The NFHS announced on Wednesday that it has adopted a resolution to “re-emphasize that Friday nights in the fall should be reserved for high school football.”
The Federation, which is CHSAA’s parent organization, adopted the resolution during its summer meeting in Providence, R.I. in July. CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green signed the resolution.
Be it RESOLVED that every Friday night during the fall in America is “High School Football Night.”
Be it FURTHER RESOLVED that college and professional football teams should refrain from scheduling contests on Friday nights. Such restraint would be an investment in their own future success. It would also demonstrate that high school football has value well beyond the field of play. Schools, communities and scholastic teams for girls and boys all benefit when football is strong.
THEREFORE, the National Federation of State High School Associations urges all parties to observe the central premise of this resolution.
According to the NFHS, there are “more than 50 major college football games” that will be played on Friday nights this fall. Locally, that includes the rivalry game between the Colorado and Colorado State, set to be played on Sept. 1 — a Friday — at 6 p.m.
“The value of tradition cannot be understated,” NFHS executive director Bob Gardner said in a statement. “Friday nights offer communities a traditional time and place to congregate and support their students. If a major college football game was scheduled in the area on a Friday night, it could affect attendance at the high school game or cause the game to be moved to another day. In addition, many of the Friday night college games are televised, which could result in lower attendance at high school contests nationwide.
“We believe retaining Friday nights for high school contests is a plus for colleges as well as they reap the benefits of healthy programs at the high school level.”
Congratulations to the fall Fuel Up with Milk grant winners!
Drum roll, please. The winners are…
Widefield High School Boys and Girls Cross Country Team
Ponderosa High School Boys Football Team
Each of these two teams will be receiving cash to purchase milk (both white and chocolate) for the athletes for the entire sport season, soft-sided coolers for easy milk transport (perfect for travel days, practices and home games), a Fuel Up with Milk banner, and additional promotional and educational materials.
Keep an eye on the CHSAANow Nutrition Corner for a feature story on each of these teams in the coming months.
The runner-up school was Frontier Academy Boys and Girls Cross Country Team. The team received their choice of a soft-sided cooler for transporting milk to practices and games or $100 cash to be used for the purchase of fluid milk. Frontier decided on the $100 cash for the purchase of milk for the team.
Would you like to see your athletes excel both on and off the field by replenishing their bodies with white or chocolate milk? Your team could win funds to provide FREE milk for a season.
Colorado has long been a national leader in many of the advances in player safety and sports medicine. The ranking released Tuesday morning by the Korey Stringer Institute is not an accurate reflection of what is happening in the state of Colorado surrounding sports medicine and player safety.
“It is my understanding that, last year, the CHSAA chose not to submit or participate with the questionnaire involved with this ranking,” said CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green. “We respect all the work that the Korey Stringer Institute does to educate nationally on these areas, but it was not clear to our Association how these statistics and numbers would be used.
“Our Association has been at the forefront of sports medicine platforms and we would invite members of the Korey Stringer Institute, and anyone else in the sports medicine field, to attend our committee meetings, or visit our website, CHSAA.org, to see the comprehension of our safety outreach.”
Specifically, there are dozens of links to best practices available to our member schools at CHSAA.org/sports/medicine, including a direct link to the Korey Stringer Institute.
Additionally, members of the CHSAA Sports Medicine Committee and the CHSAA staff have routinely been asked to serve on the national sports medicine committee. CHSAA staff also attends the National Athletic Trainers’ Association conference each year.
As part of our annual All-School Summit last week, we prominently featured presentations on Emergency Action Plans as an additional way to extend the sports medicine education we provide our schools.
“We are confident in the work our Association does with sports medicine and player safety, and will continue to stand among the national leaders in that area,” Blanford-Green said.
Scott Yates and Chris Brown enter the 2017 season as the two winningest coaches in Colorado high school football history.
Yates, the coach at Kent Denver, and Brown, the head man at West Grand, have each amassed 315 career victories. They spent the 2016 season trading the top spot in the record book.
But neither one sees it as a chase, and in fact each wants the other to hold the record.
“He’ll blow by me in a Wyoming wind because he’ll coach for a long time, too,” Brown said of Yates when he held the record last fall. “It’s fine. It’s okay when he goes right on by me.”
Yates will get the first crack at owning the all-time wins record, if only for a week. Kent Denver plays Prospect Ridge Academy at home on Aug. 26 at 1 p.m.
Five days later, Brown and West Grand take on Sanford on Sept. 1 at 6 p.m.
