Ray Lutz, a longtime football, basketball and track official for over 40 years, passed away Friday.

Lutz, a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame, officiated over 2,400 varsity contests, 1,000 sub-varsity games and nearly 500 playoff games in football and basketball. He was a life-long official who has served in a number of capacities in various officials’ organizations and he was a mentor to hundreds of younger officials.

He worked six football and 12 basketball championship games and as a state meet official in track more than 20 times.

Lutz, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004, served on numerous committees to better officiating in the state and his influence was felt statewide.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 22 at Calhan High School, in the main gym. Dress is casual. Bolo ties are encouraged. Stripes are optional.

(Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)

It’s Monday, and that means “Officials Appreciation Week” is underway.

We have asked our member schools, teams and school communities to let CHSAA officials know how much their time, dedication and commitment means to high school activities.

Already, our schools are joining the movement:

THANK YOU to all of the HS OFFICIALS from all over our state. We appreciate your role in our educationally-based athletic programs. @CHSAA

— Sierra Athletics (@SierraHSsports) October 9, 2017

Officials Appreciation week – Paraphrasing Commish Blanford-Green: Without refs – it's just recess! Thank you for all you do! @CHSAANow 💙💚😁

— Overland Athletics (@WeAreOverland) October 9, 2017

Show us how you’ve showed your appreciation for an official this week, either on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. 

Are you interested in becoming a high school official? Find out more information and indicate your interest on this page.

(Michael Hankins/TGWStudios.com)

CHSAA has designated the Week of Oct. 9 as “Officials Appreciation Week.”

We are asking our member schools, teams and school communities to let CHSAA officials know how much their time, dedication and commitment means to high school activities.

“Without them, it would just be recess,” said CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green.

A signed card from the team, an additional pregame “shout-out,” a gift card or basket — there are so many ways our schools can acknowledge the importance of officials to ensuring our athletes compete in a safe and equitable environment.

Currently, there are 4,686 officials serving the CHSAA membership.

“Without officials we have no games,” said CHSAA associate commissioner Tom Robinson, who oversees officials. “The partnership we have with officials is an integral component of the CHSAA.”

Are you interested in becoming a high school official? Find out more information and indicate your interest on this page.

(Cindy Betancourt/eStudioWest.com)

AURORA – Like every other state in the country, Colorado high school sports are facing an officials’ crisis.

There aren’t enough officials to cover all the games the kids are playing, says CHSAA associate commissioner Tom Robinson who oversees sports officials in the state.

“We are having to ask schools to alter varsity schedules just to ensure that we can cover those games, but there will be sub-varsity games that won’t have complete crews on some of them. That isn’t fair to the athletes and to the officials, because that level is a training level for both,” Robinson noted.

The officials’ organizations that serve Colorado’s high schools have developed classes for those interested in becoming an official. In most sports, these classes are local and the leadership will assist in registration, training and can answer any questions that might arise.

Classes start this month. Please see below for dates, sites and locations of these.

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Download: PDF

https://old.chsaanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/new-officials-meetings.pdf

John Carricato. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

John Carricato isn’t in it for the money. He’s not in for the recognition. He’s in it for the kids.

The longtime Colorado Springs resident is active during every athletics season in Colorado. He coaches boys golf in the fall and girls golf in the spring, both at Cheyenne Mountain.

In the fall, he spends his weekends officiating football games as a white-hat. In the winter, he still wears his referee stripes only on the hardwood floor.

He’s been called names. He’s been told he’s no good. But he continues to persist as an official because like anything he does in regard to high school athletics, his focus is on providing a positive experience for the competitors.

Given the downward trend in the number of high school officials, he seemed like the perfect person to provide some perspective on how high athletics are view from the guys in the stripped shirts.

For more information on how to become a high school official in Colorado, visit highschoolofficials.com.

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Question: Why do you think we’re hearing so much about the number of officials trending down?

Carricato: I think from the awareness part, in order to retain officials it’s multifaceted with one of them being how fans treat them. So that’s why you’re hearing so much about it.

I don’t necessarily think there’s a trend down, it’s probably flat. The issue becomes that there are more and more schools. That’s the primary thing.

The officials associations need to keep up with the growth of the number of high schools.

