In the past two weeks, the Big 7 League just got a lot smaller.

After a series of June meetings and subsequent school board rulings, three Big 7 schools — Holton, Jefferson County West and Royal Valley — confirmed their intention to leave the conference in order to start their own league along with Perry-Lecompton and Santa Fe Trail.

The moves won’t take effect until the 2010-11 school year but leave Hiawatha, Sabetha and Nemaha Valley in a precarious position.

“This has been a great league for us, and it saddens us to see it break up. But nothing stays the same forever,” Nemaha Valley superintendent Brian Harris said.

“Right now, I think all our options need to be open.”

The Northeast Kansas conference started to splinter at a June 18 league meeting in Holton, where Perry-Lecompton and Santa Fe Trail were denied membership in a split vote, 3-3. Immediately thereafter, Royal Valley principal and Big 7 president Jim Holloman announced his school’s plans to cut ties with the league.

In the weeks that followed, Holton and Jefferson West soon followed suit at their respective June school board meetings.

“It’s not that we dislike the Big 7,” Holton superintendent Jim Karleskint said. “But if we weren’t to leave, we would be in a four-team league.”

Karleskint acknowledged the desire to sustain the Wildcats’ traditional rivalries with Royal Valley and Jefferson West.

The three remaining schools also intend to hold onto their longstanding affiliations, Harris said, in one way or another.

“We have a long tradition of association with each other, and the idea would be for that nucleus to stay together,” Harris said.

Based on regional travel concerns, the three northern Big 7 schools face limited affiliation options. Most of the districts that closely line up in size and distance currently reside in the Delaware Valley League, which recently swelled to 13 schools.

The Big 7, which currently includes DVL-bound schools Maur Hill-Mount Academy and ACCHS, isn’t scheduled to meet again until August – when the three vacating schools will make their official motions to depart.

The newly forming league also caught the attention of Atchison superintendent Susan Myers, whose school was twice denied entrance into the Big 7 in the past year.

“We are aggressively seeking affiliation with a league, and I do think we would be a fit for a new league,” Myers said. “Right now, we’re reassessing our options, but we are aggressively seeking an opportunity to improve the experience for our kids.”

Although Atchison hasn’t been invited to be a founding member of the league, Myers said she had been in contact with other officials and said the school intends to apply for membership if it comes to that.

For now, the schools have taken a wait-and-see approach but are actively seeking solutions, said Harris and Hiawatha superintendent John Severin.

“We’re trying to see what kind of combinations we can come up with,” Harris said. “The next month and a half will tell the tale.”

Sports reporter Andy Meyer can be

reached at andymeyer@npgco.com