CHSAANow

Category: Association

  • Job opening: Financial Officer in CHSAA office

    We have an opening for a Financial Officer in our office. Click inside to view more information.

  • Q&A: Commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green on where we are for the fall

    Limon Wiggins football
    (Dustin Price/dustinpricephotography.com)

    We caught up with CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green to talk about the upcoming fall sports season, where other states are, in-person learning, and timelines.

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    Question: As we head into July, a big question that we keep seeing is, “Where we are with starting football this fall?”

    Blanford-Green: 51 state high school associations, colleges and professional organizations are all being faced with that same question.

    Mid-July will be a pivotal time period for assessment and what our state government and public health officials will allow within the guidelines. Those guidelines will ultimately determine the Association’s ability to move forward either fully, with modifications or with incremental sport-specific start dates.

    Our staff continues to prepare for a fall sport season.

    Q: There is some talk about football players transferring to other states, such as Arizona, Texas, and Louisiana, in order to play. Are those states at a different place than we are? Have they said they will definitely have a season?

    Blanford-Green: None of the aforementioned states have definitively said, “We will have football.” They have all experienced a rise in Coronavirus cases and outbreaks in the past two weeks. Their state and health officials have recently taken more restrictive measures on public gatherings and social distancing, including a pause on sports.

    In fact, the Governor of Arizona just pushed back on athletic contact, all start dates, which translates to delays with practices and competitive start dates for high schools.

    Several states have continued their spring moratorium on coach/athlete contact either by state or health orders.

    Colorado has incrementally allowed coach/athlete contact for all sports within the local controlled safety guidelines. Colorado coaches and athletes have been given more latitude to begin summer conditioning and competitive readiness more so than some of our counterparts across the nation.

    I can respect the decisions of parents and players to seek definitive answers, but I can assure you that no state association has offered a guarantee that they will play. We are all working to make it happen, knowing that the final decisions aren’t within our control.

    Q: Will students have to be fully back in the classroom for sports to resume?

    Blanford-Green: Our bylaws currently have provisions for non-traditional educational models such as home school and online learning.

    We are fully prepared for sport and activity implementation to meet the needs of our membership. Our goal is to support our schools and student-participants wherever they land when final decisions are made for education this fall.

    There are many challenges ahead but educational leaders across this state are working diligently to return to levels of normalcy with the safety of our students, and those who support them, in the forefront.

    Q: Is there anything else you want to add?

    Blanford-Green: I understand where students, coaches, and parents are frustrated. Our staff is equally frustrated. We are ready to go, but we are not in a position or place where we can decide to “just let the kids play.”

    We don’t get to play infectious disease doctors or disregard our state and public health guidelines. There can’t be definitive answers when our country and state continues to fluctuate within their safe-to-reopen phases.

  • An update on the 2020-21 season from the CHSAA office

    Field hockey boys soccer girls soccer football boys lacrosse girls lacrosse generic
    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    We are encouraged by the recent guidelines from the Governor’s office that align with the Association’s plans to resume all education-based athletics and activities for the 2020-21 school year.

    The CHSAA associate and assistant commissioners are proceeding with guidelines and standards for resuming fall sports on their scheduled start dates.

    The recent “Safer at Home” and “Protect our Neighbors” guidelines from the state have provided our staff with more flexibility to construct regular season, postseason and contingency plans for fall programs.

    All sport-specific plans will have the oversight and review of the CHSAA’s sports medicine advisory committee, which includes mental health professionals, before they are released to the membership for implementation.

    As our educational leaders work diligently to construct their “Return to Learn” models, our staff is preparing to adjust and modify our programs to meet the diverse educational platforms that will be introduced this fall.

    We are a statewide organization, so our task becomes more complicated when educational and health mandates vary at district levels, much less from county to county. Although we are moving forward, we know that our plans must be flexible and subject to change to provide equitable participation opportunities across the state.

    A shutdown in one area, impacting one classification, would send our staff back to the white board. The state and county data, and decisions, are fluctuating so we continue to plan for the knowns of today and the unknowns of tomorrow.

    Our primary and only objective, while acknowledging that we are still in the midst of a national pandemic, will be to resume athletics and activities with the safety and well-being of our participants, coaches, officials, staff and school communities in the forefront.

  • Interactive map: Where our 363 member schools reside in the state

    Updated for the 2020-21 school year, this interactive map shows where in Colorado our 363 member schools are located.

