(Pittou2/Flickr)

AURORA — Colorado is dipping its toe into the realm of high school eSports.

CHSAA’s Board of Directors on Wednesday voted to approve eSports as a pilot activity, a first step along the road to potential sanctioning.

“eSports has the potential to provide opportunities for more students to become engaged in their school and communities,” said CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green. “Many of these participants may not be involved in any other activity in their school. eSports will provide the same opportunity to this population that many other traditional sports and activities have provided to other students in their schools.”

The Board heard presentations from Sean Collins, an assistant principal at Arvada West, and Laz Alberto, the vice president of PlayVS, which is the official eSports league of the NFHS and a leading authority in the genre.

eSports would be treated as a competitive activity under the CHSAA umbrella, if all hurdles along the way to sanctioning are approved. If all steps along the process are completed, it could become sanctioned in 2022.

“Gaming pares down boundaries,” Collins said. “This is who I have on my team: A varsity wrestler, a varsity baseball player, a cheerleader, I have kids from marching band, I have kids who aren’t on any other teams. And they are all playing on the same team, competing against kids from the other Jeffco area.”

The first of the pilot seasons will begin this fall.

eSports teams will be co-ed. There will be no classifications, and the fact that matches are played online means there are no travel costs associated with the activity.

“If adopted, this would be the first competitive activity that has no boundaries or classifications,” Blanford-Green said. “A kid in rural district, such as Springfield, could easily compete against a kid from a metro school, for example, a Cherry Creek.”

CHSAA’s pilot will be run by PlayVS, which recently completed an initial season with five states. During that initial season, 41 percent of students on eSports teams had never participated in a school-sponsored activity.

This season, PlayVS will run competitions in 15 states.

“Kids are already playing eSports,” Alberto said. “Your kids care about eSports. Us entering into this field will be a meaningful opportunity.”

PlayVS has partnership agreements with various publishers, and offers the following games: League of Legends, Rocket League and Smite. The setup calls for fall (October to January) and spring (February to May) seasons, but CHSAA would look to combine the two into one season during the winter, if sanctioned.

“We believe that it would be more impactful as a standalone during a winter season showcase,” Blanford-Green said.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

DENVER — Boys volleyball, girls wrestling and unified bowling were all approved to begin pilot seasons by the Board of Directors on Wednesday.

It means each have taken an initial step towards official sanctioning by CHSAA.

“We’re really excited about the possibility of these sports offering new opportunities for students across the state,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bethany Brookens, who oversees the equity committee and the sanctioning of new sports. “We are really trying to reach new populations of students who aren’t already participating, with a focus on inclusion.”

The three sports were the first to present pilot programs for consideration under a new bylaw which was passed in January. It is the first big hurdle for any new sports or activities to clear along the way to sanctioning. The Classification and League Organizing Committee, the Sports Medicine Committee, the Equity Committee, and the Legislative Council must also support a new sport or activity.

The first boys volleyball pilot season will be this upcoming spring. Girls wrestling will begin its pilot in the winter season of 2018-19. Unified bowling, which will be co-ed, will present its timeline at the April meeting of the Board of Directors.

Though that bylaw only requires one pilot season, both boys volleyball and girls wrestling would have two pilot seasons. If the Legislative Council approves the sports in 2019, boys volleyball would begin play in spring 2020, and girls wrestling would begin in winter 2020-21.

23 states already sanction boys volleyball. Another seven, including Colorado, are considering it.

In Colorado, there have typically been between 35-40 teams participating in boys volleyball over the past 20 years. In 2017, there were 50 teams and more than 650 athletes in the Colorado Boys High School Volleyball Association.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Participation in girls wrestling has also grown in recent years. In 2016-17, the first-ever girls-only tournament was held, and that continued in 2017-18. Last season, there were 235 female wrestlers who participated with boys, and even more who participated in girls-only tournaments.

Currently, only six states nationwide sanction girls wrestling. In the past month, both Georgia and Oregon indicated their intention to do so, as well.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

DENVER — The CHSAA Board of Directors voted to tweak the percentage used in the RPI formula for all sports on Wednesday.

It means that the formula will be weighted as follows:

• 30 percent on a team’s own winning percentage
• 40 percent on the winning percentage of a team’s opponents
• 30 percent on the winning percentage on the opponents of a team’s opponents.

This marks a change from the standard 25/50/25 formula, and will be in place for the 2018-19 season. It creates a standard formula across all sports, something that had started to change in recent seasons. Football and baseball currently use formulas that differ from other sports.

