CHSAANow

Category: Activities

  • The vote to pick the fall #BackMyTeam champion is here

    It’s time to pick the fall #BackMyTeam champion!

    For the first time, CHSAA is recognizing a student section from a member school which is going a great job at promoting positive sportsmanship and school spirit at their events.

    We have identified three finalists:

    The fall season champion will receive the following 3-foot by 5-foot banner to hang in their gym:

    Now, it’s up to you to help us pick the winner! Voting is being held on Twitter, and right here (scroll down). It will conclude on Nov. 28 at 8 a.m. Before you vote, though, be sure to check out the submissions from our finalists.

    [divider]

    Rocky Mountain


    [divider]

    Eaglecrest


    [divider]

    Loveland


    [divider]

    Voting

    You may also vote on Twitter. Results will be tallied on Nov. 28.
    Create your own user feedback survey

  • Eaglecrest and Loveland join Rocky Mountain as fall #BackMyTeam finalists

    (@raptorathletics/Twitter)

    AURORA — Eaglecrest and Loveland have been named the two additional finalists for the #BackMyTeam sportsmanship contest during the fall season.

    They join Rocky Mountain, which won the first fall period of the contest, as a finalist. #BackMyTeam seeks to promote positive sportsmanship and school spirit around the state.

    The three finalists will be up for final vote, which will run from Nov. 21-28. The voting will be conducted on CHSAANow.com as well as on Twitter, with the winner announced that week, and honored on Dec. 2 during the Class 4A and 5A football championships at Mile High. More information about the final vote will post next week.

    Eaglecrest won fall’s second period, putting together an amazing 13 entries into the contest. Included:

    Likewise, it was Loveland’s volume of entries — 13 in all — as well as the diversity of sports they were supporting that helped the school win the third fall period. Included in Loveland’s entries:

    https://twitter.com/LovelandStuco/status/923709063908573184

  • Rocky Mountain wins first fall period of #BackMyTeam contest

    (@RMHSLOBOS/Twitter)

    Rocky Mountain has won the first fall period of the #BackMyTeam sportsmanship contest, the CHSAA office announced on Monday.

    As a result, Rocky Mountain now becomes a finalist for the fall season award, which will be voted on in November.

    The Lobos, who had six entries during from Aug. 15-Sept. 14, had a consistent and quality approach to the contest. Here are a few of their submissions:

    The submissions were judged using the following criteria:

    • Good sportsmanship.
    • Number of submissions.
    • Quality of the submissions.
    • Did they encourage student body participation?

    Other notable schools from the first period include:

    • Brighton
    • Durango
    • Loveland
    • Roosevelt
    • Berthoud
    • Eaglecrest
    • Hi-Plains/Flagler

  • Winners crowned at Jeffco Marching Band Invitational

    LAKEWOOD — It was nearly five hours of non-stop music Sept. 19 at Jeffco Stadium.

    Fifteen high school bands from across Jeffco took part in the annual Jeffco Marching Band Invitational. Lakewood (5A), Bear Creek (4A), Conifer (3A) and D’Evelyn (2A) took first in their respective classifications.

    Pomona High School will host its annual Pomona Band Festival, one of the largest band competitions in the state, on Saturday, Oct. 7, at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada.

  • Registration for fall student leadership conference is now open

    CHSAA student leadership camp
    (Courtesy of Kendle Davis)

    Registration for the annual fall student leadership conference, set to be hosted by Grand Junction Central, is now open.

    The conference runs Oct. 27-28 in Grand Junction. Former NCAA basketball player Melvin Adams, who also played for the Harlem Globetrotters, is this year’s keynote speaker.

    A packet of complete information about the conference is available here.

    Student leadership advisors have been sent an email with a link to the registration. To have it sent again, email Theresa Muniz (tmuniz@chsaa.org).

  • CHSAA launches #BackMyTeam, a sportsmanship and school spirit contest for student sections

    Cherry Creek Arapahoe boys basketball
    (Jeff Tucker/jefferywtucker.zenfolio.com)

    CHSAA is launching a new contest where student sections can showcase their school spirit and sportsmanship.

    The new contest, called #BackMyTeam, is encouraging students to show how they best support their school’s athletic teams in sporting and creative ways.

    In order to enter the contest, students and school will submit photos or video (or both!) on Twitter and Instagram by including the hashtag #BackMyTeam and also mentioning the official @CHSAA account. Submissions must come from an official school, administrator or team account, not personal accounts.

