A few new Colorado High School Activities Association bylaws went into effect on July 1. The new bylaws deal with protecting officials, transfer students and Sunday contact.
A bylaw was created and passed that protects game officials: Any person who physically assaults, verbally threatens or exhibits any behavior that can be reasonably considered as threatening, on or towards a game official at any level of competition; shall be subject to consequences up to and including being permanently banned from any CHSAA or CHSAA member event. The determination and severity of the consequence(s) for these behaviors will be determined by the commissioner and the school administration working collaboratively.
The Transfer Rule was modified to say that a student must now wait 365 days from “date of last participation at previous school” rather than their “date of enrollment at their new school”:
A student who establishes his/her/their high school eligibility at any high school and subsequently transfers, will be ineligible for varsity competition for 365 days from the date of nonparticipation, in the sports that they participated in a practice, contest, scrimmage or foundation game during the last 365 days.
The Athletic Transfer Bylaw was updated so that any student who transfers to a high school where their club/previous coach is coaching will no longer be subvarsity eligible only for all sports they seek to participate in – just the specific sport that their club/previous coach coaches at the high school.
If a student transfers to a school where his/her/their previous coach is a coach of the current school team, that move will be deemed motivated by athletic consideration. Under provision of this rule, the coach may be a former school coach or a nonschool coach.
The “No Sunday Contact” rule has been changed so coaches can now contact players on Sundays outside of that particular competitive sports season: No high school interscholastic contests, practices for interscholastic contests, camps, nor association between participants and coaches/directors of any CHSAA sanctioned sport from the student’s school shall take place on Sundays during the competitive high school season (start of official practice through the state tournament). The Commissioner may, when deemed advisable, allow postponed state-level events to be played on Sunday. Teams playing on Monday in district, regional or in a state-culminating event will be exempt from this rule.
“The new Sunday Contact Bylaw was a huge shift for our association and our 100-plus year history,” Associate Commissioner Bethany Brookens said. “We have never allowed coaches to have contact with their student-athletes on Sunday for competitive purposes. In January 2023, the CHSAA Legislative Council passed a chance to our Sunday Contact Bylaw which will now allow high school coaches to have contact with their student-participants on Sundays outside of the competitive sports season.”
The winter and spring sports academic regain dates were also altered.
For the complete bylaws, visit https://chsaanow.com/documents/2023/7/16//000_BylawBookFinalWebsite.pdf
