CHSAA approves slight change to Sunday contact rules

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

DENVER – e Colorado High School Activities Association changed the rules for Sunday contact between coaches and studentathletes Jan. 24.

e association’s legislative council, the decision-making arm for CHSAA, voted to keep the Sunday no-contact rule in place during a team’s season, de ned as the start of o cial practice through the state tournament. e original rule was in place during a given school year. e switch allows high-school coaches to be in touch with their athletes during club-level contests but only after their seasons end.

Sta notes said many high-school coaches are coaching club sports where a lot of their players – and others – play Sundays. In addition, athletes and coaches can be in the same place when college coaches are in attendance and potential scholarships are in the discussion.

Brendan Carlucci, the athletic director for Poudre Schools in Fort Collins, said the state needs more quality coaches.

“We’ll be on the verge of hiring someone, but then they say they aren’t willing to give up coaching six Sunday tournaments,” he told the council. “We are putting less talented coaches in front of kids. Our student-athletes deserve the very best.”

“We need to get the most qualied coaches in front of our kids,” added Lakewood’s athletic director, Mike Hughes. ere were no dissenting comments, nor were there any dissenting thoughts in CHSAA’s sta notes.

“ is doesn’t lead to Sunday games,” Carlucci told the council. “We need to put the very best coaches in front of our kids. is is hampering us.” e new rule takes e ect July 1. ere is no expected nancial impact.

Soccer overtime e council also turned down a request to eliminate overtime periods in regularseason soccer matches. It needed a two-thirds vote to pass, and 81 percent of those casting ballots voted no.

Arrupe Jesuit High School’s assistant principal for student services, Mike Lovinguth, the chairman of the state’s soccer committee, outlined some reasons the NCAA, and the state’s high-school soccer o cials association agreed.

“ e committee felt that by eliminating overtime in the regular season, o cials would have the ability to accept back-to-back games at di erent locations, knowing that there will not be a situation where overtime would delay the time they could leave one venue and arrive at another,” the report said. “With a 10 percent decrease in the overall number of o cials in 2022, this was an attractive solution to making o cials available for multiple games on the same day. Additionally, lowerlevel games that follow a varsity game where lights are not available often have their game time cut short when overtime is played.” Broom eld High School athletic director Steve Shel- ton thought the proposal would hurt the Northern League because it’s a competitive league.

“Kids need to prepare for performances at state,” he told the council. “In a league like ours, games are going to end up in multiple ties, which creates challenges for the RPI (the Ratings Performance Index, one of the factors in considering which teams advance to the state playo s).”