OURAY, Oct. 29, 9:33 p.m. – A move to the San Juan Basin League from the Mountain League has been put on hold Đ for now Đ for the Ridgway and Ouray middle school and high school basketball, volleyball and track and field programs.

Ridgway and Ouray athletic directors Charles Jones and Bernie Pearce have already received permission from the schools’ respective boards of education to move into the San Juan Basin League next season, exiting the alleged dissolving Mountain League, which also includes Crested Butte, DeBeque and Edwards Vail Christian. However, “[Athletics director] Bernie [Pearce] is getting some discussion or negative feedback from [the Colorado High School Activities Association] saying they will not approve dissolving the league until DeBeque and Crested Butte have new homes,” said Ouray Schools Superintendent Sandy Kern during a regular Ouray School Board of Education meeting on Oct. 22. “Crested Butte has applied to a league, as has DeBeque to a league they used to belong, but the two leagues haven’t voted whether to accept them or not. If [they accept], then they’re good.”

The status of DeBeque is the sticking point for CHSAA.

“Debque has lost so many students,” Kern said. “The other schools aren’t sure they want someone [in their league] that has basketball and maybe volleyball. They have 35 [students] in their high school.”

Vail Christian will be moving into the 2A Western Slope League.

Both Jones, who’s president of the Mountain League, and Pearce are planning to attend a CHSAA meeting in Denver on Nov. 12-13 to discuss the matter.

“Unless they hear something positive before then, they’ll go to that meeting,” Kern added.

“CHSAA is giving a little resistance to our proposed move,” Jones wrote in a report to the Ridgway Board of Education at its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 24. “I am planning to attend the CLOC meeting in November. The CLOC is the committee that places schools in a league and classifications for the next cycle.

“CHSAA’s main concern is that Crested Butte and DeBeque do not have a place to go,” he continued. “We are working on showing CHSAA that they will have places to go that make a lot of sense for them as far as travel and more game.”

If CHSAA would approve a move to the San Juan Basin League Đ as well as that league’s administration Đ the league will consist of eight teams: 1A squads Dove Creek, Norwood, Ridgway, and Ouray, and 2A programs Dolores, Mancos, Nucla, and Telluride.