AURORA — I am sure we appreciated the interest.
They brought in extra chairs multiple times at Thursday’s Colorado High School Activities Association board of control meeting.
In some ways, it was a chance to be educated by the educated, view how in-state sports are governed.
The more, the merrier hasn’t always worked in Colorado (read: our classification system), but a crowded room can mean more ideas . . . at least, you would hope so.
This particular board was blessed with a crowded house and opportunities, including to sanction a new two-year cycle for football. Apparently, it’s akin to being in the Colorado Highway Department — the finished product never seems to be finished, requires constant upkeep, the cracks and potholes don’t lead to anything but more problems, and users constantly complain.
There was passion as well as being too late to seriously debate. Most everyone knew what was coming; others were actually surprised. Paperwork, caucuses, frustration, special interest, who had the floor . . . you would have thought it was an election year.
Politically correct, there wasn’t much football movement overall, even for the historically conservative board.
Attempts at tweaks for the sake of having them abounded, but the old paint remains visible. We’ll be looking at pretty much the same structure, which won’t be pleasing or practical and already is being condemned. It’s the thing with football — no matter what happens, few seem to be happy and there’s always something that will be fixed in the next go-round . . . then isn’t.
Fact is, Boulder and Fairview leaving the Centennial League and Arapahoe coming back in will not fix upper classifications of football, nor will six teams moving up to Class 5A from 4A.
And you should have heard the mountain administrators snicker when metro-area bosses whined about travelling 25 miles or so for a game.
All you really need to know is, for some reason, Regis (in southeastern Aurora and within walking distance of three other big schools) was put into the (Jefferson County-based) 5A South Metro.
Classification cutoffs, allowances for diverse student bodies, becoming more practical concerning postseason qualification and correctly identifying geography for what should remain a reasonably stable base set for the metropolitan area were ignored — again — in favor of what basically amounts to more of the same-old, same- old, even if some of the names change.
To be fair, the board all but rubber-stamps what the schools want, although we just witnessed another demonstration of how it remains unclear what the heck the schools want, particularly in their most popular game.
For what it’s worth, I gave up trying to figure out these folks . . . a long time ago.
Elsewhere, yuks were readily available concerning the no-contact rule over the holidays. Every once in a while, a group gets together and is convinced it can crack into the impenetrable core that shuts down Colorado winter sports, in this case trying the baby-steps route by bidding for a few practices between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
No shock, it turned out to be as good of an idea as hoping you get the flu.
Of other session significance, cross country and golf were deemed fruitful and are permitted to multiply. Distance runners will grow from three classes to four, and golfers from two to three.
It isn’t a population explosion as much as it’s a return to the Trophies-‘R-Us mentality that festered at the end of the freewheeling 1980s.
As for what would be a bold move in reshaping how track and field determines its champions?
It was tabled for a future gathering.
Indeed, we’re a little slow here in how we do things, but that can still be OK.
The interest is evident, but it’s imperative we react to it while we can and not contaminate the minds of the student- athletes we have now and in the future with needless bureaucracy.
Keep the meetings crowded, yes, but let’s get something accomplished.
Neil H. Devlin covers preps for The Denver Post. He can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
