(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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(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Paul Angelico, our commissioner over the past seven school years, usually arrived in the office around 6 a.m. or so. Occasionally he would come in even earlier.

He’s an early-morning person. Emphasis on early. I can picture him, ballcap atop his head, sitting at a table outside a coffee shop in Denver, or Vail, or Steamboat, or Boston, or Oklahoma City, with his coffee in front of him — no lid — as he reads something in the early-morning light.

He’s always the first one to arrive wherever we’re going. “Let’s setup at 7:15,” he would say about the Legislative Council meetings. And some of us would show up at 7:15 a.m. The setup would be done. He got there at 6:45.

So of course this habit extended to typical office days. But he also arrived so early in part because that was the only time he could really find time to answer emails, or check his voicemail, or really just work on things he needed to. When everyone else shuffled in, usually one of their first stops was his office. Sometimes just to chat, or to go over a waiver, or brainstorm about a committee meeting.

His office had a perpetual open door. You could walk in there, and he’d put his pencil down from whatever he was working on — he had this thing with rulers and underlining — and he would give you his full attention.

“You could always go to him for help on questions,” said longtime assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann, who worked with Paul for all 27 of the years he’s been at CHSAA.

I can’t even begin to remember the number of times I’ve walked into Paul’s office to talk politics, the world, or ask him how he could possibly have parked his Jeep so terribly. I thoroughly enjoyed each moment like that, and others like them at lunch, or at state venues.

Look, he’s not dying. I know those moments will continue, they just won’t be in his office anymore.

But that’s the point: We’re going to miss him in that office when his retirement becomes official this weekend. Us, as a CHSAA staff. But also us, as a CHSAA membership. He’s done a lot in his career.

The first time I met Paul was in March 2011. I was about a year into a job at the Denver Post covering high school sports. I did a short Q&A with him about television rights of the state championships, and other things.

I got to know him better over the course of the next two years, and eventually saw an opportunity at CHSAA to start a site that would promote high school activities.

Paul and I went to lunch in the Northfield area at a time when Northfield was literally being built. There was no one else in the restaurant.

I pitched him on the idea that would later become CHSAANow.com, and Paul was interested, but honest: “I need to see what our Board thinks,” he said. I thought perhaps we would revisit the idea at a later time, but then a few months later at the Legislative Council meeting in April, he said that Harry Bull, then the Board president, gave a green light.

Paul offered me a job — this job — and I accepted.

It remains one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. And not because I had to leave the newspaper — no, I did enjoy that — but working for Paul at CHSAA has been so thoroughly rewarding and challenging.

I’ve told him this already, but I never really believed in the idea of mentorship when I was younger. I do now. I seek his guidance daily, for all kinds of things. And that will never stop.

His influence has pushed Colorado to the forefront nationally.

Things like the InsideOut Initiative, now growing nationally, started here because of the conditions he created.

He welcomed the You Can Play! initiative, which sought more inclusion for the LGBT+ community in high school activities, even though some schools opposed it. He did that because it helped kids.

“That was huge, and what that meant for inclusion, and what it meant for that community was huge,” said Tom Robinson, who has been Paul’s associate commissioner since 2014. “He left an indelible mark on our organization with gender equity and those kinds of things. And it’s not that he was doing every single thing, but he was certainly in the loop and empowering it.”

At the Equity Committee meeting in January, outgoing Board president Eddie Hartnett told Paul, “We are seen as one of the more progressive states, and it was because of your leadership that that happened.”

He’s part of a legacy of associate commissioners who became commissioners. That will continue when Rhonda Blanford-Green takes over his seat on July 1.

“Paul has taught me — through his words and his actions — that leadership success starts with honesty, integrity, and being frank, but also that it needs to be combined with compassion and common sense,” Blanford-Green said. “Over the years, I have applied that in my leadership roles, and it has served me well.