Q: What makes a good official?

Carricato: I think there’s a couple of things that come to mind real quick and one of them being you have to be athlete-focused. I think the best officials are those who coach. And I’m not saying that because I coach.

But I have peers in the officiating world that are also coaches and they’re pretty good. So that piece about being athlete-focused is pretty important.

And the second part, which is just as important, is how well you communicate.

You’ve got to figure out as an official how to be an effective communicator not only with the coaches – which is really just to stay quiet and let them talk – but how to communicate with kids.

I’ve learned that when you catch the athletes doing things right, you can get them on your side pretty easily.

Q: You mentioned the coaches. Is it essential to stay quiet but is there a bond or almost relationship that you have to have with those guys?

Carricato: Yeah and that bond and relationship comes probably with confidence. The more they see you and the more they see you on the road and to know that they’re going to get a fair shake on the road, that probably helps.

I only have a couple of things to say to coaches and they’re pretty simple. It’s that I try to get them to talk. I’ll ask them what they saw on that play and get them to say what they saw and I’ll tell them that I’ll take a look at it next time.

So it’s more about listening to them and not responding in statements is really important. When they have a question and it’s a legitimate question, it’s probably repeated more than once and I’ll try to answer it.

But it’s really about trying to start that conversation when you get that feel that coaches and the coaching bench is getting a little agitated with what’s going on.

If you can get there and ask what they’re seeing and get them to talk about what’s frustrating for them, I think that really helps.

Q: What the most common frustration you see from coaches towards officials?

Carricato: Consistency on both ends of the court. I’m talking basketball here, but that’s the most common thing.

And that’s what we talk about as officials too. We want to have like calls and like plays on both ends. Does it happen all the time? No. But I think the reason we say that is because that’s what we hear from coaches. They just want consistency.

Q: You work football too. Would you almost call that a safer environment being much more distanced from the fans?

Carricato: Yeah I think it is. It’s a different environment because you’re pretty far aways from there.

And coaches can talk to you, but then the next play happens. They have to get ready for the next play. They’ll talk to you and there may be some frustrations on the sidelines but I moved from the sidelines to the referee position several years ago and every time I go back on the sidelines, that’s what I enjoy most about football is being on that sideline and listening to the chaos that happens there.

Just as important and what fascinates me the most about officiating is when I’m able to listen to coaches talk to their kids. I learn so much from just listening how they communicate that I can actually take that as a coach and use those communication techniques.

Q: What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard from a coach?

Carricato: The one that sticks out right away is Manitou Springs boys basketball. They were struggling a little bit in the backcourt and the ball was thrown from the backcourt in the air, and it was caught by Coach (Ken) Vecchio. He just looked at me, bounced the ball once and says, “Ball always finds the shooter.”

That’s the thing that sticks out to me the most. When I have to answer the question off the top of my head, that’s what really sticks out. Any time a ball goes out of bounds and a coach catches it, I always think of that statement.

Q: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever heard from a fan, parent or student?

Carricato: Early on when I still had hair, I mean I was bald, but trying to fight being bald, it was probably the hair jokes that were the worst from the fans.

After 20 years of being bald, pick something else because I’ve pretty much heard everything.

The worst thing that happened to me was when a fan came and actually threw punches at me and my teammate in a corner of a gym. It started there but ended up in the middle of the court and what people saw were two officials ganging up on this spectator and thought that we were at fault.

That was actually the worst thing that happened to me, but I don’t know if I want to rekindle too much of that.

Now it’s pretty funny.

Q: Sometimes you see officials with a bit of a quick trigger to boot a fan out of venue. What would it take to get you to that point?

Carricato: I have to be honest, I became a decent official when I was able to take all that commotion and distractions from spectators and ignore it.

That’s when I elevated my ability as an official.

The advice that I would give is to ignore the distractions, ignore that piece of it. The benefit is that you will become a better official when you can do that.

It took me 20 years to figure that out, but there are a lot officials that have figured that out early. You can see that their development is on a really good trajectory.

Q: What advice would you give a kid looking to become a high school official?

Carricato: It’s the best part-time job you can get. Especially if you’re in college. You set your own schedule.

