AURORA | The Colorado High School Activities Association held on as long as possible, but officially declared the spring prep sports season over Tuesday.
The state’s governing body had set an April 30 deadline for a decision to resume the season — which was halted March 12, the opening day of the season — but with no clear resolution of the coronavirus pandemic in sight, joined 30-plus state associations across the country in canceling the remainder of the season.
“We have proceeded with cautious optimism, holding on to a thread of hope that the spring season would be able to realistically resume, knowing that the health and safety of our sports communities would dictate our course of action,” Commissioner Rhonda Blandford-Green said in a statement issued by CHSAA.
“It was our hope to be able to create the memories because we understood what it meant to our high school communities — especially seniors — statewide. …We hoped that Colorado medical and health data would provide reassurances that we could go in a different direction. Unfortunately that will not be the case.”
Blanford-Green said that CHSAA had been collecting data and recommendations from many state organizations in recent weeks to make a decision and that the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee came to the conclusion that “it would be impractical and irresponsible for the Association to move forward with a spring season in the next week or even the summer months” at a meeting Monday.
Aurora athletic directors, coaches and athletes held a slight shred of hope that competition would be permitted on a revised basis, but most had come to the conclusion that it was only a matter of time before the season would be wiped out.
The resumption of competition for Aurora school districts was in question regardless, as both Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek Schools were part of a group of 14 metro area public school districts that declared facilities closed and school activities canceled for the remainder of the school year back on April 3.
Private Regis Jesuit High School joined that group last week when it closed campus for the rest of the school year and will finish with online learning.
All CHSAA activities have been canceled through June 1, after which “all decisions regarding student and coach contact, virtual workouts, virtual tryouts and eighth-grade contact will be made at a local level.”
Now, the organization looks forward to the fall with the hope that the season will be able to be conducted “with some level of normalcy.”
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports