COLUMN: Making sense of mess ... maybe

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Oct. 1, 2013

When you’re looking at upward of more than 100 schools scattered across at least eight conferences, it’s going to be impossible to make everybody happy.
That was evident at last week’s final WIAA Area Meeting at Fox Valley Lutheran High School in Appleton. Whenever a school representative stepped up to one of the microphones scattered throughout the auditorium where the meeting was held, there was some disagreement about that person’s proposal. This went on and on.
And that’s what this Green Bay Realignment Plan is going to do, go on and on.
Kettle Moraine Lutheran Athletic Director Len Collyard said he wants the Chargers to stay in the Wisconsin Flyway Conference.
“I think the travel issue for us, if we go to that new conference, would be too big to overcome,” he said after last week’s meeting. “I think it would hurt us in terms of our enrollment and the interest in our athletic programs.
“It would not be a good fit.”
He had support from other Flyway schools, including Winnebago Lutheran Academy.
This proposal, which began about three years ago, has KML joining a newly formed conference, joining Kewaskum, Berlin, Campbellsport, Plymouth, Ripon, Waupun and Winneconne.
Kewaskum Athletic Director Jason Piittmann is OK with the proposal. His only worry was between the new conference and the proposed new Eastern Wisconsin, there is a mix of spring and summer baseball teams. He believes the schools will be able to come together and assemble a summer baseball-only conference.
As for Collyard, he plans to be firm to keep KML in the Flyway. The new conference, which doesn’t have a name, would draw schools from the Eastern Valley, the Eastern Wisconsin and the Flyway.
Collyard said he will appeal if a proposal has KML in any other conference than the Flyway. He likely won’t be the only one as many schools are disappointed with their proposed placement.
Fox Valley Lutheran and Xavier weren’t fans of being split into separate conferences as they play in one of the state’s longest-running rivalry football games, the Apple Bowl, which has been played annually since the 1960s.
There is also the problem of what’s going to happen to the schools requesting to leave their respective conferences in southeastern Wisconsin, such as West Bend East and West Bend West, Wisconsin Lutheran, Wauwatosa East and Milwaukee Lutheran, to name a few.
When you put all these requests together, you may be looking at a complete realignment shift with schools from Green Bay south to the Racine area or, in other words, almost 40 percent of the state’s high schools.
Conference realignment is not unprecedented. It’s more common than most people think. But what we’re seeing right now is unprecedented. It is quite possible we’ll see a different layout of the state and its high school athletic conferences within the next 2-3 years.
Will it happen? It doesn’t appear so. The plan is just too complicated.
There are too many variables and too many schools to make everybody happy or even satisfied and willing to compromise. Declining enrollments throughout the state is what’s triggered these discussions. Geographic location is the next most important factor as tight budgets make it tough for teams to travel extensively, especially in a conference season.
If the WIAA’s Board of Control gives the OK and the realignment plan moves forward, you can bet there will be an appeal by a school, and don’t be surprised if there are multiple appeals, which will surely drag on the plan. Each school is trying to do what’s best for its particular situation and you can’t fault them for that. Every school has a different situation.
There is a reason why this realignment plan has been on the table for three years. There are too many schools involved. Scaling it back may be the best solution.