“He’s retiring,” she added, “but he has a designated seat in my office. I think I can lure him in with food.”

His 40 years of education experience shone through in the decisions he made (though, he still can’t spell). He would often start sentences with, “Well, when I was in a school …”

A former gymnastics coach, and gymnast himself, he understood the influence coaches can have on the life of a high school student.

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

Paul had this thing about him in meetings, big or otherwise, where he would always ask questions to see what others thought before he offered his own opinions.

“One of the greatest things about him is he doesn’t micromanage,” said assistant commissioner Jenn-Roberts Uhlig. “He allows you to fulfill a vision, allows you to make the decision to better your sports, and really encourages you to take things to a different level.”

He was the first to back us is every situation.

“He empowered us,” said assistant commissioner Bethany Brookens.

He also expected excellence out of each of us.

“He offered guidance, history, and the opportunity for his staff to succeed,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bud Ozzello. “The high standards he placed on the staff and the Association has been a benchmark for changing the focus of our communities to honor the student by teaching life lessons through interscholastic competition.”

Sometimes, his temper would flare up, his face would turn red. But that was part of his nature, something we also grew to love. At times when this happened, we would laugh, and his face would only grow more red.

“I love that he could get fired up and tell you what he thought, but he also made sure that that did not ruin the relationship between you and him,” Borgmann said.

No one cared more about his employees. He’d always ask after our families, tell us to bring our kids into the office so he could spend the whole day playing with them. And he loved to share his family with us.

In the summers, we have an event where our families and the families of Board members eat dinner together. Paul would always sneak off with the kids to go buy them ice cream. I would say he will make a great grandparent one day, but he basically already is one to our kids.

“When I had just taken the job, I sold my Prius, so I needed a car for a month or so before I started work,” Brookens said. “And he just let me use his car for as long as I needed. He’s always thinking about other people before himself.”

He loved spending time talking to everyone in the break room. In fact, one of our executive assistants, Whitney Webermeier, has a grand plan to name it after him, despite his protests.

Jenn moved into a new house last week. Guess who showed up to help?

After state championship events, Paul was the one who would take the volunteers out to dinner.

He treated all of CHSAA’s activities the same. He was at every state championship event, music gala, every student leadership camp.

“He gave the same attention to a state wrestling champion as he did to a competitor in speech and debate or student leadership or music,” Ozzello said.

When I first was hired at CHSAA, I spent the first year or so strictly working from home. I regret that, because it means I didn’t get to spend more time in the office absorbing what I could from Paul.

Thank you, Paul, for pushing CHSAA to the forefront nationally. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your guidance.

Thank you for your friendship.

(Josh Watt/CHSAANow.com)

ThunderRidge has named Marko White its new boys lacrosse coach, athletic director Sean Patterson said on Thursday.

White most recently was the head coach at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Fla. in 2015 and 2016. He improved that team from 2-15 his first season to 9-10 his second.

He takes over a ThunderRidge program that went 3-12 last season under former coach John Worden.

White will be the Grizzlies’ third coach in three years.

(Photo courtesy of CU Athletics)

Former Legend basketball standout Derrick White is headed to the NBA.

White was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the 29th pick in the first round of Thursday’s NBA Draft, completing one of the more interesting basketball journeys in Colorado history.

He is the first former Colorado high school basketball player drafted since Palmer alum Reggie Jackson was taken in the 2011 draft, and 14th ever drafted in the first round.

His first-round selection means that a Colorado high school product was taken in the first round of the NBA, MLB (Regis Jesuit’s David Peterson) and NFL (Valor Christian’s Christian McCaffrey) drafts in 2017. That is the first time that has ever happened.

White ended his collegiate basketball career with the University of Colorado, playing just one season for the Buffs. His first three seasons came at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs where he helped the Mountain Lions to Division II NCAA Tournament appearances in 2014 and 2015.

He put up staggering numbers in his three years in Colorado Springs. He averaged over 22 points per game while shooting better than 48 percent from the field.