    “Our goal is to recognize some of these great student sections we have throughout the state while also encouraging good sportsmanship and school spirit,” said CHSAA associate commissioner Tom Robinson, who oversees sportsmanship for the Association.

    #BackMyTeam will award seasonal winners, which are selected following a week-long vote of three finalists. The winners will receive an award for their athletic department, and will be recognized at some of the biggest events of the season. The fall winner will be announced at the 4A/5A football championships, winter’s winner will be recognized at state basketball, and the spring winner will be unveiled at state track.

    All winners will also be featured on CHSAANow.

    Each season will be split into three submission periods. One finalist will be selected each period. Those periods are detailed on the #BackMyTeam page.

  • Mitchell HS creates sportsmanship announcement that athletes will read before home events

    Lewis-Palmer Mitchell boys soccer
    (Jeff Tucker/jefferywtucker.zenfolio.com)

    Seeking to further foster the sportsmanship that exists in high school sports, Mitchell High School has created an announcement that its athletes will read prior to home events.

    The announcement, a brainchild of the Mitchell administration, was reviewed by the school’s head coaches, its student-athletes, the English department, and by other athletic directors within District 11.

    The sportsmanship announcement will be read by students prior to their home events at Mitchell High School and Garry Berry Stadium this school year.

    It will also be printed on the back of every program for home events, and will be distributed to parents during Mitchell’s Fall Sports Kick-Off event on Wednesday, as well as their back-to-school event on Aug. 31.

    Here’s the text of the sportsmanship announcement:

    Good afternoon/evening ladies and gentleman and welcome to Mitchell H.S./Garry Berry Stadium. My name is: (student’s name) and I am here to deliver your sportsmanship announcement for this event.

    On behalf of my teammates, coaches, athletic program, school, and CHSAA, I want to thank everyone here for coming out to support us, the STUDENT-ATHLETES, who will be participating this afternoon/evening. We choose to participate because it is fun for us and we enjoy the friendly competition.

    We ask that, YOU, the spectators, honor and respect the student athletes and this event. We PREPARE, PLAN, and PLAY to WIN, BUT WINNING is not our PURPOSE. Our purpose as players and coaches is to compete, to learn to work together, to manage adversity when it arises, and to accept the outcome of this event with humbleness and humility.

    To the OFFICIALS, thank you for your sacrifice to this game. We realize you are human and you might make mistakes but we will not criticize you for them. Instead, we will respect you for your efforts and dedication to our sport.

    To our OPPONENTS, we will compete against you as hard as we can because we want to win just as much as you do, but at the end of this event, we will respect you for being our competitors.

    To the PARENTS and FANS, cheer for us in a positive manner, respect all of the players, coaches, and officials and remember, this is just a game and we are here to have fun.

    Not everyone gets to win everything and there are some incredible LIFE LESSONS that can be learned from any outcome. With that being said, let’s have a fantastic event this afternoon/evening.

  • High school sports participation increases for 28th consecutive year

    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    INDIANAPOLIS — Led by the largest one-year increase in girls participation in 16 years, the overall number of participants in high school sports increased for the 28th consecutive year in 2016-17, according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

    That includes 139,969 students from Colorado, which saw more students than ever before participate during the 2016-17 season.

    Based on figures from the 51 NFHS member state high school associations, which includes the District of Columbia, the number of participants in high school sports reached an all-time high of 7,963,535. The increase of 94,635 participants from 2015-16 is the largest one-year jump in overall participation since the 2008-09 school year.

    Thanks to increases in all of the top 10 participatory sports, the number of girls participants reached an all-time high of 3,400,297. The increase of 75,971 from the previous year is the largest one-year jump since the 2000-01 sports participation report.

    Competitive spirit registered the largest increase among girls sports with an additional 18,712 participants, followed by outdoor track and field (8,508), volleyball (8,470), soccer (6,810) and lacrosse (5,423).

    “As we celebrate the 45th anniversary of Title IX this year, this report on girls participation numbers underscores the significance of that important decision in 1972,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. “It is great to see an ever-increasing number of girls taking advantage of that opportunity to compete in high school sports.”

    Seven of the top 10 boys sports registered increases from the previous year, led by soccer (9,912), outdoor track and field (9,003), and cross country (8,580). Overall participation for boys in 2016-17 was 4,563,238, an increase of 18,664 from the previous year.