  • The boys basketball record book got an overhaul, and has been updated from this past season

    We’ve migrated our boys basketball record book from a PDF format to a new database which is searchable, and we have also added dozens of new entries.

  • CHSAA staff to work on safety and implementation guidelines to resume all athletics and activities this fall

    Fairview Horizon football generic
    (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    In a tweet Saturday morning, CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green announced that the staff “will begin constructing safety and implementation guidelines to resume ALL athletics and activities, including football, beginning this fall.”

    Since the cancellation of spring sports, the CHSAA staff has been laser-focused on preparing to resume all sports and activities in the 2020-21 school year.

    The recent relaxation within state and health guidelines has allowed the CHSAA staff to plan more definitively for the 2020-21 school year.

  • Blanford-Green: CHSAA team dedicated to resuming athletics and activities in 2020-21

    4A girls state swimming
    (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)

    The CHSAA team is working non-stop, with some challenges ahead, to resume all athletics and activities in their designated seasons.

    As a membership and an office, our state is a national leader in student mental health education, inclusion and diversity, and participation opportunities per capita. So, trust that we know our “Why”!

    We value diverse opinions as we navigate our next steps. So to ease the hysteria regarding having a voice, there were parents on the task force, including one with an incoming football senior and looking to play at the next level. Dad played collegiate baseball.

    Furthermore, our office is made up of former high school, collegiate and professional athletes, and Hall of Fame inductees. We are former coaches, administrators and officials. We are parents, including parents of current, future, and former high school athletes.

    We get it!

    You can trust that my decisions aren’t motivated by politics, fear, or threats of liability or legal action. Nor are they motivated by money. We have lost tremendously during this pandemic, without state basketball championships, spring championships, and refunding of membership participation fees.

    We are dedicated and committed to resuming athletics and activities in the 2020-2021 school year responsibly: within the proposed statewide educational models, all viewpoints of health data, state and county guidelines, opinions — including parents, coaches, educators — and in communication with other state associations across the country.

    This will be our timeline and we will begin to limit our share of information as it appears our transparency has opened us for attack. We will hold future decisions closer to the vest to reduce your anxiety and the need to attack the very group that is advocating — no, fighting — through these unknowns and chaos for your children.

    Trust that we are focused on resuming all activities and athletics because we know participation supports the social, mental and physical well-being of all our students. We provide you with the state and national stats, but I do appreciate the reminders.

    We are in this together, and we will make decisions not through threats and personal attacks but with the safety of students — it is bigger than low risk populations — coaches, officials crews (we need them), score keepers, ticket takers, security, volunteers, managers, bus drivers, custodians, vendors, site administrators, and parents in the forefront.

    No answers are definitive at this time because the state and health guidelines are fluid, but we are moving with intent towards fully resuming.

  • CHSAA’s Resocialization Task Force begins the challenging task of resuming sports and activities in 2020-21 school year

    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    CHSAA’s Resocialization Task Force met on Wednesday, and built the foundations of a plan which aims to resume sports and activities during the 2020-21 school year.

    The task force was comprised of pediatricians, orthopedists, sports medicine doctors, athletic trainers, superintendents, school administrators, coaches and CHSAA staff.

    “I would like to thank the members of the Resocialization Task Force,” said CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green. “This was extremely difficult, with diverse opinions and challenges across the state. At the end of the day, everybody in the room was committed to reconnecting sports and activities to the educational platform. So that gave us a common purpose. Getting our kids back to activities that support their social, mental and physical health is our priority.

    “If it were easy to come up with these decisions, professional and collegiate sports would already have definitive answers with the amount of resources at their disposal.”

    The group used a document created by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) as a guideline, and also looked at various other guidance from other states, as well as national-level sport organizations.

    They were also informed by a survey of the CHSAA membership, which included more than 900 responses from coaches, athletic directors, district athletics directors, superintendents and principals over the course of 18 hours.

    “If that doesn’t tell you how important education-based participation is to the state of Colorado, no other data points will,” Blanford-Green said.

    The task force acknowledged that the goal in returning to play has to include mitigating the risk, as it is not possible to eliminate it entirely.

    “As administrators, we have to recognize that we have a role in mitigating risk, and providing a safe environment for resuming athletics and activities,” Blanford-Green said. “Those decisions will take time as guidelines become more relaxed, and medical guidance speaks to specific sports.