After the 2014-15 season, White decided to transfer to the CU’s Boulder campus where basketball coach Tad Boyle welcomed him with open arms.

He was forced to sit out the 2015-16 season because of NCAA transfer rules, but once he took the court in the fall of 2016, he gave CU fans plenty to cheer for.

White ended his one season with the Buffs averaging 18.1 one points per game. He also led the team in 3-point shots made (57), 3-point shooting percentage (39.6), assists (148), blocks (49) and steals (42).

(Photo courtesy of CU Athletics)

He had quite the senior season at CU considering he didn’t get a single Division I scholarship offer out of high school. Throughout his time at UCCS, he was always told that he was nothing more than a D-II player. And not even one good enough to get a full scholarship offer.

He took a partial to play at UCCS and let his play on the court do his talking for him. He began his post-high school basketball career playing in front of hundreds on the campus at UCCS.

He was able to close it out playing in front of more than 8,000 at the Coors Events Center.

At Legend, he averaged 17.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game as a 6-foot, 150-pound senior in 2012.

Five years made a big difference: White measured out at 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds at the NBA combine

After Thursday’s selection, he’ll now have the chance to play in front of tens of thousands of basketball fans.

He didn’t there by coming out of high school with a ton of hype and bolting for the NBA after his freshman year of college.

He worked for it. And he earned it.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Isaac Green made history on Thursday morning, becoming the first athlete from his school to ever win a Gatorade player of the year award.

Green, a senior who stars in track and cross country, was named Colorado’s boys track and field athlete of the year by the organization.

He won the 800-, 1600-, and 3200-meter races at the Class 5A state meet last May, as well as running the lead leg of Monarch’s championship 4×800 relay team. The Coyotes finished second as a team thanks in large part to his efforts.

After the season, Green was named the 5A athlete of the year as part of the all-state teams.

Green, also a two-time cross country champion, is now a finalist for the national athlete of the year award, which will be announced later in June.

“Isaac is an outstanding athlete and an outstanding young man,” Monarch coach Kent Rieder said in a statement. “His accomplishments speak for themselves, in track and cross country, but for him, the team has always come first, over his individual ambitions.”

Green, who has a 3.68 GPA, will run at the University of Washington this fall.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Arria Minor, a sophomore at Denver East, was named Colorado’s girls track and field athlete of the year by Gatorade on Thursday morning.

Minor won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races at the Class 5A state meet in May. She also anchored the Angels’ 4×100 relay that finished second.

After the season, she was named the 5A athlete of the year as part of the all-state teams.

“She doesn’t take her abilities for granted and she knows that her successes hinge on hard work and dedication,” said Denver East coach Steve Kiper in a statement. “Not just on the track, but in the school hallways and life in general. She wants to be the best, and do her best.”

She now becomes a finalist for the national award, which will be announced later in June.

Minor, who has a 3.09 GPA, is the first girls track athlete from Denver East to win this award since Aspen Burkett won it in 1994. She is the ninth athlete from Denver East overall to win a Gatorade player of the year award.

Minor is just the third sophomore to win in the history of the award.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

During the dog days of summer, the weight room can feel like a high school athlete’s worst enemy. But in fact, it’s more often than not its best friend.

Coaches of all sports are in agreement on one fundamental issue of sports: success comes with the willingness to work beyond the limitations of in-season practice hours.

These days, it’s difficult to find a school or school district that does not provide some kind of summer weights and conditioning program. But just because the programs are there, success is still far from a guarantee. Consistency and a push for commitment from the coaches plays a big part in getting the athletes to buy into a summer program.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

And considering that any team workout in the summer is optional, credit must be given to those players who still show up to improve as athletes.

“With our offseason program, we’re moving into our fourth year and a huge reason that we’re showing success in the fall,” Rampart football coach Rob Royer said. “We have great commitment from our kids. We try to get them in here early so they can get out and be a kid, do other sports or go on family vacations. We really try to get things rolling and get them done.”

