After spending the past four years in the Palomares League, Diamond Bar High School’s athletic teams are in for a change of scenery.

During the 2018-2019 school year, DBHS will switch to the Mt. Baldy League, where teams will compete against Ontario, Don Lugo, Chino, Montclair and Chaffey for the next two years.

Every four years, representatives from the 42 high schools in the Mt. SAC area gather together to set up the seven athletic leagues in the region. At this meeting,schools can request to move to a different league. Their appeals are considered with regard to the schools’ overall athletic performances.

“We had felt that for the majority of our sports that we weren’t able to [provide] a competitive team to represent the school in the Palomares League so they decided to move us out to a more competitive league for our sports teams,” DBHS athletic director Albert Lim said.

The schools in the Mt. Baldy area have lower division teams than the schools in the Palomares League. However, as Diamond Bar’s athletic program moves into the Mt. Baldy League for the 2018-2019 school year, the sport teams on campus anticipate many more challenges.

For example, none of the schools in the Mt. Baldy League have a girls golf team, which gives DB’s girls golf team the options to either join a different league or to find another high school willing to take them in as a part of their team.

“Girls golf is going to be in a position where they have to just play independent, which for the most part is going to work better for them because they just focus on CIF competition,” Lim said.

Also, some of the sports at the other schools do not have frosh teams, so Diamond Bar’s athletic program will have to find a way to create games for the lower level players.

“It is still going to be competitive, so it’s not like it’s going to be a cakewalk…This will give us a chance to kind of rebuild everything and really solidify our plan in terms of focusing on growth and development and really just being in a position to be successful in the Mt. Baldy league, which will allow us to propel hopefully back into the Palomares League,” Lim said.

DBHS is not the only school leaving the Palomares League. South Hills will transfer to the Hacienda League.

In addition, Chino will move to the Mt. Baldy League, while Colony and Alta Loma will switch from Mt. Baldy to Palomares.

This is not the first time DB switched leagues, as the school switched from the Hacienda League to the Palomares League in 2014.

“We are excited about the opportunity to have more competition and having a chance to build the sports morale of our school,” Diamond Bar Principal Reuben Jones said in an article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.