15 minute read
SPORTS
NORTHGLENN VS. ADAMS CITY
The ball is loose, and Adams City’s Divinity Morales (center) has about a half-step lead on Northglenn’s Kaily Velez, front and Natasha Sierra Garcia of the Norse. NHS won the match 9-0, thanks in large part to three goals from Elianna Montes. A soccer ballet plays out between Northglenn’s Kaily Velez, left, and Adams City’s Divinity Morales during the teams’ match in Commerce City April 21. The Norse used
three goals from Elianna Montes to beat the Eagles 9-0. PHOTOS BY STEVE SMITH
CHSAA approves new basketball classifi cation
BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
There will be a new classifi cation for high-school basketball starting next season.
The Colorado High School Activities Association’s legislative council passed a committee report on April 21 that includes the new classifi cation and a new way for class 2A schools to seed their district tournaments.
CHSAA places teams in classifi cations based on enrollment. CHSAA does a separate enrollment count for the schools that play football and uses smaller enrollment ranges because so many schools play football
The Jefferson County leagues offered an amendment to do away with the new basketball classifi cation. But they also wanted the council to turn it down to offer more time to do more long-range planning. The leagues got their wish.
The committee’s report also continued district playoffs for smaller schools, such as Fort Lupton, Eagle Ridge and Stargate School. Class 2A schools will be able to seed their own district tournaments and steer clear of CHSAA’s seeding guidelines, which include computer rankings and a coaches poll.
However, a second request to reseed the fi eld after the district round and before the regional round failed. Proponents wanted to account for teams that performed well in the regular season but didn’t so well in district play.
The council also approved an increase in basketball roster sizes from 12 to 14, effective next season.
CHSAA tweaks part of its transfer rule
BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
AURORA – Students who want to transfer between schools can do so as long as it’s not based on athletics or varsity-level playing time.
The legislative council of the Colorado High School Activities Association agreed to that change during its April 21 meeting. Two-thirds of the council voted in favor.
In a second transfer-related vote, the council turned down a motion to prevent students from missing 50 percent of their sports season following a transfer. The present transfer rules sideline transferred students for a calendar year from the date of transfer.
League organizing
The biennial practice of organizing the state’s athletic conferences is done. The council approved CHSAA’s Classifi cation and League Organizing Committee report.
It moved Westminster High School into the Denver Prep League. The Wolves had to fi nd a new conference after the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference voted to disband.
CLOC also approved an appeal from Stargate School in Thornton to stay in class 3A for its basketball teams for the next two years.
In other business
The legislative council also voted to return to two meetings per school year and turned down a request to let coaches have Sunday contact with their athletes who have used up their eligibility.
Tennis players can play a combination of matches and tournaments not to exceed 12, according to a council vote. And in baseball, the legislative council sided with the CHSAA baseball committee’s recommendation that new innings cannot start after two hours of play for sub-varsity level teams.
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BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
AURORA – Rhonda Blanford Green took in her last Colorado High School Activities Association Legislative Council meeting on April 21.
She discussed the association’s budget, and she thanked the council for the privilege of serving as CHSAA’s commissioner.
“We’ve been through a lot together the past 14 months,” she said. Her husband passed away, as did former associate commissioner Tom Robinson. “There were a lot of times when I had to be Rhonda and be the commissioner. I had to have a safe place to be Rhonda.
CHSAA Board President Luke DeWolfe said the association was in jeopardy when Green took over in 2017.
“Through your fi erce dedication, you saw us through some challenging times,” DeWolfe said. “I was humbled at the summer National Federation of High Schools conference last summer to watch Rhonda speak and to speak with the second and third African-American commissioners. They both acknowledged that without her, they would not have had the opportunity they had.”
Green singled out former assistant commissioner Ernie Derrera, the newly named wrestling coach at Holy Family High School and former athletic director at Frederick High School, for “never being afraid to say what the members need and questioning decisions in a way that was respectful.” She also talked about the support of Paul Cain, the district athletic director for Grand Junction schools.
Green announced her retirement late last year. She is the new president of USA Cheer board of directors.
Outgoing CHSAA Commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green
PHOTO COURTESY CHSAA
ATTACKS
interference “has been top of mind,” Stern said. Regular probes from countries including Russia, Iran, North Korea and others are directed toward state and local election offi ces, looking for vulnerability in the system.
Clerks said their offi ces partner with homeland security, the FBI, and state and local departments to monitor cyberthreats.
