CHSAA Kicks Off Academic Year With All-School Summit

LONE TREE, CO – The Colorado High School Activities Association hosted its annual All-School Summit Monday and Tuesday at the Douglas County Legacy Campus. All athletic and activity directors, school administrators and sports medicine personnel from high schools in Colorado were invited to attend the two-day event.

The summit started early Monday morning with a Sports Medicine Symposium, a New Athletic Directors meeting with the Colorado Athletic Directors Association (CADA), an onboarding session with the new Activities Directors. The lunch hour featured a League Presidents and Deputy Athletic Director meet-and-greet, a BIPOC Connection hour with the CHSAA staff and a New Athletic Directors (ADs) session before the summit officially kicked off with a welcome from CHSAA Commissioner Mike Krueger and new CHSAA Board of Directors President Ryan West.

The day continued with a sports medicine update, corporate messaging and a breakout session with topics ranging from rSchool 101, academic eligibility, transfer waivers and a mental health session with Work2BeWell.

A town hall and Q&A with W. Scott Lewis, J.D., a managing partner at TNG, got Tuesday’s activities started with a conversation about legal and compliance issues, specifically Title IX, surrounding high schools and high school athletes. Participants were then able to choose two breakout sessions to attend, with additional topics being added to Monday’s selection, such as sportsmanship, rSchool 201, hosting playoff events and seeding/rankings and statistics.

The Summit concluded Tuesday afternoon with the first-ever Foundation Golf Tournament at Arrowhead Golf Course. Congratulations to the foursome of Paul Webber, Jeff Maxey, Mark Moffett and Cole Allenbrad on finding themselves atop the leaderboard, and Acie Seifert for the lone hole-in-one! View a full photo gallery on Facebook (be sure to give the Foundation a follow!) or find them on Instagram.

Sports Medicine Symposium
This marked the second year of the Sports Medicine Symposium, which was added to the All-School Summit in collaboration with the Colorado Athletic Trainers Association (CATA) in 2022. This year’s keynote speaker was Gavin Class, who suffered an exertional heat stroke in 2013 during a football practice at Towson University in Towson, Maryland. After being in a coma with significant organ failure and needing to be resuscitated, his life was saved through a liver transplant. After re-learning how to walk, talk and perform the basic functions that many take for granted on a daily basis, Gavin realized he could live twice, so he created the YOLT (You Only Live Twice) Foundation. The Foundation assists recipients of organ transplants and brings heat stroke awareness to the broader community. In addition to his work with the Foundation, Class is also a strength and conditioning coach working with middle school, high school, college and professional athletes.

The session continued with more discussion around Heat Injury and Illness with Dr. William Adams, the Associate Director of Sports Medicine Research with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, before moving on to best practices with Katie Wallace – an athletic trainer at Arapahoe High School and Select Physical Therapy – and Dr. Justin Newman – an orthopedic and sports medicine specialist in Colorado.

Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Dennis Coonen, an athletic trainer, and Dr. Jay Albright, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, were up next, talking about lateral ankle sprains and how to prevent, recognize and diagnose, and when to intervene with surgery. Dr. Amanda Elder visited from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, where she’s a professor and director of the athletic training program. She talked about differentiating pain, while Boulder Valley School District’s Harry Waterman, Boulder High School Athletic Director Ryan Bishop and Boulder High School Athletic Trainer Shannon Aberton spoke about the relationship between high school athletic trainers and athletic directors.

Dr. Brooke Pengel, a Pediatric Sports Medicine specialist concluded the speakers by talking about pre-participation in physical exams.

“The Sports Medicine Symposium is something we’ve been wanting to do for quite some time,” Assistant Commissioner Jenn Roberts-Uhlig said. “To be able to work with CATA to create this space and have this opportunity to gather school athletic trainers, and those on the front line who handle basic care to come together, and hear presentations and collaborate with experts, is tremendous. I am so grateful for our relationship with CATA, their work in helping to put this together and to everyone who joined us to make the session so insightful and successful.”

The session concluded with Shannon Aberton and JP Gardner receiving awards for saving lives. Aberton’s award was for successfully saving a life by performing CPR and applying an AED to a member of her coaching staff, while Gardner activated the emergency action plan after a football player suddenly collapsed while running onto the field during a game. Gardner talked with the patient’s father about the players medical history, took compressions and successfully applied a successful shock with the AED.

New Athletic Director Meeting with CADA
CADA Board President Jason Wilkins and CHSAA Assistant Commissioner Jenn Roberts-Uhlig kicked things off with the new athletic directors. CHSAA Commissioner Mike Kruger touched on how new ADs can connect with CHSAA and then CHSAA Board of Directors President Ryan West gave his own welcome to the participants. Lakewood’s Mike Hughes and Dawson’s Mike Jacobsma – both CADA Board members – then took the floor to talk about how to survive and thrive, and the nuts and bolts of, being an activity/athletic director at the high school level.

After that, the group partook in various roundtable discussions with the CHSAA staff on topics such as the rSchool platform, registering coaches, forms and waivers, athlete eligibility, officials, and VEAP. They then had an in depth round table with the CADA board where they shared resources, experiences and tips and tricks on how the new ADs can be successful in their new role.

New Activities Directors Meeting and Onboarding
CHSAA Assistant Commissioner Rashaan Davis and Fossil Ridge High School Activities Director and Assistant Principal Brad Nye led a session that was designed to help new activities directors gain a better understand their responsibilities. They dove into the differences between school-sponsored clubs vs. student-sponsored clubs, and they touched on tips for how to recruit and retain sponsors and co-curricular teachers. They went over the state statutes and CHSAA bylaws as they relate to student participation, and the legalities of what their job titles entail.

Overall, the session helped Activity Directors learn how to engage teachers, coaches and sponsors in their quest to provide access, opportunity and voice to their students.