It's a long way from cross country season, but cross country has found its way into the news.
There was an item in January's Legislative Council agenda that flew underneath my cross country radar but has now been brought to my attention. The CHSAA S1 Constitutional Amendment, which passed at the January meeting, provides for a shorter required practice period before the first contest for fall sports.
Specifically, where cross country is concerned, that means that this year the first scrimmage can take place on August 16 (with the start of practice falling on August 11), and the first meets can take place on August 21.
It's worth noting that the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede is already lining up for the August 22 date on the calendar.
This means, further, that the invitational season is a full week longer than last year, although the maximum allowable number of contests has not changed.
How this will impact the fairly settled cross country schedule we had the last few years remains to be seen. Will Arapahoe move to August 22 or stay on August 29? Will any other meets make moves into the first available weekend? I don't know the answers to those questions yet. One thing I'm pretty sure this means--Colorado Track XC will be doing an additional week of coverage this fall.
A few meets have already set dates, and I have added those meets to the Colorado Track XC 2014 cross country calendar. Many more meets will doubtless be staking out their places on the calendar over the remainder of the current school year. I'll add those to the Colorado Track XC calendar as word comes to me.
With respect to the TCA Titan Thunder Invitational, that meet has moved to the weekend of October 4 in an effort to provide something of a relief valve for the overcrowded Doherty Invitational on the same weekend and, simultaneously, to reduce my own meet to a more manageable size. After a while, you grow weary of the logistics of trying to cram the parking for a 20-team meet into a park that simply doesn't have that kind of capacity. So, the TCA Titan Thunder will be a week later this fall and will be limited to 12 teams, with last year's teams having the first shot at the available entries.
It's a long way from cross country season, but cross country has found its way into the news.
There was an item in January's Legislative Council agenda that flew underneath my cross country radar but has now been brought to my attention. The CHSAA S1 Constitutional Amendment, which passed at the January meeting, provides for a shorter required practice period before the first contest for fall sports.