LONE TREE – The Colorado High School Activities Association hosted its January 2025 Legislative Council meeting on Tuesday morning at the Douglas County School District Legacy Campus, and throughout the meeting, all nine bylaw proposals submitted were passed.
The only Constitutional Proposal put forth, CON 1 – League Membership Timelines, was accepted and will now alter when a school that is seeking league membership shall apply to the CLOC (now November/December CLOC meeting of the odd year, rather than the February meeting).
The Legislative Council – the democratic arm of CHSAA – also accepted all eight administrative and athletic bylaw proposals. Coaches of ice hockey and alpine skiing will now be able to conduct practice on Sunday (ADM 4 – Sunday Practice-Ice Hockey and ADM 5 – Sunday Practice-Alpine Skiing), while the football season will start on the Monday of Week 5 (of the NFHS calendar) with the first week being a heat acclimatization period (ATH 1 – Football Season of Sport). Following the week of heat acclimatization, players may wear full regular football uniform and pads for two days. On the third day in full pads, players may engage in full contact drills (ATH 2 – Football Equipment Dates). Blocking or tackling exercises with physical contact is prhibited until the third day in full pads (ATH 3 – Football Contact Date).
Administratively, ADM 1 – Status of Coaches clarifies that coaches are not employees, agents or contractors of CHSAA, while ADM 2 – Youth Recognition Events defines what constitutes a youth recognition event/game and ADM 3 – Administrative Control requires that each member school participating in any postseason event is required to have a designated school administrator or represenative on-site for the duration of an event.
The Legislative Council also accepted each of the committee reports presented, with changes coming to baseball, golf, softball and boys volleyball.
- CR 13 – Baseball: The first competition date will be the same as the first scrimmage date, and the approved minimum games to qualify for the postseason has changed. The Legislative Council supported the proposal to remove the double elimination format for the regional playoff round from the committee report.
- CR 19 – Golf: There will no longer be a regional tournament to qualify for state.
- CR 26 – Softball: Recommends that schools hosting 4A and 5A Round of 32 games will have a second site available if the host does not have two fields. Head-to-head results will also be included as a seeding protocol once the top 32 qualified teams are determined.
- CR 31 – Volleyball: The default time for the boys volleyball regional tournament, if a time cannot be mutually agreed upon for Saturday, will be 10 a.m.
Membership dues and participation fees will also remain the same for the next school year and will not increase (CR 1 – Budget/Property Administration), and athletic directors will soon be able to check a box instead of uploading a certificate if a coaching requirement is not completed online (CR 3 – Coach Education and Registration).
Following the conclusion of this school year, six CHSAA Board of Directors terms will be expiring. The nominations for replacement are:
- Trent Kerr (Wiggins) has been nominated to replace Sara Crawford as the District 3 representative.
- Patrick Simpson (Jefferson County) has been nominated to replace Cameron Wright as the District 4 representative.
- Reed Doughty (Flatirons Academy) has been nominated to replace Jim Flanigan as the District 6 representative.
- Elly Naill (Pueblo East) has been nominated to replace Alfie Lotrich as the District 9 representative.
- Dan Melendrez (Genoa-Hugo) has been nominated to replace Robert Framel as the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE) representative.
- Senator Tony Exum’s term is expiring, a new representative will be announced at a later date.
The vote of approval for these replacements will take place during the April 2025 Legislative Council meeting.
The meeting concluded with CHSAA Commissioner Mike Krueger sharing that the Denver Broncos Foundation, in partnership with Riddell and CHSAA, has launched ALL IN. ALL COVERED., which is an unprecedented initiative distributing more than 15,000 new Riddell Axiom helmets at no cost to every high school tackle football program in Colorado.