Sports provide an arena for acceptance among students and an opportunity for students to develop leadership abilities. The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) is doing more than just focusing on good sportsmanship – it also is promoting positive leadership.

“The goal of ‘We are CHSAA’ was to use the natural leadership of students to help schools become more inclusive to all students – to be the people that stop bullying when it’s happening in the halls,” said CHSAA Assistant Commissioner Bert Borgmann.

“You Can Play,” a national program promoting inclusiveness in athletics, approached the CHSAA after hearing about the We are CHSAA program.

“You Can Play has a lot of videos from professional and college athletes and we thought we could do something with the high schools,” Borgmann said. As a result, the “You Can Play, Colorado!” video contest was born.

The contest had 13 entries from schools across the state. Borgmann described the videos as “unbelievably creative and interesting in how they were done.” He also said that they really showed the diversity of the state.

Each participating school was eligible for a monetary prize – $2,500 for the grand prize winner and $500 for a fan favorite from each of the CHSAA classifications. On March 15, the winner – Grand View High School – was announced during the CHSAA state basketball championship.

All videos can be viewed on the CHSAA website. Borgmann noted the Holyoke High School video about shoes and the Center High School video that features a student speaking Spanish were particularly creative.

“Something that we’ve noticed is that students get excited about anything that is creative and a little bit different than the normal leadership training,” Borgmann said.

As the CHSAA spreads the lessons of positive leadership across the state, more and more people are trying to get on board with programs.

Currently, the CHSAA is working on preparing for a Captain-to-Captain Leadership Summit with the University of Colorado. University of Colorado athletic administrators, coaches and team captains will be presenting to a group of students and high school administrators on the importance of leadership and the team captain position. Breakout sessions with team captains will be held to discuss some of the things that make great leaders, such as how to deal with social media or a gay/lesbian teammate.

In the summer, about 500 student leaders attend leadership training at Colorado State University, while 700 students attend a weekend leadership summit in the fall.

“‘We are CHSAA’ is something that we’re excited about,” Borgmann said.