    “We have to stay focused: We are not youth sports, club sports or summer programs,” she added. “We have to make decisions aligned with where the resumption of education will be at the start of the 2020-21 school year.”

    The task force classified CHSAA’s 29 sports into three categories: lower risk, moderate risk, and higher risk.

    Lower Risk

    • Boys golf
    • Boys tennis
    • Skiing
    • Girls swimming*
    • Girls golf
    • Boys swimming*
    • Girls tennis
    • Unified Bowling
    • Sideline Cheer

    Note that swimming can only be categorized as lower risk if the CHSAA guidelines (for example, social distancing) for swimming events are met. Otherwise, swimming would be considered a moderate risk sport.

    Moderate Risk

    • Cross country
    • Field hockey
    • Gymnastics*
    • Boys soccer
    • Softball
    • Volleyball
    • Baseball
    • Boys lacrosse
    • Girls lacrosse
    • Girls soccer
    • Track*

    Note that track and field and gymnastics are considered moderate when considering the sport as a whole, due to the sharing of equipment, surfaces and social distancing.

    Higher Risk

    • Football
    • Competitive Cheer/Dance
    • Basketball
    • Ice hockey
    • Wrestling

    The categorization of CHSAA’s three activities — music, speech, and student leadership — will continue to be examined as guidance comes forward from various organizations and agencies.

    The following definition of these categories comes from the NFHS document:

    • Lower Risk: Sports that can be conducted with social distancing or individually with no sharing of equipment or the ability to clean the equipment between use by competitors.
    • Moderate Risk: Sports that involve close, sustained contact, but with protective equipment in place that may reduce the likelihood of respiratory particle transmission between participants OR intermittent close contact OR group sports OR sports that use equipment that can’t be cleaned between participants.
    • Higher Risk: Sports that involve close, sustained contact between participants, lack of significant protective barriers, and high probability that respiratory particles will be transmitted between participants.

    The task force recommended that the CHSAA staff explore beginning lower-risk sports at the start of the 2020-21 school year.

    “Our goal is to administrate all activities and athletics in 2020-21 school year,” Blanford-Green said. “Within that goal, our office and our membership must be willing to think outside the box. The traditional structure of a fall, spring or winter season has to be reexamined as resuming at any level could look different. We have to think about the categorized levels of sports, and the ability to resume them safely. Those must be our bench marks.”

    For sports categorized as moderate and higher-risk, the task force wants CHSAA to gather definitive interpretations of state guidelines and medical data on when it would be safe to initiate their seasons. At this point, CHSAA is not able to move forward with sports classified as moderate and high-risk. The hope is to be able to find an opportunity to play those sports at some point during the 2020-21 school year.

    “This is the first week in June,” Blanford-Green said. “We don’t want to get in front of the guidelines or medical data that hasn’t been clearly interpreted and make rash decisions which could negatively impact sports that could potentially start at some point this fall.”

    The task force meeting helped to set the foundation and standards for returning to play. Decisions made moving forward will be made with a combination of various resources and experts.

    “There were levels of frustration throughout the day. There’s no modern-day template for resuming play after a pandemic,” Blanford-Green said. “But I feel like we came away with some actionable items, some much-needed definitions, to move to the next steps.

    “I can’t thank this task force enough for their time, effort and expertise as we navigated through uncharted territory to resocialize sports under diverse guidelines across the state,” she added.

  • For 2021 season, girls golf state tournament dates pushed back to June

    4A State girls golf generic
    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    The girls golf state championships will move into June for the spring 2021 spring season, following a vote of CHSAA’s Legislative Council on Friday.

    The change passed along with the rest of the golf report during the virtual meeting, which brings together 77 representatives of schools, leagues and associations. And it did so overwhelmingly, with 97 percent approval.

    “I think if we can do this in June, we can create a better situation for the girls,” said CHSAA association commissioner Tom Robinson, who oversees golf.

    The change also moves regionals back one week, to May 24-26. The state tournaments will be held June 1-2, 2021. Typically, the state championships are held around the final week in May.

    There are three main reasons for the change in dates:

    Primarily, it moves the postseason away from traditional AP and IB testing dates. It also avoids many scheduled graduations of schools. And it should — fingers crossed — help alleviate some issues the tournaments have faced with weather over recent seasons.

    “We agreed that there were issues with the spring, of course, with weather,” Robinson said. “But that was something we had no control over. But we did have control over moving scheduled regional and state events off of AP and IB events. For girls, that seems to be a bigger factor than the boys.

