Board of Control to hear some far

Board of Control to hear some far-reaching proposals

Jan. 19, 2002

STAFF REPORT

When the Colorado High School Activities Association’s Board of Control meets this coming week on Thursday, Jan. 24, in Denver, some far reaching proposals will be addressed which could affect all kinds of prep teams in Southwestern Colorado.

Highlighting the agenda of the 59-member group’s first meeting (the second meeting to ratify proposals passed in January will be held in April) of the school year will be to decide on recommendations from committees in baseball, cross-country, football, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. They will also will go over work of the Local Association Organization Committee which is responsible to set classification numbers, recommend league changes, and football conferences for the next two school years.

Major changes to be voted on include some football conferences reflecting changes in classification numbers. Most of the changes, though, do not involve Western Slope teams and leagues.

However, in other sports, there could be some far reaching changes.

For instance, the baseball committee is proposing a radical change in playoff structure for Class 4A (Montezuma-Cortez) and 5A that the top half of each league qualify for districts, seeding those 32 teams and then implementing a double-elimination tournament after the final eight teams have been determined. Class 2A districts (Dolores and Dolores County) will include all eight teams to the regional round through district playoffs.

The cross-country committee is recommending that 40 percent of all 4A and 5A schools qualify to the State meet and all athletes who finish in the top 10 not on a qualifying team be allowed to qualify for State. This will help promote a team competition and allow more top contenders to compete, according to the committee.

The golf committee is recommending the State Golf Tournament be played on alternating weekends, with Class 4A taking the first in 2002 followed by 5A. The soccer committee is eliminating the coaches’ poll and to recognize league poll rankings for the post-season seeding committee.

In softball, on the board is developing a blind bottom draw for its district tournament format. Only the top 32 teams will be placed in district brackets. A pairing committee will meet prior tot eh last weekend of play to establish the final pairings that will be announced when the regular season is over.

The tennis committee wants to align the 4A regions to gain greater equalization while changing the 5A regions from four to eight teams in each region. The track and field committee is recommending an additional relay position for 2A Regionals specifically for a 1A team if it does not finish in the top three places or pre-qualify for state. All pre-qualifiers count as an event toward the maximum of four events for an individual. Six athletes may be listed on a relay card for State.

In volleyball, the committee wants to change 4A districts to a waterfall format, leaving the South Central league and the Western Slope/Southwestern League as its own district. Regionals will be seeded in 4A.

All recommendations which are passed at the January meeting must be reproved or ratified at the April binding meeting.