Contrary to what you hear, it’s still pretty good money. But the key is you set your own schedule when you officiate.

You’re also part of a sport that you have a passion to and you’re moving that passion from playing that sport to officiating. That’s the biggest thing.

As far as officiating, find a mentor. Find a person that you like how they work, like their style and I don’t know any veteran official that wouldn’t help a young official out.

(John Priest/CHSAANow.com)

Boys soccer will add a new fourth classification of competition beginning with the fall 2018 season.

The new Class 2A was created when the Legislative Council voted to approve a proposal to do so during its meeting on Thursday at the Radisson Hotel Denver Southeast. The motion passed easily with a 62-5 vote.

“We’re excited that the Association voted to add an additional championship for boys soccer in 2018,” said Bud Ozzello, the CHSAA assistant commissioner in charge of boys soccer. “It will enable our schools with smaller enrollments to compete in their own playoff bracket.”

The move brings the boys in line with girls soccer, which added a fourth class two seasons ago. When that decision was made, the girls had 74 teams playing in 3A. Boys soccer currently has 78 teams in 3A, and the new class will help bring that number down.

The proposal was supported by the soccer committee, the Classification and League Organizing Committee, as well as the equity committee.

The change will be effective with the 2018-20 two-year cycle, meaning the next season, in fall 2017, will still remain at three classifications.

When 2A boys soccer does begin play in fall 2018, it is likely that it will affect the structure of the championships, Ozzello said.

Currently, all three classes play their title games at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on a Saturday. A fourth classification could mean splitting the championships over two days, like girls soccer does, or using a separate venue for 2A.

“We’re limited by what the venue (DSGP) can do, especially because the (Colorado) Rapids are in-season at that time,” Ozzello said.

That decision likely will be made over the course of the next year.

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Notables

• A few tweaks to the RPI formula became official. A full story is available here.
• Eddie Hartnett, the current Board president, noted that he would be introducing the next CHSAA commissioner the next time the Legislative Council meeting convenes in April. (Applications for the commissioner job are being accepted now.)
• Four new schools were approved for initial membership into CHSAA: DSST-Cole, Golden View Classical Academy, Stargate School and Victory Prep. This brings CHSAA’s membership to 355 schools. Additionally, Caprock Charter Academy, DSST-Green Valley Ranch, and Venture Prep were all approved as full members following a three-year probationary period.
• In the future, applications for membership will only be considered in odd years after a proposal passed. This will make it so new schools are only added during the beginning of a two-year cycle, which will help reduce complications of changing schedules and league structure.
• Officials’ fees got a $2 bump in all sports, at all levels, for the 2018-20 two-year cycle. There had already been a $1 increase scheduled.
• Cross country’s wish to move the 2A state meet to run six, score four was voted down. So 2A will remain at six runners competing, but only three scoring.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Opinions in this Mailbag do not reflect an official viewpoint of CHSAA.

In this installment of the CHSAANow.com Mailbag, we tackle questions about the (non) use of a shot clock in basketball, fans who act inappropriately, the addition of new sports and activities, and more.

To ask a question for the next Mailbag, use this form, or ask on Twitter: Tweet to @jryancasey

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(Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)

Why doesn’t CO hoops use a shot clock? Aren’t there other states that do this? If so, how come we can’t do it, too? I really think it would help the game, so that teams aren’t just sitting around holding the ball as much as they are now.

— Nick, Longmont

This is an interesting topic. The short answer to your question is that as things stand in Colorado right now, it would take a change at the national level to get this done. The reason for this is that CHSAA is among states nationally that are a “100 percent” state — that is, Colorado follows NFHS rules 100 percent.

You’re right, there are states that deviate from the NFHS rules specifically so they can add a shot clock. Eight states, in fact: New York, California, Massachusetts, Maryland (only girls), North Dakota, South Dakota, Rhode Island and Washington.

So why doesn’t CHSAA stop being a 100 percent state? Well, there are a lot of benefits to being a 100 percent state, including the ability to sit on NFHS rules committees. Having representation there means you’re able to help shape future rules, and that (obviously) is a pretty important influence.

The NFHS has looked at adding a shot clock in the past. In 2015, the organization noted that proposals have been pushed forward “for a number of years,” but that “the arguments against the use of a shot clock have prevailed.”

