. We keep a couple of familiar faces from last year and bring in some new teams to compete against. Now it’s time for us to crank up our off-season work and be ready to play these guys,” head football coach Adam Bright stated when asked about the new league.

The exact schedules for both league, as well the non-league games, are expected to be finalized soon.

Asked about how things with the football program have gone since the season ended Bright stated that “Once the entire schedule is finalized, I think we will have a schedule that fits us very well. I am proud of how hard we have worked this off-season. I know that being at the school at 7 a.m. every day to lift weights and work on football is not what high school boys want to do everyday, but yet they are there every day determined to get better. Our growth as a team I think is going to really show with a new schedule and new league this fall.”

West Grand

West Grand will also be in a new league this fall as they join the nine-team I-25 League in Class A 8-man. Other teams in the league include Elbert, Gilpin County, Justice, Longmont Christian, Nederland, Rocky Mountain Lutheran, Vail Christian and Pikes Peak Christian.

“There are some teams we are familiar with,” head coach Chris Brown said. “We are looking forward to the reduced amount of travel time to away games.”