January 2023 Legislative Council Information

The Colorado High School Activities Association is presenting new bylaw proposals and committee reports to the CHSAA’s Legislative Council, the democratic arm of the association, on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the DTC Marriott.

The CHSAA’s 75-member Legislative Council is made up of representatives from across the state of Colorado. Each primary league has representation, in addition to representation from the Colorado Association of School Executives, Colorado Association of School Boards, and the Colorado Athletic Directors Association. This diverse group is tasked with making decisions that they feel best for all student-participants across the state. The CHSAA has two Legislative Council meetings per year; the second meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.

The evening prior to the Legislative Council Meeting, the CHSAA will host the 2023 CHSAA Hall of Fame Banquet.

Proposals to change the CHSAA Constitution (Articles 1-13) require a 2/3 favorable vote. Proposals to change the Administrative and General Bylaws and Athletic/Activity Bylaws (Articles 14-51) require a favorable vote of the majority of those Legislative Council members voting.

A complete list of bylaw proposals and committee reports.

Some of the more interesting bylaws proposals and committee report changes are as follows:

Bylaws:  In an effort to continue to support our sport officials, the CHSAA Board of Directors is proposing a bylaw to increase protection to officials from intimidating and threatening behaviors of coaches, fans, and players.  Any time an official is verbally assaulted or threatened, the CHSAA Commissioner will work in conjunction with the school administrator to take necessary action – including but not limited to, banning the individual from all school and CHSAA events.

The CHSAA Board of Directors and the Continental League have proposed two different changes to the Sunday Contact Rule.  The CHSAA Board of Directors are proposing to allow high school coaches who also coach club the opportunity to have contact with their high school students during the off-season only.  The Continental League’s proposal would allow all high school coaches to coach their students on Sunday outside of the competitive season.  If either bylaw were to pass, it would be the largest change to the Sunday Contact Rule every approved.

The NCAC, Longs Peak, Patriot, and PPAC leagues are looking to amend the Athletic Transfer Bylaw.  Currently, a student who transfers to a school where their club coach is coaching is considered to be transferring for athletic reasons and they are sub-varsity eligible only for all sports they played in during the last 365 days.  The new proposal would only restrict the student to sub-varsity in the sport that the club coach was associated with – not all sports.

Additionally, football is looking to bring back “zero” week under a specific set of criteria, and wrestling is looking to add two additional tournament dates during the regular season.

CHSAA Committee Reports:  Many committees are proposing little to no changes in the middle of the 2-year cycle – football, softball, cross county, golf, swim and dive, unified bowling, gymnastics, field hockey, music, student leadership, esports.  Volleyball is altering the 1A girls regional format from 8 regions of 3 teams in each to 12 regions with 2 teams in each (as proposed by the 1A schools).  Soccer is looking to eliminate overtime during the regular season, and tennis is making a few date changes to the spring season in order to better accommodate schools.

The largest proposed changes will come from the officials fees, budget and league organizing and classification committee (CLOC).  The budget committee is proposing to freeze membership and participation dues in order to help promote the increased officials fees proposal, and they are also asking to pause the membership refund policy until the reserves have been built back up.  The officials fees committee is proposing an substantial increase in officials fees across all sports – over the next three years.   The CLOC committee is recommending an increase in classifications for the following sports/activities starting in the 2024-2026 cycle:  boys volleyball (4A-5A), esports (4A-5A), and boys/girls golf (2A-5A).

Member school leagues have until Monday, Dec. 12, to created an amendment to the proposed committee reports.  The final Legislative Council packet will be posted on Friday, Dec. 16.