Royer runs the football team’s workouts in the summer. A school the size of Rampart tends to get a high number of athletes committed to offseason programs. So much so that they’re able to break into their specific teams and build the relationships that they’ll rely so heavily on once the school seasons begin.

And this is far from a football-only trait. Regardless of school, the importance of bonding and building team camaraderie is at its peak during offseason workouts.

“You only get so many summer hours before your actual season,” Regis Jesuit volleyball coach Ellen Miks said. “So having that momentum and time before the season starts gets you a better shot at a much better preseason.”

But not everyone has that luxury. A lot of the Class 4A and 5A schools don’t have difficulty generating numbers for athletics, prompting a high participation rate in offseason workouts.

But what of schools with smaller enrollments?

The programs are still there. The coaches still make the commitment. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the mentality shifts from a sport-focused relationship to a school-focused one.

Manitou Springs gathers all of its athletes into one unified strength and conditioning program. The logic was fairly simple. A school with less enrollment relies more on its multi-sport athletes. The bond must be tighter for the school overall, not just its individual teams.

To help with this, the Mustangs rely on coaches with a full understanding of athletic conditioning to help run their program. Assistant football and baseball coach Brandon DeMatto has a vested interested in the athletes that walk his halls.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

He also works in the P.E. department so his words do not ring hollow when he talks to his kids about being better athletes, not just better players in a specific sport.

“We have so many kids that are multi-sport athletes,” DeMatto said. “We have to develop them from an athletic standpoint rather than a sport-specific standpoint. Once they go to football, they’re going to basketball. While there are some things that translate between the two sports, there are things that are more important for a basketball player than what they would be for a football player.

“Then you start getting into baseball from basketball. You look at all the different methods in terms of a baseball player, you’re more rotational versus basketball players are more vertical. It just requires us to be broader in terms of our program.”

Schools smaller in size tend to have one big disadvantage going for them in anything optional, however. It’s optional and the size of the enrollment can limit the participation numbers. In order to keep them up, sometimes the coaches must bend over backwards to keep their kids involved.

“One thing we do is open (the weight room) twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening so kids who have to work all day can make it at night and kids who have baseball in the evening can go in the morning, whatever it may be to make it more accessible to them,” La Junta football coach Clint Buderus said, whose team won a title last fall. “During the season, we give them a day off from conditioning for the top kids who made the most weight sessions. We give them t-shirts if they make 20. There are a lot of incentives to make try and make it important for them.”

And what’s important for everyone is that all athletes and all coaches are on the same page. The summer programs at larger schools might be sport-specific while smaller schools might be more generalized, but the end goal should be the same: the kids should be working to become better overall athletes.

Regardless of school size, communication between coaches is essential in making sure the athletes are benefiting as much as possible.

“It’s always good to work with other head coaches and the crossover of players in multiple sports,” Doherty football coach Jeff Krumlauf said. “I know we have a football weights class and throughout the year, those kids are in other sports. We do communicate with other coaches. We ask what they’re looking for, what else do they like? On game day we’ll make sure they’re breaking a sweat but not doing something like squatting so much that their legs are dead for that night’s game. Cohesion is always a good thing.”

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

Heritage turned to an established coach with a history success in hiring a new baseball coach.

The Eagles hired Tyler Munro from Rock Canyon on Wednesday, according to Heritage athletic director Brock Becker.

Munro, who will be in his 20th year of coaching next season, led the Jaguars to the Class 5A title in 2015. He has been the head coach at Rock Canyon in two stints, from 2008-10 and 2014-17. While there, his teams were 98-56, including another Final 4 appearance in 2010.

His coaching background includes stints as a head coach at Boulder (1998), in Florida (1999-2003), and Regis Jesuit (2004-05), as well as time as an assistant at Niwot, Boulder, Fairview, and Rock Canyon. He is a graduate of Niwot.

