There are at least two items of general interest to be discussed at Monday's meeting.
The CHSAA Track and Field Committee Meeting, originally scheduled for Monday, February 1, but rescheduled due to last week's major storm rolls onto the meeting room carpet on Monday morning.
So far as I've been able to determine, the two items of greatest interest to the general track and field public are 1) a Black Forest League proposal to allow winds of up to 4.0 for qualifying purposes, and 2) a Front Range League proposal to allow teams to split athletes across multiple meets in the last week of qualifying before state but still allow each athlete only one meet during that week.
With regard to the Black Forest League proposal, it is not clear to me if that change would impact all five wind-reading events or only the track events. There was discussion in the CHSCA Regional Representative meeting about this proposal and at least some momentum came out of that meeting to suggest a revision to up to 3.0 or 2.5 instead of 4.0.
It has been pointed out that if wind readings up to 4.0 are allowed, it could actually start to tip things in a way that encourages chasing wind, so to speak.
In any case, all the discussion happens on Monday, and presumably the committee votes on the proposal.
Personally, it pains me some to vote on a proposal based on a boatload of feelings and a paucity of data. As a measure toward scratching that itch, I will spend a good part of my Super Bowl Sunday (in case you hadn't picked it up before, I have zero patience for watching football) finding out how many wind legal 100 and 200 efforts each of the top 25 sprinters in the 1A and 2A rankings for each of 2014 and 2015 had during the season. I will publish an article showing my findings sometime Sunday evening.
That should at least help to answer the question of how big the need is for such a change. I am not presuming a particular answer at this point. Like the rest of you, I really don't know, but I aim to find out.
The reasons for zeroing in on 1A and 2A are that the proposal is coming from a 1A/2A league and that most of the complaints seem to come from windier areas of the state (there's a reason the wind turbines are so common these days on the Eastern Plains) where 1A and 2A programs are the norm. For the most part 4A and 5A schools compete in large stadiums that offer some protection from the wind and at least somewhat away from the known wind tunnels of the state's geography.
It is possible the Front Range League proposal will not even be heard. For some reason, the proposal didn't make it to the committee on the typical schedule. So, the committee could decline to entertain the proposal.
My plans are to attend the committee meeting on Monday and report back to you on the decisions made. Look for another Track and Field Notes article on Monday evening.