The days of state-qualifying tournaments for boys and girls golf will continue.
The legislative council of the Colorado High School Activities Association voted 33-28 (five abstained) to remove those tournaments during its meeting on Jan. 28. But the vote required a two-thirds majority.
Adam Baumgartner, chairman of CHSAA’s golf committee and the district athletic coordinator in the Pueblo District 70 School District, said his committee faced three issues in discussing regional tournaments: availability of officials, availability of host sites and availability of golf courses.
“We thought we should have some requirements when you’re hosting a qualifying tournament, a minimum of five rounds at 18 holes per round, some yardage verification and some max rounds on a certain course,” he said. “We’ve done our due diligence to figure out how we can move forward facing these issues.”
Instead, schools must participate in a minimum of five qualifying rounds to earn spots in the top 84 in IWanamaker rankings. Those 84 golfers will be chosen before the state tournament. It takes effect in the fall.
Jefferson County School District Athletic Director Mike Hughes, a former golf committee chairman, had some concerns with the ratings platform, specifically the five minimum rounds.
“Are we going to take an average of the five rounds? How do teams qualify?” he asked. “Everything we do at CHSAA is a team concept, and now we’re going to something that’s just about getting individual qualifiers. I know we have individual qualifiers for wrestling. I don’t think this is the right move for us.”
Chad Eisentrager, athletic director at Mead High School and a former soccer coach at Frederick High School, disagreed. He said the proposal included a provision that full teams qualify for state if three of their golfers are in that list of 84.
“The removal of the regionals saves time and money,” he said. “(Iwanamaker) takes into account all of these things: slope, rating, once the person who manages the course uploads yardage and pin location. It’s not ‘good kid, bad course, he gets a good score.’ People will say kids will try to manipulate their scores if they are close to that cut line. Kids already manipulate their scores at regional and state events. These scores are not being manipulated if the rounds and scores are entered correctly.”
Basketball
The council declined to reopen the CHSAA basketball committee report. The hope of Cameron Wright, Twin Peaks Charter School athletic director, was to discuss the arrival of the shot clock in Colorado high school basketball next season.
Legal stuff
There are some changes to appeals. It now can’t come from parents or students but can come from the schools. Alex Halpern, an attorney for CHSAA who cited a case involving an ineligible student who wanted to transfer schools, said this was part of a process to make the appeal process easier.
“You have the right to an appeal. That’s an important policy,” Halpern said. “As (CHSAA Commissioner Mike Krueger) said, otherwise, any parent who didn’t like the decision could put us into an appeals process. It does put more responsibility on the member school to make a decision whether they think a proposed appeal has sufficient validity that it should go to the CHSAA level.”
For more from CHSAA, visit CHSAANow.com.
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