Massive realignment imminent for WIAA

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 26, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor

APPLETON — The WIAA will move forward with the Green Bay Realignment following a lengthy discussion Wednesday at Fox Valley Lutheran High School.
“I thought it went very well,” WIAA Associate Director Deb Hauser said about the discussion.
After a handful of school administrators expressed their opinion about the proposal, which looks to impact about 90 schools in northeastern and eastern Wisconsin, including Kewaskum and Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Hauser said the plan is ready to move forward.
Hauser added she will re-draft the proposal and have it ready for all those involved by Oct. 11. From there, it will go to the WIAA’s Board of Control for its Dec. 6 meeting. If approved, teams will have up to 40 days to appeal. If there are no objections, the plan would go into effect for the 2015-16 school year.
If there are objections after an OK from the Board of Control, the target date of implication would still be possible.
If the Board of Control rejects the plan or modifies it at December’s meeting, a re-draft would then be required and the target date may be extended.
Hauser said this is a plan that has been in the works for about three years. It will happen, she added. When it’ll happen may still need to be determined.
The proposal combines Kewaskum and KML into one conference, which doesn’t have a name as of now, with Berlin, Campbellsport, Plymouth, Ripon, Waupun and Winneconne.
The Eastern Wisconsin Conference, which Kewaskum is a member of, would have Brillion, Chilton, Kiel, New Holstein, Roncalli, Sheboygan Falls, Two Rivers and Valders. The Flyway Conference, which KML is a member of, would have Laconia, Lomira, Mayville, North Fond du Lac, Omro, Saint Lawrence Seminary, St. Mary’s Springs and Winnebago Lutheran Academy.
Kewaskum athletic director Jason Piittmann supports the change.
KML athletic director Len Collyard doesn’t support it.
“We’re better off staying in the Flyway Conference and figure out some other options for that new conference,” Collyard said.
Collyard had support from other Flyway schools, such as Winnebago Lutheran.
“We like the rivalries we’ve built over the years,” WLA Principal Dave Schroeder said, adding it doesn’t want KML to leave the conference.
If the plan, which has KML in any other conference other than the Flyway, is OK’d by the Board of Control, Collyard said expect KML to appeal it.
“I think the travel issue for us if we go to that new conference would be too big to overcome,” he added. “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.”
The other conferences involved are the Fox River Classic, the Fox Valley Association, the Eastern Valley, the Bay, the Marinette-Oconto, the Olympian and the Packerland.
Also jumping into the mix Wednesday was the Central Lakeshore, which consists of Cedar Grove, Elkhart Lake, Howards Grove, Kohler, Oostburg, Ozaukee, Random Lake, Sheboygan Christian and Sheboygan Lutheran.
“I was very pleased with the Central Lakeshore folks coming up to engage and maybe provide a solution we hadn’t considered before,” Hauser said.
Representatives from the CLC suggested to combine its conference with Hilbert, Manitowoc Lincoln, Mishicot, Reedsville and St. Mary Central as the CLC is down to six schools which have 11-player football.
“They’re trying to help themselves and I applaud them for doing that,” Hauser said.
Geographic location and enrollment were the biggest factors into how Hauser and the WIAA setup the proposal. It was also those two elements that were heavily discussed by the members.
The other area of concern was being able to schedule football games, specifically nonconference games. Maintaining rivalries was a hot topic as well. Hauser said those rivalries were not considered in the draft of the plan.
Collyard said the new alignment would create a number of trips longer than 45 minutes, one way. The Flyway already has Omro, which is a stretch for travel as it is, he added.
“It’d be a problem for our students,” Collyard said, adding being competitive wouldn’t be a problem.
Travel doesn’t bother Kewaskum as much.
One concern Piittmann had was summer baseball as the new EWC and the proposed new conference have a mix of spring and summer baseball teams, but believes it is an easy fix.
“I think we’ll be able to make a summer baseball-only conference,” he said.