    “We’ve always had to make choices around those dates,” Robinson continued. “As well as the thing that happens year-in and year-out, and that’s trying to negotiate when you’re going to play, or if you’re going to attend your graduation ceremony.

    “Those are the main issues, and because we are CHSAA and we are an education-based Association, we should make considerations for at least hose kind of things,” he added. “I applaud the membership for supporting these changes.”

    As for weather, there is of course no guarantee that moisture will stay away from championship rounds, but average rainfall trends indicate that May is often wetter than June in Colorado. The 2019 state tournaments were limited to one round in all three classes, and the same thing happened to 5A in 2015. Many other rounds, such as 2014’s 5A tourney, have been interrupted but ultimately completed.

    “I think in the end, we will have more good days than bad by having it the first week in June,” Robinson said. “We can’t predict bad weather, even in the fall, but I think this increases our chances of having a two-day event. And it gives options for the girls to be able to play without issue.”

    The specific 2021 championship sites have not yet been solidified. Robinson is working with various courses to secure those dates, and is leaning toward municipal courses so that everyone can have equal access to practice rounds.

    Overall, he sees the move as a step forward for the girls.

    “All around, it’s a positive message to the girls,” Robinson said.

  • A rundown of the votes and changes implemented by the Legislative Council

    The CHSAA Legislative Council met virtually for the first time in its 99-year history on Friday.

    They voted on more than 50 items, and made a number of changes to the Association’s bylaws, which impacted things from alignment to the transfer rule. We have rounded up most of those changes here.

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    Two classes of hockey

    Regis Jesuit Valor Christian hockey
    (PaulDiSalvoPhotography.com)

    Hockey will split into two classifications, beginning with the 2020-21 season.

    The two-class split, which was recommended by the hockey committee during its meeting in February, places 20 teams into Class 5A, and 17 in 4A. The committee used a variety of factors to place teams from bylaw 1500.21, including enrollment, geography, competitive history, competitive balance, participation rate, and the entry or selection process that places an athlete at a program.

    The committee recognized the need for two classes because there isn’t much, if any, parity in the sport. Over the past four years, only 14 different schools have advanced to the quarterfinals of the state tournament. Hockey currently has 37 teams.

    The alignments for the sport can be found in this story from February.

    Hockey will use the CHSAA Seeding Index to seed its two state tournaments: RPI, MaxPreps, and the CHSAANow coaches poll.

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    New seeding criteria for 5A basketball

    Basketball generic boys girls
    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    An amendment during the meeting changed the seeding criteria that 4A and 5A basketball will use for their state tournaments: The two classes will now use a combination of the RPI standings, MaxPreps rankings and the CHSAANow coaches pool — bringing them in line with what a number of other sports are now using.

    1A will also use the same criteria, but will also use the Packard Ratings.

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    2A baseball changes postseason

    Calhan Rye baseball
    (Lisa Hayes/StillOfTheMomentPhotography.com)

    The 2A baseball postseason will now mirror what is done in 3A, 4A and 5A, with a 32-team regional bracket. All teams will qualify for the bracket via the RPI standings, and seeded by RPI. The top eight seeds will host regionals, and seeds Nos. 20-32 can be moved for geographic reasons.

    The state tournament also got an overhaul, and will move to an eight-team single-elimination bracket. Previously, 2A had a 16-team bracket.

    With this change, 2A schools can now schedule 23 games.

    Baseball also created a game minimum to be able to qualify for the postseason: 12 games in 1A, 17 in 2A and 3A, 19 in 4A and 5A.

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    New field hockey tournament

    Field hockey generic
    (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

    In an effort to help the growth of the sport, the state field hockey tournament will expand from eight teams to 12.

    The top six seeds will receive a bye while the next six will compete in a play-in bracket.

    In one of those brackets, No. 9 and No. 12 will play, with the winner playing No. 8. The winner of that game will face No. 1.

    In the other bracket, No. 10 and No. 11 will play, with the winner facing No. 7. The winner of that game will face the No. 2 overall seed.

    During that same round, the No. 4 and No. 5 seed will play, with No. 3 and No. 6 also playing.

