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OFFICIALS
FROM PAGE 22
It’s 40 cents now, increasing to 50 cents a mile for the 2023-2024 school year and up to 60 cents per mile in the 2025-2026 school year.
CHSAA’s new commissioner, Mike Krueger, said Colorado has been in the bottom third nationally and regionally in o cials’ pay for several years.
“It’s a crisis situation,” he told the council before its vote. “A lot of older o cials are retiring, and we have a lack of a personnel pool.”
Schools will feel a sizable budget increase, but Krueger said that would apply to just the rst year of pay increases. He thought the impact would be somewhere north of 30 percent.
Krueger also told the council more pay for o cials means higher expectations.
“We’ll work with them to make sure they have the education and the memberships they need,” he told the council. “One area where we have fallen behind is hospitality. We have to support each other. We’ve got to unite around that shared responsibility.”
CSHAA’s o cials’ fee committee will take another look at the pay scale in three to four years. Chairman Eric Johnson, the athletic director at Windsor High School, said the time frame was about the same for other states when they discuss pay rates for game o cials.
“It’s the rst step of an ongoing process,” Krueger said. “We aren’t competing with club teams for of- 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, lower-level 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 Shelton 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).” cials’ pay. It helps get us to where we need to be but it doesn’t put us so far ahead that we put a strain on the budget numbers.”
Treatment of o cials e council also agreed to amend CHSAA bylaws to include a piece on intimidation of or physical threats to game o cials. e consequences for violators can include permanent exclusion from CHSAA events, It will be up to the commissioner and the a ected school’s administration to decide the penalties.
Sta notes de ned game o cials as referees, judges, umpires, linesmen and those serving in similar capacities. e agenda de ned an assault as “an intentional act, or threat ... that puts another person in reasonable belief of imminent harmful or o ensive conduct.” reatening behavior can include words, actions or behaviors that can cause others to be concerned for their safety.
Golf changes e legislative council also approved a couple of changes in highschool golf. One was to add a 2A classi cation for both boys and girls golf, beginning in the 2024 cycle. e other is to seed 5A regional tournaments two weeks before regionals. Locations will be determined by league rotation. e golf committee said each league will have one team per regional to act as host.
“ e goal is to have a four-way rotation for 5A state sites with a Western state host every six years,” sta notes said.