In his 15 years as head coach, Munro’s career record is 220-108.

Rock Canyon went 16-8 last season, and reached the Class 5A state tournament.

He will take over a program at Heritage that just had two seniors selected in the MLB Draft.

The Eagles, who play in the same Continental League as Rock Canyon, were 13-8 last season. Munro will be replacing Scott Hormann, who has been the Eagles’ coach since 2008.

AURORA — Paul Angelico is in his final weeks as the Commissioner of the Colorado High School Activities Association.

It will mark the end of a 40-year career in education, and a 27-year career at CHSAA. The past seven have been spent in the organization’s highest role, overseeing the office that administers high school activities for the entire state of Colorado.

On July 1, Rhonda Blanford-Green will officially become the CHSAA’s ninth commissioner, though she and Angelico will overlap during the NFHS Summer Meeting in Providence. In addition to working at CHSAA from 1996-2012, Blanford-Green was Angelico’s Associate Commissioner for two years.

We caught up with Angelico and asked him to reflect on his career, and ponder the future of high school activities.

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(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Question: Do you remember your first day as a Commissioner?

Paul Angelico: (Laughs.) Huh. No, I don’t think I do. I don’t think I do. It wasn’t any big deal. You know, it was summer. Bill left right after his retirement dinner. I didn’t even move into this office for a week. I just felt weird about it.

Q: Why?

Angelico: Because he was still the Commissioner. It was still June. He had moved out, but I didn’t move in right away. I didn’t feel like that was my place.

Q: Do you remember the first big decision you had to make?

Angelico: Yes, I do. It was a girl that went from Chaparral to Highlands Ranch, girls basketball. The dad walked in here, a very nice man, and told me her story, and then asked, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I’m going to do what they pay me to do. I’m going to follow the rules.” And he said, “OK.”

And we had a good working relationship. Even though we went to court, I always respected that he knew why, that it wasn’t vindictive, it was what I had to do, and he was doing what he had to do.

So, yeah, right out of the chute, we were in court.

Q: Did it feel different, in that there was no one above you to change your decision?

Angelico: What struck me immediately was that all I had as backup was this book (the CHSAA bylaws). I’ve got to follow what this book says, because if I don’t, I don’t have justification for what I do. It became very apparent that it’s not an optional thing. Right out of the chute, it was like, “The book is my only security blanket.”

Q: What was the adjustment like, going from Associate to Commissioner?

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

Angelico: I sort of had an advantage because as soon as Bill became Commissioner, two things happened: First, he had a surgery, so I spent like two weeks doing waivers, and then he became president of the (NFHS), and he was gone a ton that first year, so I was doing a lot of that stuff. It wasn’t all too new, because of that.

Q: Did you have a grand plan?

Angelico: I had one goal, and I told it to the Legislative Council, that we were going to go back to talking about kids’ human growth, not about their stats and how good they are, and their accomplishments athletically. It seemed like I kept hearing more and more conversations all around these stats, this kid’s done this thing, done that thing.

Nobody was talking about their human development, and that’s what we’re about. I said, “Before I leave, we’re going to go back to talking about kids, not about athletic prowess.”

Q: Is the culmination of that the InsideOut Coaching Initiative?

Angelico: It’s You Can Play!, the InsideOut Initiative, it’s Positive Coaching Alliance, it’s our partnership with the coaches association, partnerships with CADA, videos that go to school boards. It’s all of that.

And I can’t tell you that that was some master plan. It was not. As opportunities showed themselves, we took advantage of them.

Q: Do you have any favorite memories from your time as Commissioner? Or maybe what you enjoyed the most?

Angelico: Enjoyed?! (Laughs.)

