(Caden Colson/CadenColsonPhotography.com)
AURORA — High school hockey in this state is growing in a number of ways, but what the sport’s committee did on Friday is perhaps the biggest indication: The group unanimously recommended the addition of junior varsity teams.
The change will need to be approved by the Legislative Council in April. And, even if it does, the move won’t force programs to add a junior varsity team. Instead, it gives them the option to.
“What I see is the opportunity for you to add a subvarsity program,” CHSAA assistant commissioner Bud Ozzello told the committee. “It doesn’t force you to do it.”
If approved, programs will be allowed to field one varsity team and one subvarsity team.
The change would potentially bring in two new members, as well. Yampah Mountain High School in Glenwood Springs wants to add a junior varsity team, but that is pending CHSAA membership. The school has a visit with CHSAA officials scheduled for late May.
In addition, Crested Butte is considering adding a JV team.
Currently, there is a non-CHSAA-sanctioned club league that offers JV-type teams an option to play. Erik Austin, a member of the hockey committee and the coach at Cheyenne Mountain, estimated that “27 or 28 teams” currently play in that league.
“Philosophically, we have to grow the sport of hockey,” said Larry Bull, the district athletic director of Cherry Creek Schools, who also sits on the committee. “The high school piece, that’s what kids want. They want to wear the jersey. And I think we need to encourage and support them.”
The approval of JV would set off a domino effect, of sorts. Because Colorado doesn’t currently offer JV hockey, the sport was afforded certain state adoptions outside of the rules of hockey set by the NFHS. Namely, the maximum roster size was 25 players, and they played 17-minute periods.
Should JV be approved at Legislative Council, the maximum roster size will drop to 20 players. Additionally, the periods would be 15 minutes long — however, the hockey committee will ask to continue a state adoption to try to keep them at 17 minutes.
The committee recommended that players be allowed to play a maximum of 72 periods during the regular season. This really would only apply to so-called “swing” players, or those that play varsity and junior varsity. Football has a similar rule for quarters allowed.
Junior varsity teams will be allowed to play a maximum of 15 games. The hockey committee recommended that JV teams play 13-minute periods and only resurface the ice one time during the game.
Overtime rule changes
The hockey committee met at 10 a.m. Friday morning — or 12 hours after the six-overtime affair between Cherry Creek and Dakota Ridge in the semifinals ended on Thursday night. It meant that the postseason overtime procedures were fresh in the minds of the committee members.
And so they decided to look at them. Currently, in the postseason, teams play continuous five-minute overtimes until a winner is decided.
The committee recommended lengthening the overtime periods to eight minutes — the maximum allowed by the NFHS — and also moving to 4-on-4 hockey after two overtimes. The ice would be resurfaced after every two overtime periods.
This change, too, will need to be approved along with the hockey report at the Legislative Council.
The regular season overtime procedure would stay the same. That entails one five-minute overtime to decide a winner. If no one scores, the two teams tie.
On Saturday, the day after the committee met, Cherry Creek and Monarch went three overtimes in the state title game.
Notables
- The new programs at Castle View and Fort Collins were approved by the committee. Castle View will begin next season and play in the Peak Conference, while Fort Collins will start in 2016-17, but hasn’t yet been placed in a conference. Castle View’s home games and practices will be at Colorado Sports Center in Monument.
- One reason Fort Collins wasn’t placed into a conference is because the committee is looking at realignment ahead of the 2016-17 season. They want to move to four divisions instead of two conferences.
- The committee recommended that teams be allowed to play with four-person officiating crews during the regular season, if they so desire. All postseason games are done with four-person crews, while most regular season games have three-person crews.
- The dates for next season’s semifinals and championship are March 4-5, a Friday and Saturday, at the Budweiser Events Center. It’s possible the championship will be moved to a Monday due to conflicts with the Colorado Eagles’ schedule.