It came up at CHSAA’s basketball committee meeting last February. And I’m sure it will again this February. (This is also commonplace in other states. It’s happened in Ohio and Illinois recently, too.)

Basically, the arguments against the shot clock revolve mostly around tradition and strategy, but also that it would create a financial burden for schools who would have to go out and buy new scoreboards or stand-alone shot clocks. (Shot clocks range from $2,000 to $7,000, according to a report on CantonRep.com.)

I’m personally in favor of adding a shot clock, and think that the financial side of things could be mitigated by simply having officials keep track of the shot clock at gyms that don’t have one built in. (Every state venue already has a built-in shot clock.) We already have referees keep time in football with the play clock, including the recent 40-second experiment this past season.

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(Josh Watt/CHSAANow.com)

There are fans who take sports way too seriously and frankly don’t know how to act at sporting events. The loss of officials is discouraging and alarming. Should CHSAA adopt a policy of zero tolerance or close to it to deal with unruly fans?

— Chris, Pagosa Springs

You are absolutely right: People take sports way too seriously, especially at our level. There has been an extreme loss of perspective when it comes to sporting events.

Ultimately, at the high school and youth levels, sports are used as a way to teach kids about life. They deal with hardship, controversy, expectation, disappointment. They learn to be a member of a team, how to take instruction, how to constructively criticize, how to be humble in victory, and gracious in defeat.

Sports are absolutely important, for their ability to teach, and for other reasons as basic as exercise, but they are ultimately a game. Perspective so important.

I love what Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell said about seeing the Earth from the Moon in 1971:

From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a [expletive].”

I think that same perspective holds true for sports: Is that missed call by an official so important in the grand scheme of the world? Of your kid’s life? Do you really need to scream and yell at the official so everyone in the gym can know you disagree with it?

Your kid will go on to have many moments that really matter — perhaps the birth of a child or the death of a parent, a job offer, moving to a new town — and the hope is that by playing sports at a young age, they will have learned some skills to will help them deal with those moments.

In any case, to your actual question — should CHSAA adopt a zero policy tolerance for fans — maybe not a zero-tolerance policy, but perhaps some new rules may be in order. Or perhaps we need to do a better job at policing ourselves.

Some of the instances we wrote about when discussing the abuse of officials were just gross. But we’ve all seen similar things at games. Maybe the next time it happens, we shouldn’t just roll our eyes. We can’t normalize treating another person like garbage. We need to tell them to stop, and help that unruly person gain some perspective. We need to be the example for our kids.

The ones who don’t have the words to rationally discuss something simply raise their voices and resort to cussing someone out. So let’s teach them the words, and how to properly and calmly handle the situation.

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(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

I am writing to inquire about the process for new activities to be accepted and sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association. Can you help me to track down this information?

— William, Seattle

I went straight to the source for this one — CHSAA assistant commissioner Bethany Brookens, our equity coordinator — because she has far more complete and direct knowledge.

First, the people behind adding a new activity or sport need to contact the equity coordinator, and then send out a survey to member schools gauging the interest in adding that sport or activity.

“They’ll ask things like who’s interested, do they have facilities to support it, what the cost impact would be, and how would it affect their proportionality” in terms of Title IX, Brookens said.

From there, the group would present to the equity committee. That committee would make a recommendation on whether or not to add the new sport/activity.

The group then has the option of speaking to the Legislative Council in hopes of gaining support.

The final step would be to have a league bring a proposal forward to be voted on by the Legislative Council, typically at its April meeting.

CHSAA hasn’t added a new sport since 1998 and 1999 with boys and girls lacrosse. But as we’ve written about, girls wrestling may be on the horizon.

Recently, girls rugby got most of the way, only to have its momentum stopped at the most important step: no league wanted to sponsor a proposal.

Boys volleyball is set to talk to Legislative Council in January, and we may then see a proposal from a league in April.

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Why aren’t the RPI standings updated yet? I feel like they were always updated during the fall. What happened?

— Toni, Castle Rock

After receiving feedback from our schools, we opted to not publish the winter rankings until mid-season. We will likely do this in spring, as well.