Football will continue to use a classification modifier — a 15 percent difference from class-to-class, with one exemption — but no other sport will have a modifier.

The vote came after a recommendation from the Technology Committee, which spent months researching the RPI and gathering feedback from the member schools.

The Technology Committee met several times since last August, including an in-person meeting, and several video conferences, in exploring the future of the RPI.

The Committee also commissioned a survey of CHSAA member schools asking for their input on the RPI. More than 220 schools responded. That survey showed that:

• Accuracy is the most important factor in a formula.
• Schools want more weight on their own winning percentage.
• Schools believe that RPI should be used to set postseason fields, but not to seed them.

Using this feedback as a guide, the Technology Committee then examined all the RPI data CHSAA has ever captured — including from seasons prior to its implementation in 2016.

Based upon everything it explored and feedback it received, the Technology Committee made the recommendation to move to 30/40/30 because it put more weight on a team’s winning percentage, was more accurate than other weights considered, and worked across the spectrum of sports CHSAA offers.

The Colorado High School Activities Association Board of Directors approved the following policy on the use of drones at interscholastic events:

The use of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, is prohibited for any purpose by any persons at all CHSAA‐sanctioned events, unless express written permission is obtained:

1. From the host school district during regular season contests.

(or)

2. The CHSAA for any postseason/playoff contest.

This policy includes not only the restricted playing area of the venue(s), but also the physical confines of the entire stadium/field/arena structure.

For the purposes of this policy, a drone is any aircraft without a human pilot on board.

(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.”

(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.

(Ed G/Flickr)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — CHSAA’s Board of Directors and administrative staff all arrived here this week to take part in the NFHS Summer Meeting, the 98th annual gathering.

Each will take part in meetings, roundtables, luncheons and networking events over the course of the next few days, and some of them will be featured speakers or presenters.

A local highlight will come on Saturday when associate commissioner Tom Robinson and legendary Denver Christian basketball coach Dick Katte each are awarded NFHS Citations.

This trip also marks the official end of a career for CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico, who retires on June 30. Rhonda Blanford-Green, CHSAA’s new commissioner, will begin her role on July 1. Both are on the trip.

It also is the first official duties for newly-hired assistant commissioner Ernie Derrera.

In addition, July 1 marks the transition in Board presidents from Eddie Hartnett to Jim Lucas.

The conference concludes on Sunday evening with the induction of the new members to the National High School Hall of Fame.

The CHSAA Board of Directors released the following the statement with regard to the RPI percentages to be used in determining postseason qualification:

[divider]

In August 2015, this group adopted a policy of using an RPI formula in determining postseason qualification in order to create consistency throughout the state. The RPI formula adopted is (¼ × WP) + (½ × OWP) + (¼ × OOWP).

The Board’s intent with that directive was to keep methods used in postseason qualification as consistent as possible across all sports.

When the soccer committee opted to make a change to the percentages used in the RPI formula for the upcoming fall season, there was not enough data nor rationale to justify making the change. The ensuing confusion from the membership has caused the Board to invoke bylaw 810.6:

The Board of Directors shall meet at the call of the President. It shall have the authority to make decisions necessary to insure the smooth functioning of the Association and the interscholastic program. Its authority does not include the legislative power delegated to the Legislative Council, except that by a two-thirds vote of those members voting it may alter a ruling of the Legislative Council in order to resolve conflicting legislation or to correct unanticipated problems created by Legislative Council action.

Because there is not two years of data available to support a change in the formula, and due to the ensuing confusion within the membership that would result, changing this formula violated the original intent of our policy. As a result, we have overturned the committee’s decision to change their RPI formula, and are keeping it where originally set.

At the end of this two-year cycle, the Board will research the data and determine how best to move forward with a consistent postseason qualification approach. As a result, until two years’ worth of data can be examined, no changes to the RPI percentages shall be made by any sports committees.

This policy excepts football, due to the issues its limited number of games caused last season. Baseball will be entering the second year of a two-year cycle of using different percentages, and will be allowed to keep its current formula.

Eddie Hartnett
President, CHSAA Board of Directors

[divider]

The statement is also available in PDF form:

https://old.chsaanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/RPI-statement-board-letterhead-2017.pdf

AURORA — Since 1921, the Colorado High School Activities Association has had eight Secretaries or Commissioners, tasked with leading the Association.