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    The transfer rule

    A number of proposals involved the transfer rule. Among the changes which passed:

    • An adjustment to clarify that a student doesn’t have to transfer from a member school, in or out of state, in order for the rule to apply.
    • A proposal better explained the transfer consequence for transferring to another school, and a return to the original school — also known as an A-B-A transfer. Specifically, a student who transfers from School A, transfers to School B and plays at School B, and the returns to School A, will only be eligible for sub-varsity competition at School A in the sports they participated in at School B for 365 days.
    • A new bylaw passed allowing for students to participate with “restricted varsity eligibility during the regular season” if their high school does not offer a JV team, or if their school doesn’t allow seniors to play on sub-varsity teams.
    • The definition of a hardship was rewritten to read: “‘Hardship’ means a situation, condition or event which must impost a severe non-athletic burden upon the student or his/her family and require a transfer of schools. This does not include the personal or initial choice of enrollment and/or participation.”

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    Notables:

    • The alignments for sports were finalized with the approval of each sports report. Those new alignments will be posted in the near future.
    • The season of sport was changed in boys swimming, allowing for those championships to be moved up a week and have their own spotlight.
    • 6-man and 8-man football will use the same four data points of seeding that was used in 1A-5A this season.
    • In 5A football, all playoff games will be hosted by the higher seed.
    • 1A girls volleyball will move from districts to regionals. The sport will also require that all teams play a minimum of 18 matches against member schools and varsity opponents in order to qualify for the postseason.
    • Boys volleyball will have one classification during its inaugural season in spring 2021.
    • Girls wrestling will use the same weight classes that were used in the pilot season.
    • The 4A and 5A boys lacrosse state tournaments will each grow from 16 to 24 teams starting in spring 2021.
    • The new format that will be used for a two-classification setup in girls lacrosse was approved. Find the structure for that format here.
    • 2A soccer will increase its state tournament field from 12 teams to 16.
    • The regional field in 3A softball will grow to 32 teams, bringing it in line with 4A and 5A.
    • The requirements for qualifying for the state skiing championships were made more strict, to make the state field slightly smaller.
    • The state spirit championships will move to a three-day format beginning this year. Schools will only be able to participate in one cheer category and one dance category at the state championships. Cheer and dance are now considered separate sports.
    • Schools will be eligible to join CHSAA as activity-only schools, and not offer sports.
    • The process for classifying programs was clarified with an amendment to bylaw 1510, which deals with the Classification, Appeals and League Organizing Committee (CLOC). Now, the CHSAA staff can offer adjustments “in extraordinary circumstances” that are based upon bylaw 1500.21 (the bylaw allowing for classification based upon factors other than enrollment) in even years. These adjustments will need to be voted on by CLOC. Typically in even years, the classifications are already set and ready to go for the following cycle, so there would be very few adjustments, if any.
    • The amateur status bylaw was reworked, and now reads that student-athletes “must maintain his/her amateur status” and notes that they “may not sign a professional athletic contract.” A new note defines a professional as “being paid in any form for playing in an athletic contest, or if you sign a contract or verbally commit with an agent or professional sports organization.” Notably, student-athletes will be allowed to play with or against professionals in certain situations, such as in the Olympics or a World Cup.
    • The coach ejection bylaw was updated to give it a more consistent level of suspension across all sports. Now, the first ejection is penalized by a suspension equal to 10% of that sports season, and a second ejection is 20%.
    • All-Star games were added to bylaw 2300, allowing for “up to two All-Star Games after the completion of the state championship in that sport.” No all-star games are permitted in football.
    • Middle schoolers from “feeder” schools will be permitted to practice with high school teams in volleyball, basketball, soccer and football “when they cannot field enough high school athletes to hold an intra-squad practice in game-type conditions.” There are a number of limitations guiding this new bylaw.
    • The number of practices required for students to participate in prior to competition in contact sports was reduced from five to three in all sports but football, which will still require nine.
    • Schools can now form a team with only one participant, if they choose to.
    • Adding a new sport or activity will now require approval from the Budget Committee in addition to CLOC, Sports Medicine, Equity and the Board of Directors.
    • The full membership of the following schools is now official: DSST – Byers, KIPP Northeast, Loveland Classical, Strive Prep – Rise, Strive Prep – Smart, and Thomas MacLaren. KIPP Northeast and Strive Prep – Rise play together are a co-op: Regis Groff.
    • Officials’ fees increased with a 2% cost of living adjustment across the board, for all levels.
    • The alignment of State Festival and State Tournament will now be permanent in speech.
    • Student Leadership’s fall conference will move to a regional model beginning this year.