In Colorado high school football, conference rivalry games are a big deal for schools, coaches, players, the student body — the whole community. Think about .
But with CHSAA classification changes every two years and now the Class 5A waterfall alignment that’s starting in 2016, football conferences are always changing and will continue to change.
Is this good or bad?
The Denver Post sent out a digital survey to Colorado high school football coaches in every classification, seeking feedback on the state of prep football in the state and some of the recent trends and hot topics.
Are you worried about league rivalries going away with ongoing conference changes?
The biggest argument some can make for this: Why do the rivalries even have to go away?
“The rivalries can still be protected in nonconference games,” Valor Christian coach Rod Sherman told The Post after . “It will be like a CU vs. CSU, or Texas vs. Texas A&M kind of thing, where they are crosstown rivalries, not in the same conference, but they can still play each other.”
Overland coach Seth Replogle addressed where conference play falls in the schedules: “We have five games before conference starts. There’s no reason you can’t schedule your rivalry games.”
But the RPI format — a beginning with the 2016-17 season — with classification changes impacts lower classification conferences. RPI is 25 percent of a team’s winning percentage, plus 50 percent of the winning percentage of their opponents, plus 25 percent of the winning percentage of their opponents’ opponents.
Matt Flavin, coach of Buena Vista, a 1A team, said one of the school’s biggest rivals is Salida, a team that is moving up to 2A next year.
“Salida was not going to play us because if they lost to a smaller school, that would really hurt their RPI,” Flavin said. “Then we talked and said we’d hate to lose this rival game. So we ended up scheduling that game still.”
Safety issues have become a nationwide story over the past few years. Have you noticed a decrease in participation?
Some schools wrote in feedback for this answer — that participation was decreasing, but not for safety issues.
Some reasons included sport specialization and a year-round commitment to just one sport, as opposed to competing in multiple sports. Other schools cited open enrollment as the culprit of lower football participation.
When it came to safety, some schools said a participation decrease was apparent at the middle school and little league levels.
“I know all this stuff coming out with head trauma and concussions,” Flavin said. “I understand, but we’re trying to be proactive too.”
He added: “As far as the younger kids, the Pee-Wees, I push to not let them start playing tackle until fifth grade. They were doing it in second, and there’s no need for that.”