    Participation in 11-player football was down 25,901 from the previous year, although the numbers in 6- and 8-player football were up from the 2015-16 season. The overall number of participants in football (6, 8, 9 and 11 player) in 2016-17 was 1,086,748, down 25,503 from the 1,112,251 in the 2015-16 season.

    While the number of participants in high school football declined, the number of schools offering the sport increased by 52 schools in 11-player – from 14,047 to 14,099 – and by nine schools in 6-, 8- and 9-player – from 1,349 to 1,358.

    With 14,099 high schools offering 11-player football, the decrease of 25,901 participants amounts to fewer than two individuals (1.8) per school, and an overall decrease of 2.5 percent.

    Football remains the No. 1 participatory sport for boys at the high school level by a large margin. Track and field is second with 600,136 participants, followed by basketball (550,305), baseball (491,790) and soccer (450,234).

    “While we are concerned when any sport experiences a decline in participation, the numbers do not substantiate that schools are dropping the sport of football,” Gardner said. “The NFHS and its member state high school associations have worked hard to reduce the risk of injury in high school football, and we are pleased at the continued strength of the sport across the country.”

    Amazingly, this year’s survey indicated that more than 60 different sports were offered by high schools nationwide, from judo and kayaking, to fencing and rugby, to snowboarding and rodeo. Some of the more popular non-traditional high school sports were badminton (17,184), archery (9,767), crew (5,179) and fencing (4,100).   

    The top 10 states by participants remained the same; however, Florida moved ahead of Michigan to seventh position this year. Texas and California topped the list again with 834,558 and 800,364 participants, respectively, followed by New York (367,849), Illinois (341,387), Ohio (340,146), Pennsylvania (319,153), Florida (310,567), Michigan (295,647), New Jersey (283,655) and Minnesota (239,289).

    The participation survey has been compiled since 1971 by the NFHS through numbers it receives from its member associations. The top 10 sports for boys and girls and the year-by-year participation totals are listed below. The complete 2016-17 High School Athletics Participation Survey is available at  NFHS.org/ParticipationStatistics/ParticipationStatistics.

  • CHSAA Board president encourages high school athletes to participate in multiple sports and activities

    All-School Summit Jim Lucas
    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    LONE TREE — In a wide-ranging speech given to the All-School Summit on Tuesday, CHSAA Board president Jim Lucas zeroed in on the importance of participating in multiple sports.

    Lucas, an assistant principal at Pine Creek who entering his first year as the president of CHSAA’s Board of Directors, referenced an interview former Valor Christian star Christian McCaffrey did with national radio host Dan Patrick last month.

    McCaffrey participated in football, basketball and track in high school, and also played baseball growing up. He told Patrick that he was “not a fan of locking in to one sport,” according to CBSSports.com. “I just think it’s so important as a kid to venture off and do multiple things,” McCaffrey said.

    “I appreciate that (McCaffrey) talked about how important that was,” Lucas told the gathered athletic directors on Tuesday morning. “We need to educate parents to allow their high school athletes to participate in multiple sports instead of simply playing one sport. Research has shown that those who play in multiple sports are less likely to be injured.

    “When the opportunity presents itself, please educate your parents and student-athletes to participate in multiple high school sports, and to participate in non-athletic activities in the high school,” Lucas said later. “Research has shown that those who are involved in high school activities or athletics – or both – have higher GPAs and are less likely to be in trouble.”

    All-School Summit Jim Lucas
    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    In his address to the membership, Lucas also touched on:

    • New commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green: “She has hit the ground running – and when I say running, she is running. She is full of energy and looking to make adjustments and changes to make CHSAA a better Association.”
    • The importance of the membership reaching out the Board for any reason whatsoever: “It is crucial that we all communicate together so that we are on the same page. We want your voice to be heard. We are a membership organization, and you are the membership.”
    • New athletic directors: “Do not be afraid to ask for help from your fellow ADs or the CHSAA staff. You are in a great profession, and I would tell you, as I am in my 34th year, you are in the greatest profession that anybody could ever be in, and that’s educating students.”
    • Club sports and the culture of chasing scholarships: “We are not here compete against club ball, but to educate parents that it’s not about a pot of gold – meaning scholarship money – at the end of a rainbow.”

    Another huge focus for Lucas was the InsideOut Coaching philosophy, which has hosted two sessions for the athletic directors during this All-School Summit.