INDIANAPOLIS — In response to the Korey Stringer Institute’s ranking of state high school associations in the area of managing injury risk to high school student-athletes, NFHS Executive Director Bob Gardner has released the following statement and accompanying support information.
NFHS STATEMENT ON MANAGING INJURY RISK IN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
In order to provide the safest and most enjoyable experience for the 7.9 million participants in high school sports, it takes a concerted effort on the part of every organization connected to interscholastic athletics.
For a number of years, the NFHS and its member state associations have worked cooperatively with organizations such as the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI) to provide as much information as possible for the nation’s 19,000-plus high schools regarding heat illness awareness and prevention, as well as other safety issues related to the heart and head injuries.
Unfortunately, the Korey Stringer Institute has proclaimed itself as judge and jury of heat-illness prevention and other safety issues by ranking the 51 NFHS-member state high school associations – these very associations that have been promoting risk-minimization precautions in their schools’ athletic programs for many more years than the seven-year existence of the KSI.
The overall safety of student-athletes competing in high school sports is a key objective of the NFHS and all 51 state associations. Information on precautions related to heat and head issues is regularly shared with schools across the country. While the 19,000 high schools range in size from 50 students to 5,000, there has never been a time that coaches, athletic directors and school administrators were more focused on risk minimization.
Very simply, a review of state association websites, such as the one employed by KSI, is an incomplete measurement of the efforts employed by states to assist their member schools with heat, heart and head issues. Providing more research data, as well as funds to enact more prevention programs, would be much more useful than giving grades to these associations.
For the past three years, the state high school associations have attended annual sports medicine meetings with KSI, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. The meetings have been entitled “Collaborative Solutions,” and they have been intended as an opportunity to share ideas about heat illness, cardiac problems and head injuries. The participating organizations have worked together, and the nation’s young athletes have benefited.
Now, KSI has utilized a new approach. By “grading” state high school associations based on a limited number of criteria, KSI has chosen to shine a light on certain areas, but it has left others in the dark. Thus, the information provided today gave an incomplete view. The full picture is much more positive. In fact, the state high school associations, and their respective sports medicine committees, post guidelines, speak at seminars, give warnings and alerts, and otherwise promote the health and well-being of young people. Certainly, there is room for improvement, and the American educational system will continue to be resource-challenged. Schools will need more funding, more defibrillators, more athletic trainers and more constructive legislation. With the assistance of everyone who cares about young athletes, including KSI, we can keep getting better.
The NFHS and its 51 member state associations are disappointed that KSI is, in essence, criticizing many states in this area rather than continuing to work with these groups in a collaborative relationship.
Protecting the health and safety of our nation’s high school student-athletes is an ongoing focus of all NFHS state associations. Following are some of the numerous initiatives undertaken by the NFHS in conjunction with its member state associations in the area of managing risk for the 7.9 million participants in high school sports.
In 2015, the NFHS provided the “Anyone Can Save a Life” emergency action plan toolkit originally developed by the Minnesota State High School League to member state associations for distribution to the nation’s schools. Through this program, schools have activated Emergency Action Plans, including the use of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs). More information on the “Anyone Can Save a Life” program is available at http://www.anyonecansavealife.org/.
2005-present – Through the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance System (High School RIO) http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/PublicHealth/research/ResearchProjects/piper/projects/RIO/Pages/default.aspx and Dr. Dawn Comstock, the NFHS and its member associations have used comprehensive injury data as a resource in the rules-writing process to reduce risk of future injuries. High School RIO is a sports-injury surveillance system that has accumulated data from a large national sample of high schools annually since 2005-06. Since that time, High School RIO has captured information on nearly 80,000 injuries sustained during more than 40 million athlete exposures. The NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and individual NFHS rules committees use data from High School RIO to better understand which athletes are at risk of injury during various types of sports activities. As a result, evidence-based decisions can be made to limit risk. High School RIO data is used to monitor injury rates over time, to identify new concerns and to evaluate the effectiveness of rules changes.
Data from High School RIO during the 2015-16 season indicated that attempts by the NFHS and its member state associations to reduce the risk of head trauma and concussions in football have proven effective. Surveys from 2015-16 indicated that the rate of concussions during practice dropped below 5.0 per 1,000 athletic exposures (to 4.77) for the first time since 2010-11. Also, a 2015 study by the University of Wisconsin, Madison, revealed that the rate of concussions was reduced by more than 50 percent from the previous two seasons. These studies came on the heels of the 2014 NFHS Concussion Summit Task Force, which recommended that state associations adopt plans for limiting contact during football practices.