The feedback from the schools indicated that it would be helpful for them if the standings didn’t post until there was a meaningful amount of data.

Here’s more info from something we published in December.

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To have your question answered in our next Mailbag, use this form.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Tom Robinson, the director of officials for the Colorado High School Activities Association, is serving as the replay official for Monday night’s college football national championship game.

Robinson, who has worked at CHSAA for the past 16 years, is a longtime on-field official who has served as a replay official for CFO West (which serves the Big XII, Mountain West and Southland conferences) over the past few seasons. A Big XII officiating crew was assigned to the National Championship, and Robinson was selected for this prestigious assignment at the conclusion of the regular season.

Alabama and Clemson are playing for the 2017 national title.

Robinson was an official in the Western Athletic Conference and Mountain West from 1975-2000, and worked the Bluebonnet, Fiesta, Rose, Cotton, Gator, Independence and Citrus Bowls during his career. He was also a high school official from 1969-75.

Robinson was named CHSAA’s associate commissioner in 2014, and is in charge of golf and sportsmanship for the Association. He has served on the football and basketball rules committees for the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Robinson — a 1969 graduate of Colorado State University where he ran track, played basketball and football — is set to retire at the conclusion of this school year.

Prior to joining CHSAA in 2001, he was a math teacher and coach at Regis Jesuit for 30 years, and also served as the school’s director of diversity for six years.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Opinions in this column do not reflect an official viewpoint of CHSAA. Warning: This column contains obscene language.

Do you want to be an official?

No? Why not?

Maybe you don’t have enough time. Maybe you don’t think you’re qualified.

Or maybe you don’t want to put up with the regular abuse you’ll have to endure on seemingly a game-to-game basis.

I don’t know what it is about sporting events, but they have an enduring tendency to turn its participants, coaches and fans — often grown adults — into toddlers, willing to throw a fit and curse at strangers, and sometimes threaten physical attack because they have a differing opinion.

The only other situation I think comes close to this kind of irrational behavior is on the road, where strangers will become blind with road rage.

In our world, we have a type of sports rage.

Most team sports that CHSAA sanctions has a database where officials file game reports, sometimes after each competition, but also if there’s some kind of foul that needs reporting, such as a yellow card in soccer, or an ejection. This means that the office sees a report on just about every incident that happens in a game because it hits the inbox of the administrator who oversees the sport.

(Cindy Betancourt/eStudioWest.com)

Not everything is horrible. Sometimes they’re funny. (One baseball report: “[The coach] said, ‘Go ahead, please eject me.’ I obliged his request, immediately.”) And there are also many, many comments commending teams, players and coaches for their sportsmanship, even the way they handle participants who are out of control.

But a recent game report simply stuck with me, and I’ll share it here. It’s a perfect example of what’s driving officials away.

This was a boys soccer game, but I’ve removed anything that would identify the teams or players. (Warning: The language used here is at times obscene and inappropriate, but I feel it’s necessary to show the full picture of what transpired.)

[Home team Player 1] was cautioned in the 53rd minute for Persistent Infringement after illegally challenging the [away team] goalkeeper for possession of the ball by running into the GK while the GK had the ball in his hands. This was the fourth time a [home team] player had run into the GK in such a manner.

[Home team Player 2] was cautioned in the 58th minute for Unsporting Conduct after committing a reckless tackle for possession of the ball where he recklessly and forcefully pushed his opponent to the ground off the field of play after the ball had been played up the field for an advantage for [away team].

[Away team Player 1] was cautioned in the 64th minute for Delaying the Restart of play by first refusing to give the ball to his opponent and then throwing the ball away.

[Home team Player 3] was cautioned in the 64th minute for pushing his opponent in the chest with both hands while the ball was not in play, after his opponent refused to give him the ball for his team’s restart.

[Home team Player 2] was cautioned for Dissent and then ejected for Receiving a Second Yellow Card in the 73rd minute after telling the referee he was ridiculous. His team mate had been called for a pushing foul which [Player 2] disagreed with by forcefully bouncing the ball in a disgusted gesture, causing the referee to stop the clock and address his behavior. After being told to collect himself and play the game is when he made his “ridiculous” remark.

