The Colorado High School Activities Association has unveiled the schedules and league alignments for the rebooted but shortened fall football season. And it provides for a little bit of crosstown rivalry.
Two local high schools — Longmont and Skyline — will play in the Class 4A Northern 2 league, along with Greeley West and Central, Loveland and Monarch. Silver Creek High School will be in the Northern 1 league with Brighton, Broomfield, Erie, Heritage and Windsor.
Those schools are among the 218 that declared to play in the fall, rather than stick to the spring under the plan drafted in August and revamped this month.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, CHSAA’s board of directors on Aug. 4 approved a 2020-21 sports calendar that broke high school sports into four seasons — A, B, C and D — and moved football to the spring in season C. But that plan was changed last week, when the CHSAA board approved variances from the Governor's COVID Response Team that allow schools to play football and field hockey and bring spirit squads back to the sidelines.
Football teams can begin practice Thursday, and games can be played starting Oct. 8.
Longmont will open its season in a non-league game at Brighton, according to a schedule posted to the CHSAA website. Skyline and Silver Creek will open in a non-league game at Skyline, according to the CHSSA schedule. Longmont will play at Skyline in week three.
The football season will be shortened to six games, Chase McBride, St. Vrain executive director of Athletics, Activities, Fine Arts, PE and Health, said via email last week. Eight teams will make the playoffs, and those schools that don’t advance will have the chance to play a seventh game the week after their sixth, McBride said.
Football teams must play four of the six regular-season games to be eligible for the playoffs, according to CHSAA.
The first round of the playoffs is slated to be Nov. 21, with semi-finals on Nov. 28 and championship games on Dec. 5.
Masks must be worn by everyone at games, including athletes, according to McBride, and football teams will be limited to 50 players per roster for a maximum of 100 on a field.
Other safety precautions, according to McBride, will include:
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Coaches and players must maintain 3 to 6 feet of social distancing when not participating in the game.
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The team boxes will extend to the 10-yard lines to allow for more space on the sideline.
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A maximum of four non-participatory students (managers/trainers etc.) will be allowed on the sidelines.
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There will be no shared water.
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Hand sanitizer will be available on both sidelines.
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There will be no locker room use pre- or post-game or during half time.
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There will be no pregame coin toss.
