Cherry Creek won a state title on March 7. Last weekend, the Bruins — as a club team — won a national championship. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This column does not reflect an official viewpoint of CHSAA.
On Monday, within about 30 minutes of one another, two Colorado high school hockey teams won national championships.
It is a massive deal for the sport in this state at the youth — and especially the high school — level. But we can’t celebrate it. We can’t even really acknowledge it. Because both team were forced to participate in the tournament as club teams due to what, in my eyes, is an important issue that the CHSAA membership faces moving forward.
Teams made up of students from the Cherry Creek School District and Regis Jesuit traveled to St. Louis last weekend as part of USA Hockey’s High School National Championships. The Creek squad competed in the Combined Division (teams up of multiple schools); Regis was in the Pure Division (teams that draw from one school).
It’s a prestigious tournament. Regis has been each of the last four years, and actually won another national championship in 2012. Cherry Creek also went last season. It is a big deal to even receive an invite, let alone have the success of actually winning the thing.
But Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit teams weren’t in St. Louis as high school teams over the weekend. Had they done so, they would have been in violation of a CHSAA bylaw which prohibits teams from representing their high schools outside of their sport’s season. In hockey’s case, that season ended when Cherry Creek won the state title on March 7.
The bylaw, 2300, specifically states that “an individual or team may only represent a member school during the designated competitive sports season.” This phrase was added by the Legislative Council during the 2005-06 school year, though the interpretation has been in the Association through at least the 50s in various bylaws.
Semantics seem to be the determining factor on whether or not a team is allowed to participate in a national tournament.
Both Regis Jesuit and Cherry Creek also operate club hockey programs which compete in “high school” leagues throughout the year. One of the leagues is a non-sanctioned JV league which runs concurrent to the CHSAA season. There’s a varsity league in the fall, another in the spring. And it is through those leagues that the teams qualified for Nationals.
And so both teams traveled to St. Louis as their club teams. Even though the vast majority of both of their rosters and coaching staffs were similar to the ones from the CHSAA season. Even though tournament officials referenced them as Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit throughout the weekend. Even though both teams wore uniforms using official school colors and logos.
Even so, they technically weren’t representing their high schools. Because they weren’t allowed to. And I think that needs to change.
The bylaw banning school representation outside of a sport’s season is outdated. It is not in sync with the sports landscape in 2015. Shoot, it’s not even consistently applied across all of our sports.
Consider last year’s situation with the Regis Jesuit girls basketball team.
The Raiders, at the time, were among the best teams in the nation. They would go on to win the Class 5A championship with an unbeaten record. The team is in the conversation of the best girls basketball squad in state history. They may even wind up in CHSAA’s Hall of Fame somewhere down the line.
And so, just before the 2014 Great 8, Regis was approached about participating in a prestigious four-team national championship in New York. There was one problem: It was due to take place after the season, which would be in violation of that bylaw.
The CHSAA staff tried to find a way around the bylaw, to no avail. They put forth the idea that Regis could participate as a club team — but officials from the tournament wouldn’t have it. They only wanted teams representing their high schools. And that meant Regis couldn’t go.
What difference would it have made were Regis Jesuit’s girls basketball team allowed to represent their school in an official way, rather than the smoke-and-mirrors approach of a “club” team that just happens to have the same roster, coaches and uniforms?
How is that national tournament any different than the one Regis Jesuit and Cherry Creek hockey just participated in? Or the national meets that take place after the cross country and track seasons every year, which Colorado athletes attend?
Then there’s spirit, which allows teams to compete in a national competition each year in February. Spirit’s state championships are in early December. In hockey’s sense, the season would be over. But spirit’s season of sport, according to its bylaw, doesn’t end until May. So they can go to nationals and represent their school.
Baseball also doesn’t have an issue when some of its teams represent their school in the summer. Why? The sport has the luxury of ending in May. This particular bylaw doesn’t apply in the summer months.
This is all inconsistent. It’s not even really logical.
In my mind, it’s silly that member schools allow teams to go to national tournaments as club teams, when there is virtually no difference if they were to represent their school. Shoot, they already are.
Schools have had chances to change this bylaw in the past, but they have resisted doing so. Until, of course, it’s their team that gets a chance to go to nationals. Then they’re all for it.
We may close our eyes, we may stick our heads in the sand, but a reasonable person can see what’s going on here. The rule needs to change.