In addition, The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research (NCCSIR) seeks to enhance the understanding of sports-related catastrophic injuries, illnesses and fatalities through active surveillance and research, with a focus on head/neck injuries, commotio cordis injuries, fatal/near-fatal cardiac conditions and fatal/near-fatal heat-related conditions. NCCSIR is committed to providing timely and useful information to the NFHS, its member state associations and high schools. The development of an online portal in 2015 enables state high school associations and their member schools to report the basic details surrounding catastrophic sports events (www.sportinjuryreport.org). Ongoing, active surveillance to monitor the incidence of catastrophic injuries, illnesses and fatalities is critical to identify areas for prevention and further study. Continued and improved efforts for detailed information and record-gathering is also critical to prevention.
2008 – The NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee advocated that a concussed athlete must be removed from play and not allowed to play on the same day.
2009-present – All NFHS rules publications have contained guidelines for management of a student exhibiting signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion. Such player shall be immediately removed from the contest and shall not return to play until cleared by an appropriate health-care professional.
2010 – The NFHS developed its “Concussion in Sport” online course at https://nfhslearn.com/courses/61064/concussion-in-sports. In addition, a related course specifically for high school students – “Concussion for Students” – is available at https://nfhslearn.com/courses/61059/concussion-for-students. More than three million courses have been taken since that time. In addition, a recent study indicated individuals who took the free course demonstrated a 40-percent higher level of understanding of concussions as compared to their pre-course knowledge base.
2011 – A six-page section on Concussions was added to the fourth edition of the NFHS Sports Medicine Handbook, which was distributed free to all high schools in the country.
2011-2012 – The NFHS Football Rules Committee adopted “Concussions Related to Proper Use of the Helmet” as a Point of Emphasis.
2014 – The NFHS Concussion Summit Task Force met in Indianapolis and adopted recommendations for reducing the amount of full contact in practices. State associations crafted their own policies based on these recommendations for implementation in the 2015 football season.
2014 – By January 2014, all state governments had enacted concussion laws which established mandatory protocols.
2014 – The NFHS Football Rules Committee adopted a definition and penalty for targeting aimed at preventing players from hitting an opponent – primarily with the helmet – above the shoulders.
The NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, which is composed of six medical experts, three certified athletic trainers, four administrators from state high school associations, as well as one high school coach and one official, has been invaluable in providing important information for NFHS rules committees and state association sports medicine committees in writing rules that minimize risk of injury for high school student-athletes. All member state associations have sports medicine committees that work with schools in their states to minimize risk of injury to student-athletes.
Boys golf practice opens on Monday, officially signaling the start of the school year, and the CHSAA calendar. As is the case every year, it is the first sport to begin practice, exactly a week prior to the rest. Its first scrimmages and contests can begin on Thursday.
It also has the first championship: Boys golf’s state meets are Oct. 2-3 this fall.
All other fall sports begin practice on Aug. 14, with slightly varied dates for scrimmages and contests.
This marks the 97th year of activities in CHSAA’s history.
Poudre School District hosted Coaches of Character, a professional development event focused on education-based coaching skills.
225 coaches from the state attended the event, which was sponsored by Poudre School District and the local organization CHAMP (Character in Athletics Make it a Priority).
Poudre School District athletic director Russ McKinstry saw the day as a successful one.
“We are fortunate to have amazing coaches and athletic directors in Fort Collins and northern Colorado,” McKinstry said. “They have bought into the Inside Out coaching initiative that CHSAA is promoting, and the large turnout Saturday morning again demonstrates our coaches are committed to giving the student athletes of Poudre School District the best, most positive athletic experience possible.”
The keynote speaker was Paul Ressa of Newman Smith High School in Dallas, Texas.
INDIANAPOLIS — Led by the largest one-year increase in girls participation in 16 years, the overall number of participants in high school sports increased for the 28th consecutive year in 2016-17, according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Based on figures from the 51 NFHS member state high school associations, which includes the District of Columbia, the number of participants in high school sports reached an all-time high of 7,963,535. The increase of 94,635 participants from 2015-16 is the largest one-year jump in overall participation since the 2008-09 school year.
Thanks to increases in all of the top 10 participatory sports, the number of girls participants reached an all-time high of 3,400,297. The increase of 75,971 from the previous year is the largest one-year jump since the 2000-01 sports participation report.
Competitive spirit registered the largest increase among girls sports with an additional 18,712 participants, followed by outdoor track and field (8,508), volleyball (8,470), soccer (6,810) and lacrosse (5,423).