In late April, CHSAA will find out who the ninth will be. The man tasked with leading the group who is making that hire is Eddie Hartnett, the athletic director at Boulder High School who is the president of CHSAA’s Board of Directors.

Paul Angelico. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Current commissioner Paul Angelico is set to retire this summer after 40 years in education, including 26 at CHSAA and six as commissioner.

The Board will ultimately announce Angelico’s replacement to member schools at the Legislative Council meeting on April 20. But they’ve been zeroing in on this process for more than a year.

The application period closed on Feb. 14. And on Wednesday, the Board reviewed applicants for the Commissioner position.

Just before that happened, we caught up with Hartnett to talk about the process for hiring such a prominent position in Colorado high school activities.

[divider]

Question: Oh man, where to start? What was the application process like? Were you happy with the quality of the applicants?

Eddie Hartnett: Yes. We thought the application process, being that we held it open for six weeks, gave people enough time to really think about and really put thought into portfolios and resumes — and we received many of those.

Going from first of January to the middle of February, that was a good amount of time as far as allowing people to figure out if they wanted to apply and also have enough time to do it properly.

We do have plenty of qualified applicants that the Board has already reviewed, and on Wednesday, we’ll be talking about where we go from here.

We’re looking at middle of March for the interviews, and we’ll have the interviews here at CHSAA. We will have three different interview committees: the Board of Directors, the administrative assistants, and also the assistant commissioners that haven’t applied or are retiring.

Q: What qualities is the Board looking for in a Commissioner?

Eddie Hartnett. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Hartnett: It’s clear from the Board of Directors that the Board wants to continue the mission and vision that CHSAA stands for, one that Paul Angelico really emphasized over the years that he was Commissioner. They would like to have somebody that cares as much as Paul has for the schools and all the student-athletes, and all the students that are involved in activities across the board in Colorado.

That is what we’re looking for: A person that is compassionate and understands students’ needs, but also the schools’ needs.

Q: To be clear, though, I think many don’t understand that this isn’t just you guys as a group going, “Oh, this is what we’re going to do.” You have spent basically a year getting input from the membership and what they’re looking for.

Hartnett: Right, exactly. We went out for the first time and we decided over a year ago that we wanted to go and personally visit each league.

As a Board, each of the Board members represents an association or three different leagues. I gave the direction to each of the Board members to go to the different leagues around the state of Colorado that they represent and personally hear from each of the schools that participate and are members of that league to create basically the different characteristics (of the position) that each of the leagues wanted.

So each of the schools were heard directly through their leagues at various league meetings.

Q: As a group, the Board has worked very hard to make this whole process transparent throughout.

Hartnett: That’s one of the things that made this process so different than many other hiring processes. For the first time, the CHSAA Board really, really emphasized the need to be transparent to the state, from when we were originally talking about the beginning of the process, to going out to different areas and leagues, taking questions from the leagues and league presidents, and at the All-School Summit.

There were numerous venues that different Board members were able to hit, including CADA outreaches, to field questions and be transparent about the entire process.

Q: Also just in informal settings, too, right? Games, and so forth?

Hartnett: Oh, at games, different competitions. People were asking me questions even at the state wrestling tournament. It creates a comfort and a trust that we’re all in it together and we all want what is best for our athletes and students participating in all activities in Colorado.

So it is a transparent process that is going very smoothly because it’s being so transparent for the first time.

Q: You’re typically a fun, happy-go-lucky guy, but in the this process, I’ve seen your demeanor change. It’s very serious — as it should be. This is a serious thing. Do you feel pressure with this? This is a huge weight to choose the next Commissioner here.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Hartnett: It’s something that I take very seriously. I’m very honored to be the president, to represent all of the different schools, to represent all of the different leagues, and also this (CHSAA) office.

We want to have somebody here that’s not going to miss a beat, that’s not going to take us backwards, but that will hear from the schools, collaborate with the schools, work with the schools, and lead the parents, communities and students of this state into the next decade.

That’s something that’s not only an honor, but something that you have to take very seriously. Because when I’m not around doing the athletic director job any longer, I want to know that I made an impact, and my legacy could be this person, who’s going to lead maybe even my grandchildren into athletics and activities and have an impact on them.

That’s the way I look at my role and responsibility of representing the state.

Q: In terms of hiring, we’re looking at April?

Hartnett: We’re going to announce at the Legislative Council the person who we have considered and recommended and also voted on as a Board to be approved for the Commissioner role. We will be announcing that formally, and that person will be there at the Legislative Council in April.

