Officially ninety-nine years young Monday, June 1, the Colorado High School Activities Association’s Legislative Council changed and rearranged, clarified and modified, better than 50 matters and bylaws as an early birthday present in a unique online conference held Friday, May 29.
While the majority of items addressed did not directly pertain to Ignacio High School or the 2A/1A San Juan Basin League, there were still decisions deserving of a mention:
- Class 2A baseball postseason play will now mimic the format followed in 3A, 4A and 5A, featuring an initial 32-team regional phase. Qualifying crews will be determined via RPI standings and seeded by same, with the top eight earning tourney-hosting rights. Teams seeded 20-32 can be moved for geographic reasons.
- The State Tournament also got an overhaul, and will move to an eight-team (previously, 16 would advance to 2A’s Big Dance) single-elimination bracket. With this change, 2A schools such as IHS can now schedule 23 games, with 17 completed contests the required minimum to ensure postseason eligibility (1A schools like Dove Creek, however, need only play 12)
- Class 2A soccer, in which the Lady Bobcats compete, will increase its State field from 12 teams to 16.
- Class 1A girls’ volleyball will move from districts to regionals. The sport will also require that all teams play a minimum of 18 matches against member schools and varsity opponents to ensure postseason eligibility.
- Should a school choose, it can now form a team with only one participant. Also, adding a new sport or activity now requires approval from the CHSAA Budget Committee in addition to Classification and League Organizing Committee, Sports Medicine, Equity and the Board of Directors.
- The Association’s coach-ejection bylaw is now more consistent across all sports in its severity. Now, a first ejection is penalized by a suspension equal to 10 percent of that sports season (e.g. two games of a 20-game regular season), and a second ejection will cost the tossed 20 percent.