This edition of the cross country notes has everything to do with what's happening at CHSAA.
The big news today, of course, is that the CLOC committee had its meeting today and revamped the league structures for the 2014-16 cycle. Here is a quick summary of the league changes as they pertain to cross country/track and field:
The Classical Academy and Canon City to the Colorado Springs Metro 4A League, replacing Wasson (closed) and Coronado (moving to 5A)
Coronado to Colorado Springs Metro 5A
Vanguard to Tri-Peaks League
Ellicott to Black Forest League, meaning Vanguard and Ellicott essentially swap places
Broomfield to Front Range League
SkyView Academy to 3A Metro League, filling a void left by the departure of Holy Family
Littleton to Jeffco 4A
Swallows Charter Academy (Southern Colorado Early College) to Santa Fe League
Also of considerable interest to the Colorado cross country community was the denial of Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy's bid to become a CHSAA member school. I believe VSSA's proposal was to come in and participate in cross country at the 5A level. But, because the school is a sports academy (even though a public school in the Eagle County school system) designed specifically to attract athletes, there was a great reluctance to allow that they would be competing on equal footing with other member schools. Thus, the denial of membership.
What is not immediately clear in anything I've read from the CLOC committe proceedings is whether VSSA's student-athletes would be allowed to participate with neighboring schools that have programs of interest to VSSA students outside of skiing and snowboarding. Presumably, in the case of cross country, that could mean they end up running at Battle Mountain. Let me be clear, however, that the content of this paragraph is speculative. What is not speculative is that VSSA was denied CHSAA membership.
And, also of note from the CLOC committee meeting, the breakpoint for 1A/2A track and field will be an enrollment count of 92 students. 92 students and below will be considered 1A. 93 and over will be considered 2A. Potentially, this shifts a few of the schools that just moved to 2A track and field back to 1A in the next cycle. We anticipate that at least some of the schools that have 1A enrollments but have chosen to compete at the 2A level in track and field will continue to do so in the next cycle.
Moving from the CLOC committee proceedings to other CHSAA matters, take this as a reminder that all coaches and ADs are invited to the CHSAA cross country committee meeting on Monday, November 18. The meeting will begin at 9:30 AM. This is your opportunity to be involved in the process where decisions are made that will impact cross country for the next two-year cycle.