AURORA – The Colorado High School Activities Association shot down a series of proposals at Thursday’s Board of Control meeting that would have reduced the regular-season schedules of 16 sports.

The proposals were designed to save money in tough financial times and, according to the board’s agenda, “intended to be a good faith effort by schools to show their communities and administration that athletics can be part of the budget cutting process.”

But the proposals – three of which were voted on individually and the last 13 of which were voted on collectively – all failed by large margins.

Some voted against the proposals because football was not included among the sports that would have their schedules reduced, and that would have created equity issues. Others argued that savings would be minimal for schools that didn’t have to travel far for games and that lost gate receipts actually could cost schools more. And, of course, there was the issue of athletes’ playing opportunities being reduced.

Still, the proposals “accomplished what we wanted them to accomplish,” according to Widefield athletic director Shelli Miles, president of the CHSAA executive committee.

“And that was to generate discussions (about cost-saving measures) and have schools and districts start to think of that,” she said.

A proposal that did pass – by a large margin – requires coaches to receive annual education on head trauma.

It was the third proposal dealing with concussions passed this year. At the Jan. 28 board meeting, a proposal allowing football players to wear helmets during summer 7-on-7 drills passed, as did a proposal requiring athletes displaying concussion symptoms to get written permission from a licensed practitioner before returning to competition.

The most spirited debate centered on a potential change to the 1A basketball playoffs. An amendment to have 24 teams (instead of 16) in the regional playoffs got a majority vote but fell short of the 60 percent necessary for passage. Also not passing was an amendment to add district tournaments in 4A basketball (and thus cut the regular season from 23 to 19 games).

During the open forum at the beginning of the meeting, Darius Smith of the Colorado Indian Education Foundation made a presentation in which he asked CHSAA to establish a policy that prohibits member schools from displaying hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery.

“What we’re asking is to either develop an across-the-board policy or develop an executive committee to look at this issue throughout the state,” Smith said. “And then from there hopefully some rules and regulations would be set.”

Smith mentioned 16 schools in Colorado that have American Indian mascots, including Cheyenne Mountain (Indians).

“We’ve actually had some really good dialogue with the principal (at Cheyenne Mountain), and it sounds like they’re open to some of the things that we’re concerned about,” Smith said.

Other votes-Added to the list of practice, scrimmage and competition violations that can be punished was any “team or individual participating in a school-sanctioned interscholastic competition outside the designated sports season.”

-An amendment to the 2010 football report, suggested by the Colorado Springs Metro League, passed, removing the rule that in Class 5A, the higher seed will be the home team from the quarterfinals through the finals.

Rampart left fielder Nick Evans congratulated center fielder Robert Forrest on his catch at the fence for the third out in the sixth inning. Photo by KEVIN KRECK, THE GAZETTE