[Home team Player 4] was ejected in the 79th minute for Foul or Abusive Language directed at his opponent; he shouted “fuck you” repeatedly at his opponent.

[Home team Player 5] was ejected in the 79th minute for Foul or Abusive Language directed at his opponent; he shouted “fuck you” at his opponent after his teammate had been ejected from the game and before play could be restarted.

At this point someone in the [home team] side of the crowd shouted “Hey ref, we called your wife; we told her you were fucking us!” I walked over to the [home team] bench to discuss it with [the head coach]. This is when [an assistant coach] was cautioned for Dissent for loudly disagreeing with a list of things that the referee had apparently done.

After the completion of the game while I was waiting for [another referee] to join me for the quick exit from the field, [Home team Player 3] was shown the red card for Foul or Abusive language directed at his opponent after repeatedly yelling “fuck you” at a [visiting team] player. When I displayed the red card to him, he loudly told me “Go ahead, show me the fucking red card! I don’t give a shit!”

That is horrific. Why would anyone who endured this ever want to officiate ever again? Most of the officials in the state are involved because they really enjoy the sport. It’s not as though they’re making thousands upon thousands of dollars. It’s a side job for most, or even a hobby.

There are countless of instances in these game reports of players, coaches and fans cursing at officials, or flipping them off.

Here’s an example from a football report:

[Home assistant coach] was very animated and screaming obscenities about the play. At that time [an official] threw a flag for [unsportsmanlike conduct] and then a second where numerous players and coaches were screaming that we the officials were a “fucking piece of shit,” along with many other things.

[Home head coach], after finding out that we were not going to change the ruling, and after explaining what the [back judge] saw, went into an obscenity-laced tirade, to which another [unsportsmanlike] was called. Then [home assistant] ran onto the field and contacted [an official], going face-to-face and screaming obscenities, in [the official’s] face, to which he was flagged and ejected.

…

At the conclusion of the game, there were two photographers that came after us asking us our names. When I informed them that that was not our policy, they became somewhat angry that we would not give them the information and that the game administration knew who we were if they needed the information. Police escorted us off the field.

Another one:

Parents were on the track screaming at the officials. What I heard were the following quotes from parents:

“You guys have been fucking terrible all game.”
“Fuck you, way to screw the kids.”
“You guys fucking suck.”
“That’s fucking terrible, how can you miss that fucking call.”
“That’s bullshit, you can’t miss that call. Bullshit.”

There are many other instances of participants charging officials as if to fight. Check this out from a basketball report:

We had to be escorted to our cars by police since [a player’s father] was waiting for us after the game.

Or from a baseball report:

After the games, [another umpire] and I were approached by a male adult fan (and assumed wife). He verbally harassed us about our calls. I told him to “move on” several times. He demanded our names. [The other umpire] threatened to call the police. After a few more insults, they drove off.

Why do people think this is OK?

If you’re in a grocery store, and someone puts the apples under a “delicious” label, are you going to go find the store manager and flip them off because you disagree?

(Matt Daniels/MattDanPhoto.com)

Perhaps a better analogy: If your daughter’s teacher gives her a B+ on a paper you think she deserved an A on, are you going to wait for the teacher after school and verbally berate them? Or threaten to fight them?

No, because that’s irrational. It’s inappropriate. It’s unacceptable by any measure.

Besides, from a purely logical perspective: Do you think the level of officiating is going to improve if you drive all of the experienced officials away?

Listen, this isn’t a complete across-the-board defense of officials. They are obviously flawed at times, and yes, there are some who take their power too far. But that’s not the point. In no situation is it ever OK to take this kind of abusive approach towards another person who happens to be officiating the game you’re involved in.

The reality is that Colorado’s heading toward a crisis when it comes to officiating numbers. Out-of-control fans, coaches and players in situations such as these are only exacerbating the problem.

There’s data to back that up. The CHSAA office conducted a survey of 1,359 officials from all sports who opted to not re-register from 2015 to 2016, and asked why. Of those who responded, 21.41 percent said it was because of poor sportsmanship by either coaches and players, or spectators.

One respondent wrote that “many coaches and players are disrespectful and intimidating.” Another said that it “gets worse and worse every year and nobody is willing to do anything about it.”