“As we celebrate the 45th anniversary of Title IX this year, this report on girls participation numbers underscores the significance of that important decision in 1972,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. “It is great to see an ever-increasing number of girls taking advantage of that opportunity to compete in high school sports.”
Seven of the top 10 boys sports registered increases from the previous year, led by soccer (9,912), outdoor track and field (9,003), and cross country (8,580). Overall participation for boys in 2016-17 was 4,563,238, an increase of 18,664 from the previous year.
Participation in 11-player football was down 25,901 from the previous year, although the numbers in 6- and 8-player football were up from the 2015-16 season. The overall number of participants in football (6, 8, 9 and 11 player) in 2016-17 was 1,086,748, down 25,503 from the 1,112,251 in the 2015-16 season.
While the number of participants in high school football declined, the number of schools offering the sport increased by 52 schools in 11-player – from 14,047 to 14,099 – and by nine schools in 6-, 8- and 9-player – from 1,349 to 1,358.
With 14,099 high schools offering 11-player football, the decrease of 25,901 participants amounts to fewer than two individuals (1.8) per school, and an overall decrease of 2.5 percent.
Football remains the No. 1 participatory sport for boys at the high school level by a large margin. Track and field is second with 600,136 participants, followed by basketball (550,305), baseball (491,790) and soccer (450,234).
“While we are concerned when any sport experiences a decline in participation, the numbers do not substantiate that schools are dropping the sport of football,” Gardner said. “The NFHS and its member state high school associations have worked hard to reduce the risk of injury in high school football, and we are pleased at the continued strength of the sport across the country.”
Amazingly, this year’s survey indicated that more than 60 different sports were offered by high schools nationwide, from judo and kayaking, to fencing and rugby, to snowboarding and rodeo. Some of the more popular non-traditional high school sports were badminton (17,184), archery (9,767), crew (5,179) and fencing (4,100).
The top 10 states by participants remained the same; however, Florida moved ahead of Michigan to seventh position this year. Texas and California topped the list again with 834,558 and 800,364 participants, respectively, followed by New York (367,849), Illinois (341,387), Ohio (340,146), Pennsylvania (319,153), Florida (310,567), Michigan (295,647), New Jersey (283,655) and Minnesota (239,289).
The participation survey has been compiled since 1971 by the NFHS through numbers it receives from its member associations. The top 10 sports for boys and girls and the year-by-year participation totals are listed below. The complete 2016-17 High School Athletics Participation Survey is available at NFHS.org/ParticipationStatistics/ParticipationStatistics.
To this day, Lamar girls basketball coach Erik Melgoza can’t believe what his team accomplished back in March.
It was a low-scoring affair, but the Savages edged league rival Colorado Springs Christian 24-18 to claim the Class 3A girls hoops title. It was the school’s first girls basketball championship since 1998.
But even though the championship win still hasn’t sunk in, Melgoza is ready to get to work on the next one.
And he took the time to talk about how his girls get in that mindset and what exactly a championship means for the Lamar community.
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(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Question: How long did it take for that championship victory to sink in?
Melgoza: It really still hasn’t sunk in. Right after the game, I kind of reflected this summer, but right after the game I couldn’t believe it.
And even more now, I really can’t believe it.
When you work as hard as these kids have worked and this coaching staff has worked, it’s hard to believe that a goal is finally accomplished.
Q: Do the girls feel the same way?
Melgoza: Our girls are pretty resilient. I think they realize it, but I don’t know that it’s really sunk in. To an extent with some of them, I really like the attitude they displayed during summer ball, because (last season) is over.
I’ve always said that if you’re looking at yesterday then you haven’t done much today.
I just told the girls that what we last year is over and we need to start to work again. I think it’s sunk in, but they know have a lot of opportunities ahead of them. Instead of looking behind them, they’re looking forward.
Q: Did you find it tough to be in that championship game against CSCS having beaten them and been beaten by them already?
Melgoza: I think it was an opportunity that was really good for us. You can look back the last few years and Manitou has been really tough and represented our league well.
I just think having two (league) teams in the championship was awesome for us. Playing them, we really did want to play them and we felt comfortable playing them.
It was probably a better matchup for us than the alternative. I think we were okay with it. We were very happy to be there and very fortunate.
The kids are very focused and for us it was quite a state tournament run. A couple of things happened at the last second in both those games.
We were just happy to be there and get it done.
Q: Between then and now with school getting ready to start, how do you balance the duties of being a multi-sport coach?
Melgoza: You know, I also coach boys basketball, I’m the head cross country coach for boys and I coach track.
