AURORA — The Colorado High School Activities Association Board of Control overwhelmingly supported an amendment Thursday prohibiting student-athletes from transferring for the primary purpose of following their club coaches.
The 55-12 vote was the highlight of the meeting, which included the approval of conference alignments for the next two years. But the board’s primary focus Thursday was curbing students’ desires to transfer for athletic reasons.
The board also voted in favor of a one-year eligibility ban for student-athletes who transfer after the start of the school year.
“You see those trends heading that way, so you try to get in front of it,” said associate commissioner Paul Angelico, who earlier in the day was named CHSAA’s eighth commissioner, replacing the retiring Bill Reader at the end of the school year.
“More and more issues we face are parents and kids that think that high school sports is about furthering their ambition to get into college. We’re supposed to be about kids. We need to make sure we serve all kids and not just focus on the elite (athletes).”
In other action, the board voted:
• That student-athletes who were removed from participation by a licensed practitioner must obtain a written release from a physician in order to return to action.
• Against a proposal that would allow schools to check out football helmets for summer drills, but narrowly passed an amendment allowing the use of helmets for 7-on-7 drills.
“We had a lot of experts say that if you put a helmet on the kids, they’re going to be more aggressive. Even worse, if you put a face mask on, I think that could make them even more aggressive,” Reader said.
In other action, the board voted to allow Sunday contact between coaches and players in situations that do not involve any aspect of coaching, but denied a proposal that would allow member schools to choose any day of the week for an off day, which would allow them to practice on Sunday if they so choose.
Currently, coaches can’t contact players for athletic-related purposes on Sundays, which are considered family days by CHSAA.
