AURORA — Colorado remains a progressive state, yet is firmly rooted in its traditional ways.
At the second of two annual state board of control meetings Thursday, the governing body for high school sports approved the new track and field format officials coveted, but not without small schools retaining traditional qualifying.
Tabled in January, the sport’s committee amendment, headed by Colorado High School Activities Association assistant commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green, presented modifications to centralize all classifications and offer qualifying exclusively through rankings.
After much discussion, there will be a new three-day, all-class meet, probably in Jefferson County, but Classes 3A and 2A will continue with a regional round the week before it.
Calling it “exactly a compromise,” Blanford-Green said she was confident “it meets the needs of everyone, but I think the end result is that all kids want to come to the big show and how they get there is going to be diverse. . . . The end result is that anybody who watches track and field will see the best state track meet in a three-day period.”
Next month’s finale will be the last two-site gathering (5A-4A in Jeffco, 3A-2A in Pueblo). In 2009, upper classes will rank their top 25 in each event over 12 weeks and advance the top 16 to 18. As for 3A-2A, competitors will stay with the set qualifying standards and follow the regular season with regional meets officials said were vital to ensure participation.
“The more kids who get to play, the better off we are,” 2A Kiowa athletic director Rick Kolm said.
Initially, he said, “a lot of (small) schools said no” to the change. However, when assured regionals, which offer additional qualifying opportunities and account for representation from all areas, 3A-2A agreed to further the modern prep sports trend toward all-class championships. Football, basketball, volleyball and wrestling are among local leaders.
“That seems to be it, 5A will do this radical change, then slowly, but surely, it works its way to 2A and 1A,” Blanford-Green said.
That was verified by 2A and 1A agreeing to 32-team basketball tournaments. The groups were the last to waive the district and regional formats.
Chuck Howell, who oversees CHSAA basketball, admitted to concerns such as missed school time, the overall competitiveness of 1A and split sites for boys and girls, but will attempt to keep outlying areas in line with metropolitan Denver.
Among other amendments, 4A basketball will change to neutral sites in its Round of 16 and Great 8, and the CHSAA announced Bethany Schott as a new assistant commissioner. Schott was an 11-letter winner at Overland, all-Southern Conference in basketball at Davidson, and played professionally and taught in Ireland. She interned with the Metro Denver Sports Commission and is a regional coordinator for the U.S. Tennis Association.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
