Aurora – They are not scrimmages; they count as regular-season games.
Zero Week, the odd early round that crept into Colorado schoolboy football the past decade, will provide an early kickoff to the 2006 season.
Today and Saturday, 40 schools will meet for 20 early games across the state while most of the other 237 schools will wait until next week for the traditional openers.
The reasons for Zero Week range from matchups against schools that dropped programs after scheduling was complete; to unbalanced leagues; to fear of losing valuable victory points in the playoff qualifying system; to general scheduling difficulties within the seven-classification system, which is entering the first segment of its new, two- year realignment.
In the past, state officials have sanctioned the early rounds in order to help programs maintain full schedules in the regular season. While Class 5A will have only Thomas Jefferson in a Zero Week game, enough seems to be enough for all teams.
“I’m not real happy with it, but there have been some extenuating circumstances,” Colorado High School Activities Association assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann said.
The lack of practice time in pads and missing what traditionally has been a scrimmage week are two major factors in trying to deter early games, Borgmann said.
“We’d like to stay away from it if we can, but sometimes the schedules and unbalanced leagues don’t allow that to happen,” he said.
Borgmann added, “When schools drop or dissolve their programs, that creates pressure on other teams, too, that they’ve been playing.”
At the outset, Belleview Christian, Lake County and Sierra Grande will not field teams as promised. Plus, the closing of Manual put the new 4A Denver Prep League in a bind. As an adjustment, the remaining six teams in Lake County’s new Mountain League in 2A will play one another in nonleague games this weekend, the same as for 4A city teams.
This weekend’s lone league game will be in the 4A Skyline with Westminster at Adams City. The rest will be nonleague and involve six of the seven classifications, save for the smallest: 6-man.
The Zero Week games also will give the participating 40 teams an unusual bye week during the standard nine- to 10-week slots of the regular season.