Obviously, any state championship you’re at. It’s a mixed bag, because anything could go wrong and the whole thing could blow up, so you kind of have your breath held. But watching the culmination of all the work is always good.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Some of my favorite days were at the All-School Summit, or the coaches’ clinics, or that event down in Douglas County. We got to talk about kids and what they were doing, and how they are growing, and what our sports and activities are doing for them. Any opportunity to tell people about what great things kids can do when given the opportunity, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

Q: It seems like it’s a job that doesn’t shut off.

Angelico: It never does. It never goes away.

Q: And how do you juggle that?

Angelico: Humor. Truly. Well, two things for me: Humor, and — nobody dies in what we do. We’re not doctors where if we make a mistake, it’s the end of the world.

I never was let down when I got people together to solve a problem. No problem was ever insurmountable when we approached it as a group, whether it was the eight administrators in this office, or some committee of coaches and ADs. Every time I’ve felt the pressure of, “We’ll never get this fixed, this is hopeless,” it’d be like, “No, if you put enough good people in a room, we’ll come out of there with a solution.” And it always worked.

Q: Did you aspire to a job like this early in your career, when you were a teacher at Air Academy?

Angelico: Never. Never. I’d left Air Academy kicking and screaming, thinking, “Well, what good am I if I’m not working hands-on with kids?” Honestly. And it’s only now that I’m starting to realize that some of the things we do will affect a lot of kids directly.

I had someone write the other day, saying, “Thanks for insisting that we hire coaches that will be role models for kids, because they might not have them anywhere else.” And you don’t think of those things at the time. That was a meaningful sentiment.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Q: You’ve told me the story before about how you were hired by Ray Plutko, and then …

Angelico: Yeah, and then the never day, he had resigned. Well, it wasn’t the next day. The day after I was named officially at the Legislative Council, the radio story came out on KOA that Ray Plutko has resigned. That was also the day after the Board at District 20 had accepted my resignation (from Air Academy).

I was going, “Well, I wonder how long this will last.” Because Bob [Ottewill, the Commissioner who succeeded Plutko] didn’t have to keep me. He could have hired his own person. And I called him and said, “Bob, let me know if you still want me here, or if you want somebody else.” He did keep me on, and then it was his decision. I hadn’t signed a contract, or done anything like that.

Q: What were those early years like at CHSAA?

Angelico: Those were the most stressful. I was coming out of a school where you have a lot of latitude around policy, because you have hands-on with kids, and if the policy says, A+B=C, you can work with kids and make A+C=D. But here you can’t.

What occurred to me early, early on was that you can’t do that in a state this big. Because if you make this exception for Kid A, how do you not make it for Kid B, and if you do that, then you really don’t have that rule anymore. And it didn’t take long for that to sink in.

So the pressure of making sure what you said was making sure was right — that was a good year, year-and-a-half of making sure, “Am I right?” A decision carried a lot more weight than it did at a school.

Q: How have high school activities changed since then?

Angelico: At its core, nothing. But what we do, and how we do things, certainly has. We do many more activities. Kids have lots more options. Kids can do more than one thing at a time, kids can be in a club and in a high school.

None of those things could happen back then, it was all very regimented, and then state law changed a lot of that. You were stuck at your school when you were enrolled, and if your school didn’t have a program, you lost out, and you just didn’t participate.

At that time, kids adapted to programs. Now programs are starting to adapt to what kids want. For example, girls wrestling.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Q: In the last couple years, while we may not have added sports, classifications have really grown.

Angelico: Yeah. The number of classifications, how we’re classifying. I think that’s going to even go further, to get some kind of equality, so when you step on the field, there are actually similar schools that are hopefully somewhat alike.

Q: Is that the biggest challenge, you think, that high school activities are facing?

Angelico: I think right now, the biggest thing is how do we combine community rivalries that are healthy with playing the right schools to make for good competition. Schools can be five miles apart but a million miles apart in their abilities.

In today’s world, socioeconomics can determine the quality of programs. How much time are kids spending in the summer paying for camps, or year-round, paying for clubs?