I just split my summers up and I’m very focused in what I do. I always don’t look ahead to the next sport.
June is basketball. That’s all we do. Then of course I pass them off to volleyball and encourage girls to play volleyball and softball and really learn to compete in other sports. I think that huge thing for kids to learn.
When we get them back in the winter, we’re able to compete really well.
It’s kind of what I encourage.
In July, I spend it with my cross country boys. Last year we weren’t as good as we’ve been in the past, but we put a lot of work in during July. We take a lot of trips, we get some altitude training in. We just get around each other and get used to each other and know what the expectations are in July.
I have about a week off now and then school starts.
Q: Does it help when your kids see you walk the walk when it comes to being involved in multiple sports?
Melgoza: I think it does. I think as coaches, we sometime miss the opportunity to display that teamwork with other coaches and our peers.
I just read a deal the other day about assistant coaches and how they have the biggest opportunity to display teamwork just because they’re a part of a team of a coaching staff.
A lot of times with my assistant coaches, they coach. I delegate things and I don’t micromanage them.
I think the kids see that and they buy into that. They know they can go to an assistant coach and if an assistant coach says something, it’s like I said it.
It’s just a delegation of responsibilities. So it makes it I don’t want to say easier on me, but I feel more comfortable when I have coaches coaching. And when you allow somebody to do their job without micromanaging them, they really bind to your program.
I’m very fortunate in that aspect.
Q: Coaching in a town like Lamar, do you feel like there’s a stronger sense of community than what you would see in a metro area where kids might be able to choice into a variety of schools?
Melgoza: I really do and I think my eyes have been opened a little bit as I get around the state.
I think from 3A on down, there’s a big sense of community to a certain extent. I think it’s a little different with certain cities and certain city limits like Colorado Springs. They can get kids from anywhere.
Manitou might be unique in that it might be mostly their kids.
It’s a situation here in Lamar where kids are born and raised here. Kids don’t move into Lamar. These kids have grown up together and I think that’s really huge and it’s kind of fun.
I think smaller schools, 2A and 1A, if you go to a state tournament, they’ll close down the town. I think that happens with some 3A schools.
If you go to 4A and 5A, there’s a lot of club going on and there are so many different things like that. It’s hard to get buy-in from fans. You might a few friends there. You might have grandma and grandpa there. But a sense of community, I really don’t see.
Q: Does that help you and your girls appreciate something like a state championship more?
Melgoza: It really does. Talking to the girls, it wasn’t just about them and the work they’ve done.
The community supports us through fundraisers and social media. Kids are going to the local businesses and everyone knows who they are. They’ll go and watch them on Friday and Saturday night. They ask them how they’re doing.
It’s just a huge community support system. It’s not like the community knows of a kid, they actually know who that kid is. They know the family and a lot of times there’s history.
I have some kids on the team now that their mothers played basketball here at Lamar. So it’s really kind of fun.
Q: Does it make it more fun knowing you have Cassie Forgue and Cali Clark and some of those other younger girls coming back?
Melgoza: I think the big there is that it’s always been fun for us. We’ve been pretty fortunate. We always have the same philosophy.
If you look back in the last two years before we made it, a few years ago we were third in state, but we were always close in regional championships.
We were losing to really good teams like Pagosa or Sterling.
When you come back with the nucleus of your team intact, I think the biggest opportunity is going to be building some kids that really learn and understand their roles.
That’s the hardest thing there is.
I’m losing some role players that are just dynamite kids that were seniors and just accepted a role.
That’s going to be the hardest thing to replace.
Q: So how do you coach up those incoming freshmen, or sophomores, or juniors that have to fill those roles?
Melgoza: I think that we just do the same thing we keep doing. It’s the same culture.
We’re like every other team in the state. We have one goal in mind and that’s to win a state championship.
That’s how you start kids off is getting them to believe in themselves. As coaches, we went to some coaching clinics this summer and we got better. I feel like the knowledge is there, but like with myself, do I always get that knowledge across?
Am I able to teach the game and teach the kids about life? Am I able to do those important things?
So you go to coaching clinics, you get your batteries recharged and listen to coaches who are a lot better than me and really learn how to do that.
Q: Does coming off a state championship add more excitement to an upcoming year?
Melgoza: Not really. It’s back to business as usual. One of the girls, I think it was Brecken Payne, said that we’ve done it. We’ve accomplished that goal so now we’re on to the next one.
The next goal is to win a state championship. Not another one, not repeat, not things like that. That’s over and that’s done.
It’s business as usual and we’re getting right back after it.