Finally: “I was followed to my car after a few games. This takes the enjoyment out of officiating. I decided not to do anything I don’t enjoy, not enough money to take the risk.”

I recently heard of an organization that keeps dozens of extra striped officiating jerseys on hand at youth games. If there’s a parent who is constantly berating officials, someone from the organization simply walks up, hands them a striped jersey and nods toward the field: “You’re up.”

The parent never takes the jersey.

Perhaps they should. Shoot, we may soon need the bodies.

(Michael Hankins/TGWstudios.com)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Opinions in this Mailbag do not reflect an official viewpoint of CHSAA.

In this installment of the CHSAANow.com Mailbag, we tackle the questions about the classification system, moving softball to the spring, recruiting officials, and (of course) RPI.

To ask a question for the next Mailbag, use this form, or ask on Twitter: Tweet to @jryancasey

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The CLOC committee is involved in creating the classification system. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

I am interested in understanding how the classification process works. It does not seem to me to be strictly an enrollment issue. How can a school participate in one class for one sport and another class for a different sport?

— Tom

The classification system, to me, is one of the biggest issues CHSAA is facing right now.

First, here’s a direct answer to your question: Right now, the classes are set by-and-large by enrollment, with a very small amount of teams playing up (by choice) or down (due to lack of success) a class.

Schools can have different teams in different classes because of that reason, but also because sports have a differing number of classes. For example, football has seven classes, but boys soccer has three. The enrollment cutoffs are different for those sports. (Note that this isn’t always true, as basketball, which has five classes, has the same cutoffs as soccer.)

With the move to equally balancing teams in classes, individual sports vary even more.

I hold a firm belief that enrollment alone does not give enough of a picture to determine classes. I think there should be some weight given to success, or lack thereof, which would probably do a better job at placing programs in a classification.

For example, a program that has won six-straight tennis championships in 4A probably ought to move up to 5A. A football team that has gone 0-10 for three straight years in 3A is probably better suited playing 2A.

Those are, obviously, extreme examples. I think this type of success-based addition to the classification system should be more nuanced, taking into account things like regular season wins, playoff appearances, and the levels of postseason reached.

Of course, this may have the side effect of placing more programs of the same school into different classifications. However, I really think that’s OK.

Recently, a small step was taken in this direction: The CHSAA staff visited with members of the California Interscholastic Federation, and received a briefing on their classification system. That system does take success (or lack of it) into account, tackling competitive equity.

Here’s an example from what the CIF released this past June.

So, stay tuned.

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(Renee Bourcier/CHSAANow.com)

Any discussion of moving softball to spring season like many other states and college? Does CHSAA realize the number of female athletes that compete in both softball and volleyball and are forced to choose one sport in high school?

Volleyball is clearly a fall sport and softball is clearly a spring sport in college which makes since for alignment.

— Dustin, Aurora

Yes, actually. I was surprised to learn this.

A survey was created about this topic by Kit Carson School District superintendent Robert Framel, and it went out to all schools. His survey indicated the following:

• Most of the 5A, 4A and 3A schools were not in favor of a move to the spring. In 5A and 4A, just 15 percent of schools were in favor of the move, while 39.4 percent of 3A schools were in favor of a move.
• Results were slightly more mixed from 1A and 2A (though there is no softball at that level; any schools parcipating here play 3A). In 2A, nine of the 23 surveyed responded that they did want a move, while nine of the 17 surveyed in 1A indicated the same.

Because of these survey results, it is my understanding that the softball committee will hear a proposal to create a 2A softball season in the spring when that committee meets on Nov. 17. That would leave 5A, 4A and 3A playing in the fall.

This is just my opinion, but I believe that would be a bad move. We should not be splitting the same sport into different seasons.

Additionally, a move to a spring season would create other concerns, such as a lack of umpires, the pool of which crosses over from both high school baseball and from college softball (both played in the spring). Also, indications are that it would be very difficult to secure Aurora Sports Park in the spring. So the state tournaments would have to find a similar facility elsewhere.

As far as athletes having to choose one sport over another, that would happen even in the spring with girls sports like track, lacrosse, and soccer.

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(Michael Hankins/TGWstudios.com)

With Paul Angelico and Tom Robinson retiring at the end of the school year, will there be an emphasis on the new regime to recruit newer and better officials for all sports?