A school of 300 in the Denver area, where kids go to clubs, is not the same as a school of 300 by Bethune. Because they don’t have the same access to clubs and outside training.

Q: What has the process of your retirement been like to go through?

Angelico: Painful. It’s been way long, way overblown. I think we’ve drug it out to where the staff and the schools are ready to move on. As they should be. It’s like, “OK, already. Let’s move.”

And I think with Rhonda coming on, her energy and her enthusiasm — I think if we have the fundamentals and the basics down and we’re going to continue to keep those as our center, she’ll be able to do a lot of other things that I was not prepared to do.

Q: You had worked closely with her before. What are the good things she’s going to do with the Association?

Angelico: For starters, she’ll know our basics. She’s on the same page about the fundamentals, about why we have high school sports, as opposed to club sports. And she understands the value of both.

She was an elite, All-American athlete. So she gets the elite level of that, and yet she understands that we’re here for the average kid. I think that’s an unusual combination today. And I think that’s her best quality. She’ll understand what we have to do for all kids, not just get pressured by the elite level.

(Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)

Q: You’ve said that you will kind of take a step back after you retire for a year or so, and not really be around a lot of CHSAA events. Why do you think that’s important to do?

Angelico: Rhonda needs to have full latitude to do what she wants, and she doesn’t need anybody saying, “Why are you doing that?” She needs to try things on her own, succeed on her own, fail on her own — not that I think she’ll fail — but what happens next year needs to be hers.

Now, does she need to know pitfalls she might not know about, or politics? Sure. But she doesn’t need anybody telling her, “Here’s what you need to do.” She needs to look at whatever it is she wants to accomplish, and work towards those ends.

Q: What do you think you’ll miss?

Angelico: The people. The people I work with inside the office, and the people I work with outside the office.

I’m not going to miss court, I’m not going to miss lobbying, I’m not going to miss accounting. I’m not going to miss all that stuff — although I’m glad that I did it, because I feel like I did it the way I wanted it done, those things — but I’ll miss not seeing everyone everyday. That’s really the bottom line.

Q: If you look back, what are you most proud of over the course of your career?

Angelico: I knew you were going to ask that.

What I hope — and you don’t know if you’ve done this — is that we’ve reestablished that rules are good, parameters for kids are good, and the higher we raise our bar, the more kids will respond. They’ll respond to however high we want to make our standards, and in today’s society, we’re shy to do that.

I think member schools are feeling like without what we do here, everything isn’t as educationally valid as it should be. Having high standards and demanding high standards and expectations — and high integrity — is good for kids, even though it’s harder for kids. It will make them better adults. That’s all we’re here for. So if we want a mediocre society, we’ll have mediocre standards.

That could be it. Tomorrow I might have a different answer.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

More students than ever before are participating in high school athletics in Colorado.

The participation survey for the 2016-17 was recently completed, and resulting data was published for the first time on Tuesday. It shows that 60.26 percent of students enrolled at CHSAA member high schools participated in sports during the 2016-17 school year, a total of 139,969 athletes.

Both figures are the highest since the yearly survey began after the 1988-89 season.

In addition, 23.53 percent of enrolled students participated in activities, meaning 83.79 percent of students participated in some form. That percentage is the highest since 2012-13, and the fourth-highest in the survey’s history. There were 54,649 participants in activities.

This is the fourth time in the past five years that at least 83 percent of students are participating in some activity.

“That’s amazing to see that many kids participating in high school activities,” CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico said. “Participation is our top priority, and recent changes with that goal in mind — including new classifications for three girls sports — seem to be helping.”

New classifications in girls golf, girls swimming and girls tennis for the 2016-17 season may have helped spark this most recent growth. Those three sports alone saw an additional 1,682 students participate in 2016-17.

All participation numbers are turned in by schools on the survey each year.

The full data can been seen on the participation database page.