New Desert Athletic Conference for local high school sports starts this season
COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif. (KESQ) -- Don't look now, but we are just four Fridays away from the return of high school football.
In 29 days, the new high school season will kick-off, and will be doing so under a new conference.
The Desert Athletic Conference will debut not just for football, but for all high school sports in the 2026-2027 school-year.
"Every sport now within the Desert Athletic Conference has been assigned," said local high school athletic director Estevan Valencia.
The Desert Athletic Conference is here, set to debut this upcoming season.
Divided into three local leagues, the change is meant to improve the fairness and quality of competition.
"One of the biggest thing is the idea of competitive equity and also having the ability to re-league, you know, re-shuffle the deck. What the conference allows us to do is to move some schools that need relief," said Valencia.
The league names within the conference will be the same.
The Desert Empire is the top tier, the Desert Valley is the middle and the Sun Valley is the bottom. This structure allows for advancement or relegation, much like Premier League soccer in England.
"If you finish at the top, you're moving up one. If you finish last, you're moving down. So, that'll help some schools with relief. But there's going to be some schools that are going to be basically the fourth place team or kind of stuck in the middle, and they'll never move up or down," said Valencia.
Ultimately, this should be a positive change and a collaborative one as well, with everyone working together for the betterment of local high school sports.
"Each each school is going to have their own say and their vote how the conference should be and how it should be modeled and with different ideas. And of course, being brand new, e're going to hit some bumps and make a couple mistakes here and there but we've got a great group of of athletic directors who really love their schools and love the kids that they work for," said Valenica.
Stay with KESQ News Channel 3 for continuing coverage of local high school sports.
