On Aug. 29, Loveland Classical will reach another milestone when it plays its first official game as a member of the Colorado High School Activities Association.

Read the full story from the Loveland Reporter-Herald.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

AURORA — Football’s calendar will align with the national setup, allowing for more consistency with surrounding states, and flexibility within the state’s current format.

Additionally, volleyball is heading to a bracket format, there will be a new process for adding a new sport, teams will be allowed to play an exhibition game to raise money for their program, and baseball’s move to a 23-game regular season in 3A, 4A and 5A was approved.

Those were among changes made by the CHSAA Legislative Council during the first of their two annual meetings on Thursday.

[divider]

Football changes

(Dustin Price/dustinpricephotography.com)

For the immediate 2018 season, football’s changes means that the start of practice will move up by a week, and begin on Aug. 6. Additionally, this change will build in a bye week for classes 4A through 6-man, and allow for 5A to move to a 24-team playoff — something that was also approved on Thursday.

The lead up to full contact will be as follows: two days in helmets, two days of full pads with limited contact, and one day of full pads and full contact. Scrimmages will be allowed on Aug. 16, with the first regular season games allowed on Aug. 23.

No longer will the first week of competition be known as Zero Week — the former scrimmage/contest hybrid week. Instead, it’ll simply be Week 1.

Because the existing approved dates of the postseason remain in place, it leaves a bye week during the regular season for 6-man through 4A, and a bye week for the top eight seeds in the 5A football playoffs while seeds Nos. 9-24 play in the first round.

Elsewhere in football:

• 2A and 3A will play their championship games at a neutral site.
• The proposed league alignments were all approved and are now final.
• As noted above, 5A is moving from a 16-team playoff to a 24-team playoff.

[divider]

Volleyball bracket

(Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)

All five classes of the state volleyball tournament, held annually at the Denver Coliseum, will change from pool play to a bracket starting this fall.

The bracket format will be a 12-team Olympic crossover, meaning it will be double-elimination up until the semifinals, where the tournament will change to a single-elimination.

“We are really excited to be moving in this direction,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bethany Brookens said following the volleyball committee meeting last November.

[divider]

New process for adding activities and sports

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

The process for adding a new sport or activity — something that was in the spotlight last January with boys volleyball — has been overhauled.

Now, the process will be as follows:

• The Board of Directors must approve the new activity for a piloting process, while taking into account things like “longevity and history of the activity, support from the activity’s governing body, ability to host a coach’s clinic on skills and safety (sports only),” and “adequate number of officials (sports only).” The pilot program must last at least one year. New activities can ask for a pilot program from the Board at any point.
• The new activity must have support from the Classification and League Organizing Committee, the Sports Medicine Committee, the Equity Committee, the and Board of Directors before the Legislative Council can vote on it.

The new bylaw additions also outlines step-by-step what each new activity should be doing, and when.

It seems likely that boys volleyball and girls wrestling will approach the Board to begin the piloting process. Both sports have expressed interest.

[divider]

Foundation Showcase creates exhibitions to raise money

A new bylaw which allows teams to participate in a “Foundation Benefit Contest” beyond the game limits was approved.

This will allow schools the opportunity to schedule exhibition games where they charge admission, keep score and raise money for their programs or a cause.

These games will not have any impact on postseason/playoff considerations.

[divider]

Elsewhere:

• Here’s a full breakdown of baseball’s increase to 23 games in 5A, 4A and 3A.
• The Technology Committee gave a report on their recommendation with the RPI.
• Seven new schools were approved for initial membership: DSST-Byers, KIPP Northeast, Loveland Classical, Riverdale Ridge, Strive Prep Rise, Strive Prep Smart, Thomas MacLaren. This gives CHSAA 358 member schools.
• Stargate, Golden View Academy and Victory Prep Academy were approved as full members.
• The cross country proposal to score four of the six runners at the 2A state meet was amended, so 2A will remain with three scoring runners.
• Field hockey officially changed its OT procedure for the playoffs. Now, games will play 11 on 11 in the first OT. If still tied, they will play 7 on 7 in a second OT. If the game remains tied, they will go to a shootout.
• 3A girls soccer’s postseason field will expand from 24 to 32 teams in 2019.
• New CHSAA Board members to start in 2018-19: Luke DeWolfe, Steamboat Springs; Chase McBride, Niwot; Obafemi Alao, DSST-Green Valley Ranch; Don Steiner, Evangelical Christian.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

AURORA — The Classification and League Organizing Committee met Tuesday, and chief among their decisions was setting enrollment splits for the 2018-20 two-year cycle.

Those enrollment cutoffs are listed below, save for football, which has its classifications set by the football committee. Those splits will be posted within the next 10 days. This information is also available on this page.

A breakdown of each school’s reported Oct. 2017 enrollment, which is used to place programs into classifications, is available here.

[divider]

Enrollment cutoffs

[divider]

Re-classification of schools

Three schools asked to reclassify according to bylaw 1500.21, which allows schools to move down a class if they meet a number of factors, such as socio-economics, geography, competitive history and enrollment trend.

• Greeley Central was approved to reclassify. This means their team sports will compete in 4A, and representatives of the school said it was their intention to play up to 4A in sports, such as wrestling, where the reclassification would put them in 3A.
• Montezuma-Cortez’s reclassification from 4A to 3A was also approved. Likewise, school reps said they would commit to playing up to 3A in any sports where the reclassification would put them in 2A.
• Skyline’s reclassification from 5A to 4A was approved.

[divider]

Program playdowns

The following schools had their program playdown requests approved. These programs will not be eligible to compete in the postseason, per bylaw 1500.27.

• Arvada football from 3A to 2A.
• Boulder softball from 5A to 4A.
• Calhan football from 1A to 8-man.
• Cripple-Creek Victor from 8-man to 6-man.
• Dolores Huerta from 1A to 8-man.
• Jefferson from 2A to 1A.
• Loveland boys and girls soccer from 5A to 4A.
• Mead boys soccer from 4A to 3A.
• Pinnacle football from 2A to 1A.
• Rangeview boys lacrosse from 5A to 4A.

[divider]

New schools approved as members

The committee approved seven new schools for initial probationary membership into CHSAA. They are:

• Denver School of Science & Tech – Byers, which is in Denver’s Wash Park neighborhood.
• KIPP Northeast, located in northeast Denver.
• Loveland Classical School, in Loveland.
• Riverdale Ridge, in Brighton.
• Strive Prep Rise, in northeast Denver.
• Strive Prep Smart, in southwest Denver.
• Thomas MacLaren, in Colorado Springs.

KIPP Northeast and Strive Prep Rise are housed in the same building and are planning to co-op, so they will play 4A. DSST-Byers, Riverdale Ridge and Strive Prep Smart will likely be 3A. Loveland Classical and Thomas MacLaren will likely be 2A,

Riverdale Ridge will most likely play 2A football, as well.

Another school, Windsor Charter, was not accepted because the CLOC members felt the school was not yet ready to become a member for a variety of reasons.

With these new schools, CHSAA will have 361 member schools in 2018-19.

[divider]

Stargate School granted full membership

One new school has joined CHSAA as a full member, moving off probationary status: Stargate School, which is located in Thornton.

Three others up for review for full membership were left on probationary status:

• DSST-College View was left on because it has had multiple CHSAA violations dealing with eligibility.
• Golden View Classical Academy and Victory Prep Academy were both left on probationary status because no one from the school attended the CLOC meeting.