Specifically, at the football level, there is a major shortage of officials and a big reason for that is Colorado ranks third-to-last in the country in terms of what officials are paid — and it’s likely like that across all sports.

Isn’t it time for CHSAA — and its member schools and districts — to get serious about getting better officials, and that would require a financial commitment that has been lagging for decades?

— C.J. T., Denver

There have been strides made in this area, as recently as this season, and it is now being looked at every two-year cycle. I believe many schools are starting to take action on this.

I asked Tom Robinson, our officials liaison, about this:

“We might be third in pay, but I’m certain we’re also near the bottom in terms of educational funds, as well,” he said. “So there’s a correlation.”

Still, Robinson acknowledged that this was an issue, and that he was working on it.

“I think that’s a problem,” he said, “but I also think there are other factors. Things like fan abuse and career changes are equally in the mix.

“There’s been a change in the paradigm recently, where we’re no longer strictly getting our officials from the educational world,” Robinson continued. “We’re now getting people from all walks of life.”

As you mention, he is retiring, and we are going to miss him in that office. But I think he wants to have a structure in place to recruit officials before he leaves.

For example, he mentioned an “Each One, Teach One” program where every current official becomes a mentor and helps recruit another official.

Here’s another idea: We’ve got thousands of great “refs” in the stands at games. Why not recruit them?

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I enjoyed reading your proposed changes to the RPI article. I myself have struggled with your own winning percentage holding as much weight as your OOWP and both far behind OWP.

Will basketball consider switching the formula in time for this season?

— Zach, Swink

Thank you, I appreciate that, and thank you for reading.

I honestly do not know if basketball can switch before the winter season, but I will say this: it’s probably best to not get your hopes up.

But also remember that basketball has 19-23 games, so that will help. Again, the problem in football is by-and-large being caused by the relatively small amount of games.

The spring season may be more realistic.

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(Morgan Dzak/CHSAANow.com)

When Silver Creek and Longmont played last week in football, Silver Creek won and stayed fourth in RPI yet Longmont lost and moved up to fifth in RPI.

How is this possible, and why does it seem that RPI rewards teams for losing to great teams? Doesn’t that seem a bit counter-intuitive?

— Jamal, Longmont

This is one of the biggest misconceptions about RPI: It is not a game-to-game rating system, like a coaches poll. It rates teams based on their entire season.

So what likely happened in this instance is that Silver Creek already had a solid strength-of-schedule rating, and it was relatively unchanged by the fact that the Raptors played Longmont. In Longmont’s case, it appears to have helped the Trojans’ SOS, and they moved up as a result.

Now to your second point, we’ve gotten some feedback from our schools (and I agree) that the OWP column is weighted too much, especially for a sport like football, with only 10 games. I believe that will be addressed prior to next season.

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(Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)

Will the RPI be used in women’s hoops and will it be used to seed the teams for the state playoffs? If not, is only being used to select the overall field of playoff teams?

— Kevin, Greenwood Village

Hot off the digital press! It’s our basketball bulletin. See pages 24-30 for qualifying formats.

This answer applies to both girls and boys basketball: Each class has a slightly different way of approaching this, but the RPI will be the primary factor in seeding in all classes, adjusting to accommodate geography and avoid first-round matchups where possible.

There are exceptions, like 3A, where seeds 1-7 will be district champions.

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(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Is there a reason why CHSAA does not announce where the girls golf regional and state tournaments will be played at the beginning of the school year?

— Hank P., Golden

They typically are announced at that time, but not always.

I think, more than any other sport, golf’s state tournament sites are unique because it is so difficult to find a host course, as well as a school willing to serve as a host.

There are other factors to consider, like how the sites rotate on a geographic basis most of the time, so that can make it even more difficult to secure a course.

As a result, the announcement of sites can at times take longer than other sports.

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So rugby is getting bigger and better in Colorado, has there been any mention to add boys and girls rugby league and rugby union to high school programs?

The game is becoming much popular and athletes from other sports are participating making the game much more competitive.

— Elie T., Aurora

This is something we tackled in a previous Mailbag, but, no there has not been much movement. See this link for more on where it stands.