The decision-making arm of the Colorado High School Activities Association will take up protection of and payment for game officials next month.

The legislative council meeting is set for Jan. 24 at the DTC Marriott.

The proposed bylaw change applies to verbal assaults or threats to game officials. If approved, the commissioners will work with school administrators to take necessary actions that could include banning individuals from school and CHSAA events.

Referee pay is also on the minds of CHSAA’s budget committee. Its proposal is to freeze membership and participation dues to promote an increased officials’ fee proposal, something CHSAANow.com calls a “substantial” increase in fees across all sports over the next three years.

If approved, most officials’ pay would increase $10 per game between now and the 2024 school year. An exception is a two-man crew for soccer. Those fees would increase $20 per game.

There’s also a proposal to increase the mileage reimbursement for officials to 50 cents per mile for travel more than 20 miles away for 2023. That rate would increase to 55 cents a mile in the 2024 school year and 60 cents a mile in the 2025 school year.

There are proposals to change the Sunday no-contact rule, courtesy of the CHSAA board of directors and the Continental League. The board wants to allow high-school coaches who also coach club ball to have contact with their high-school students during the offseason. The league’s idea would allow all high-school coaches to coach their students on Sundays outside of the competitive season.

If approved, CHSAANow.com said, it would be the largest change to the no-contact rule.

Another hot-button item for CHSAA is the transfer rule for athletes. At present, students who transfer to schools where their club coaches are coaching can play on non-varsity teams for all sports they played during the last 365 years. Four leagues would like to change that to apply to non-varsity teams that the club coach was associated with, not all sports.
 
CHSAA’s football committee wants to bring back the so-called “zero” week (starting the season one week early) with certain criteria. Wrestling teams may get an extra two tournament dates during the regular season.