    “Today, more than ever, we need transformative coaches who can help mold our young people to be great athletes, and who play for the love of the game,” Lucas said. “We also want our student-athletes to become great citizens with high morals, integrity, and so on.

    “We need everybody to find a way to integrate that system and keep it sustained to the future for our young athletes,” he added.

  • CHSAA student leadership camp teaches how to overcome challenges

    CHSAA student leadership camp
    (Courtesy of Kendle Davis)

    FORT COLLINS — The Annual Student Leadership Camp gives students an opportunity to grow not only themselves, but their schools as a whole.

    Students like Rangeview’s Josh Wall.

    “We’ve been focusing on the things which we struggle with and how to overcome them better as a counsel,” Wall said. “Trying to figure out attendance issues in our school, fight racial tendencies, etc. Figure out how we can make our schools better.”

    Rashaan Davis, the curriculum director asked student to do three things every day: Learn, grow and play.

    “Kids understand what the expectation is — especially leaders. It has to be a balance,” Davis said. “We want them to be able to learn. Those are the things we want you to take back to your school. Second, we want them to grow individually as a leader. But, then we also want to play and remind kids how to have a good time.”

    He asked students to simply be in the moment.

    “In this moment, if you can shut down all the other things that are going on and you can hear the message, that’s probably more important than anything else,” Davis said. “Just be here now. If kids can get to that point, that’s where real learning starts to happen.”

    The camp’s theme is ‘GRIT.’

    Davis spoke on what grit means to him.

    “To me, it’s absolutely about follow-through. It’s about understanding how to persevere,” Davis said. “Sometimes, it’s the littlest things that we have to persevere. It’s hearing no sometimes, and I appreciate that because when kids hear no, they either fall apart or they grow. Fail forward, if you will.

    “Grit says, I’m going to take a step back and assess what’s going on around me, and then we’re going to move forward in a positive way.”

    The students were grouped into counsels, then grouped by classification to work on brainstorming ideas for service projects, fundraising and events.

    Kim Karr, the guest speaker for the day, touched on the #ICANHELP initiative.

    According to the #ICANHELP website, they believe that “One person has the power to make a difference and delete negativity online in his or her own life. More people can effect even more change.”

    Karr talked about creating a positive school culture by transforming these student leaders into digital leaders that create positive change online.

    “I think she’s talking on their level because it’s all about technology,” Davis said. “That little device can mean a whole lot in a positive way and it can mean a whole lot in a very negative way. As kids leave here, they should understand that the little things they do affect them personally. But, the big picture of how they can make someone else feel, I think is important.

    “That’s a message that they can take back and share with other students and with their feeder schools — middle school kids need that probably more than high school kids.”

    CHSAA student leadership camp
    (Courtesy of Kendle Davis)

    CHSAA’s Student Leadership program gives students opportunities to work directly with CHSAA members to address important issues.

    The CHSAA state reps had a meeting with the CHSAA staff after Karr spoke.

    “I think it’s great being able to work with all the CHSAA members and the adults to see their mindset,” Wall said. “There are all these rules that you aren’t used to, but now you get to see the backside of that and understand why they have that. Nevertheless, it’s great to have these adults and college people around because you get to see what you can do in leadership and how much further you can go.”

    Wall and the rest of the students get just that — an idea of how far you can go with a program like this. Real change can happen when students and CHSAA members work together.

    “Whenever you meet great people, you get a lot of ideas,” Wall said. “All the ideas which I’m getting from the people in my counsel really help me be able to have these new ideas so I’m kind of refreshed in things that I’ve been doing for the last three years. I come back with a new sense of grit where I’ve got to fight and do everything I need to in order to have a better last year.”

    And, when students from schools around the state get together to collaborate and discuss which ideas work best.

    “I’ve heard of a lot of great ideas from other schools. Other ways of fundraising, I definitely feel could work where I’m going,” Wall said. “A lot of the 1A, 2A or 3A schools, they don’t have many people. When you have a lot of people, it’s easier to get people to go to events. So, you get to hear how they get people to go to events and you can follow their methods.”

    Just two days into the camp, the theme is being bought into full force.

    “Everybody needs grit to get better,” Wall said. “I feel like the theme is really helpful because one of the biggest issues with leadership is giving up after a while or getting tired at the end of the year. It’s always great to have a theme like that because it proves that everything you are doing is worth it. You always have to keep on fighting.”