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Steamboat Springs — High school junior Kayla Kostur, and students like her, will be the last of their kind in Colorado when they arrive for class at their new schools this fall.

Kostur already has arranged to transfer from Hayden High School to Steamboat Springs High School in the fall. Her athletic eligibility will be unscathed by a new Colorado High School Activity Association rule that goes into effect Aug. 11.

After Aug. 11, students who request a transfer will have to give up 50 percent of their athletic eligibility at the varsity level in any high school sport they have participated in during the previous 12 months. They still will be able to practice and play at a sub-varsity level.

The rule will allow for bona fide family moves in which an entire family moves to a new school district. In those cases, high school-age children will have full athletic eligibility to play in their new district.

"I would have transferred regardless of the rule," Kostur said from her Hayden home Thursday. "I wanted to go to a bigger school for the athletics, the academics and the social aspects that it has to offer. I'm excited about the change."

Kostur, who has played basketball for the Tigers the past two years, was happy she will not be forced to surrender half of her basketball and track seasons during her junior year in order to play for Steamboat Springs High School.

She hopes to play basketball and run track for the Sailors next year.

She also is considering going out for volleyball.

Despite her sports interests, Kostur said the decision to transfer was personal and wasn't based on any outside influence from other athletic programs.

"Sure, I think this new rule is going to make some students think before making a move, but this wasn't an easy decision for me. I've been thinking about it since before Christmas last year and I have given it a lot of thought," she said.

Steamboat Springs boys' basketball coach Kelly Meek said he doesn't think the new rule will have that big of an impact in Western Colorado where geography and loyalty keep most players close to home. Most students in Steamboat, Oak Creek and Hayden attend and play sports within their school districts, he said.

The rule will like have a much greater impact in bigger metropolitan areas on the Front Range, such as Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder, Meek said.

"Out-of-district transfers have become a big problem down there," Meek said. "Players were bouncing around a lot and this rule should make them commit to one school or another for their entire high school career."

In the metro area, when players became unhappy with a coach or wanted to play for a winning program, they simply transferred to another school, Meek said. The phenomenon has created an uneven playing field with a few exceptional teams and a lot of unhappy players and parents.

The new rule will make transferring a much more serious choice and should help to keep players closer to home and athletics in their proper place, Meek said. But he doesn't think it will eliminate the problem completely.

"We want to keep athletics in perspective," said Bert Borgmann, CHSAA assistant commissioner. " We had more than 5,000 transfers last year for 100,000 students. That's 5 percent and it's way too high."

Borgmann said the new rule will not eliminate transfers, but he is hoping it will keep things in check.

"The whole idea of high school athletics is to get students involved with their schools," Borgmann said. "We want students to enjoy sports and learn from them, but we know high school is about a lot more than just sports."

Even with the change, Colorado has one of the most liberal transfer rules in the country, Borgmann said. Most states require student athletes to sit out an entire season when transferring.

He also said the impacts of the new rule might not be felt for a couple of years because most of the student athletes who wanted to transfer this year already have.