Staff go through cybersecurity training “every single election” regardless of how many times they have received it, Stern said. That helps staff recognize what attacks might look like. All equipment requires two-factor verifi cation, and there is a paper trail for each ballot.
“That can prove accurate results, and a successful election,” Stern said.
Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz declined to speak for this story. Klotz is one of several public offi cials who sued the secretary of state because of a software update the state conducted on county election equipment. The suit seeks to see if the update deleted any data, a claim the secretary of state’s offi ce refuted in a motion to dismiss the suit. Boosting transparency
The Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson County clerks said while they are working to mend relationships with voters who doubt election security, they emphatically believe those individuals are a small minority of the electorate.
“We still receive plenty of emails from people who believe the Big Lie,” Zygielbaum said.
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Clerks said they receive form letters, copied-and-pasted arguments from people who appear to be local residents but also people outside their county borders.
“Just perpetuating the false narratives that the elections were fraudulent,” Zygielbaum said.
The letters come in waves. A spate of several in one day, followed by a lull.
Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder Joan Lopez emphasized the election system is not connected to the internet, and that she believes voters trust their local elections system.
“We have gone above and beyond to make sure that they are informed,” Lopez said.
Lopez estimated that people who doubt election security account for about 1% of Colorado’s population. That doesn’t mean offices have eased efforts to boost faith in U.S. elections.
County clerks’ offices have expanded or created additional designated webpages to educate people about the life of a ballot and how local elections function. As “forensic audit” became a buzzword last year, Lopez said, the office tried to assuage people’s concerns by encouraging them to see the see the process firsthand.
“I’m telling you, once somebody goes through a tour, they really go ‘Wow, I can’t believe all you guys do,’” Lopez said.
When Stern encounters people who doubt election security, he says “I invite them in.”
“What I find is that they are convinced that something is wrong because they heard it from someone who said something about a report that had some data from somewhere,” Stern said.
During elections, the office offers “a tour of every single aspect of it while it’s happening,” Stern said.
“I personally lead them. We invite anyone in who wants to see the process up close,” Stern said.
Zygielbaum stresses that election equipment watching is conducted by bipartisan teams. Audits are performed during elections to ensure accuracy. They also host tours for anyone who wants one.
“We stick to the facts, and hopefully the truth will prevail,” Zygielbaum said. Physical safety
Domestic threats toward election staff’s safety, stoked by conspiracies about a stolen election, have simmered down, clerks said, and numerous election related bills were introduced during the 2022 Colorado legislative session.
“We have heard from cowardly people sitting behind their computer screens over the course of the last year who are threating election workers — Colorado residents with families and kids — because of something they heard about election integrity and have no proof of,” Stern said. “It’s sick. It’s oftentimes illegal and we are always reporting it to law enforcement agencies, but it just needs to stop.”
Stern said his staff is as politically diverse as the bipartisan election judging teams who work during an election.
Stern said he could not confidently say if turnover in his office is attributable to threats, but that the majority of his office is committed to the job despite sometimes facing an intimidating climate.
“The more they hear from cowards, the more they want to stick with this work so that we aren’t letting the cowards win,” he said.
“We hear the noise,” Stern said, adding he staunchly believes threatening people are a fringe minority in the state and are not representative of Colorado voters.
“Someone threatening your life resonates a lot more loudly than the five people who told you you’re doing a good job,” he said.
Lopez watched with relief as the Vote Without Fear Act was passed by the state legislature. In the November 2020 election, two men came to the ballot box at county offices, filming voters who came to drop off their ballot. One of them openly carried a firearm.
“He was very hostile any time somebody approached him and said what are you doing,” Lopez said of her staff’s attempts to speak with the men.
“Every voter that came in had to pass this gentleman,” she said.
With no laws prohibiting his conduct, staff’s hands were tied, Lopez said.
House Bill 22-1086, signed into law on March 30, now prevents someone from openly carrying a firearm within any polling location or within 100 feet of a ballot drop box while an election is underway.
The Adams County Clerk and Recorder’s Office is undergoing construction to heighten security.
Until now people seeking services from elections staff had to go inside the election office. Now the county is installing window desks similar to what people might see at the DMV, Zygielbaum said.
Closer to Election Day, Zygielbaum will wear a bulletproof vest. His election staff also underwent active shooter training.
“That was a direct response to 2020,” he said.
Zygielbaum said he expects active shooter training to become an annual practice in collaboration with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office. He called the process eye-opening for his office. Most his employees have been in elections for most their career.
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