Q: And the cool thing with that is they get a couple of months to spend with Paul in transition.

Hartnett: They’ll be able to work closely and under Paul’s mentorship and he can help the new person kind of fit in and answer all of the questions they may have. The nice thing about Paul, too, is he has said he will be available even past that point to assist if that person ever needed it. And that’s really important.

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

AURORA — Jim Lucas, an assistant principal at Pine Creek High School, has been elected as the next president of CHSAA’s Board of Directors.

Lucas’ appointment will be made formal at the Legislative Council meeting on Thursday. He will become the 61st Board president, succeeding Boulder’s Eddie Hartnett.

Lucas will serve as Board president during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. His term will begin in June 2017.

“It’s going to be exciting, and it’s going to be challenging,” Lucas said on Wednesday night. “It’s humbling to be selected.”

Lucas currently represents the Colorado Association of School Executives on CHSAA’s Board of Directors, and has since 2011. He will be the first Board president from the Colorado Springs area since Widefield’s Shelli Miles was president from 2009-11.

Lucas has a wide range of experience at both small and large high schools, as well as public and private high schools, ranging from being a coach to a teacher to an administrator. He has spent time at a number of Colorado high schools, including Columbine, Crowley County, Custer County, and Florence. (He was principal at both Custer County, from 1996-99, and Florence, from 2000-08.)

He has been at Pine Creek ever since, including roles as interim athletic director and assistant principal.

Lucas says his wide-ranging experience will help him have a well-rounded viewpoint as Board president, including time at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, where he got his master’s degree in athletic administration.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for rural schools, just because I’ve worked in them. And I understand the big metro schools,” Lucas said. “Ultimately I think it will help as I lead the Board. Those experiences will help guide all of us, and guide myself.”

Lucas has twice previously served as a Board president for the Colorado Association of Secondary School Principals, of which he’s been a member since 2003.

“I think that will help me, having that experience with CASSP,” Lucas said.

Lucas said one of his focuses as president will be to help ease the transition from retiring CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico to the next commissioner.

“I want to spend some time with that (new commissioner) and kind of give them some historical background of the Board of Directors,” Lucas said. “I want to see a smooth transition.”

CHSAA’s Board of Directors, formerly known as the Executive Committee, has been around in some form since the Association was formed in 1921.

Lucas applied to be Board president in December, writing a letter to CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico.

The Board considered two candidates during an executive session on Thursday, and then voted to elect Lucas president.

While serving on the Board, Lucas has served on a variety of CHSAA committees, and helped to rewrite the Association’s personnel handbook.

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

MORRISON — Colorado high school basketball is not going to add a mercy rule this season. But it may still be on the horizon.

On Tuesday, CHSAA’s Board of Directors didn’t vote on a proposal to create a mercy rule in boys and girls basketball for the 2016-17 season, wanting it instead to go through the basketball committee. The proposal would have created a running clock if a team was up by 40 points in the fourth quarter.

The mercy rule has long been considered by this Board, and CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann, who oversees the sport, has been gathering feedback on it for a number of years.

Borgmann told the Board the the mercy rule was already on the basketball committee’s agenda for its next meeting in February.

“Bert assured us that it would be be one of the first agenda items addressed by the basketball committee to come up with consideration of a mercy rule,” said Board president Eddie Hartnett, the athletic director at Boulder.

The Board went around the table and each member provided feedback from their regions and leagues they represent. They reported both positive and negative feelings from leagues about the rule.

Ultimately, after a long discussion, the Board opted to not hold a vote and instead pass the topic onto the basketball committee. That committee meets on Feb. 2, 2017.

One major reason it was shot down: Schools and leagues wanted to have direct input on the proposal, either through the Legislative Council or the basketball committee. In fact the East Metro Athletic Conference penned a letter to the Board about that exact topic.

And, “Jeffco felt the same way,” said Board member Jim Thyfault, the district athletic director of Jefferson County Schools, “and they really thought this was something that should go through the Legislative Council.”

The Board agreed with that line of thinking.

“Ultimately, it probably isn’t our decision 100 percent to make,” said Board member Kathleen Leiding, a retired administrator in St. Vrain Valley School District.

At this point, the Board is going to let the basketball committee handle the mercy rule. From there, it would be voted on at Legislative Council through approval of the basketball report.

“We need to put it out there,” Hartnett said.