Nick's Notes: Idea will damage WIAA

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: March 15, 2014

Idea will damage WIAA

One proposal on the agenda for next month’s WIAA annual meeting that, if it is passed, will dismantle the WIAA and, in a way, make the WIAA irrelevant. On Tuesday, the WIAA announced a proposal that was introduced by a collection of its membership through a petition to adopt an enrollment multiplier for nonpublic schools (charter, private, etc.) of 1.65 when determining postseason tournament placement.

What it means is a school’s enrollment will be multiplied by 1.65. For example, Kettle Moraine Lutheran’s projected enrollment for the 2014-15 school year is 392. If the multiplier is in effect, KML’s enrollment would be “bumped up” to 646.8.

How significant is that?

Well, it means KML would have to move up a division in most sports. The heaviest-hit sports would be football and basketball. The basketball team, for example, would have to move up to Division 2, where schools on the high end of Division 2 have close to 1,200 students, almost four times as many as KML. Does that make sense?

There is only one possibility for this to work and that is figure in a town or city’s population. Let’s look at Wisconsin Lutheran and Milwaukee Pius. Those are schools in Milwaukee, where there is a bigger population of students to draw from. On the other side, a school like KML or Living Word Lutheran have a much smaller area from which to draw students.

A multiplier would drastically hurt KML’s and Living Word’s ability to keep student-athletes motivated in athletics and thus will lose students. Nobody wants to be a part of a consistent losing program. As we all know, success breeds success and losing breeds losing. Athletics are such an important part of high school for those who choose to be a part of it. If passed, the enrollment multiplier could devastate the WIAA and many schools. Living Word Principal Dave Miskimen said this proposal is discriminatory. He is right. Why should the nonpublic schools have different rules? Each year, the WIAA preaches it wants to have uniformity with its rules for all sports. This proposal would make that statement and so-called promise a joke.

This proposal treats the membership schools differently and you can be assured there will be a legal challenge by some school district if this passes.

WIAA Executive Director Dave Anderson said since this rule works in other states, he failed to see how it can be discriminatory. That’s hard to believe.

What works in some states doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in others. The membership needs to look at itself and see this is an exceedingly bad idea.
The reason for the proposal was because about 70 public schools believe they are at a disadvantage with the nonpublic schools because their resources are better and it’s not fair. It apparently is the biggest reason as to why the nonpublic schools seemingly win more state championships. That’s not necessarily true. In boys basketball, since 2009, nine of the 23 championships have been won by nonpublic schools. That’s less than half.
That’s why open enrollment is out there, to level the playing field. Now if there wasn’t open enrollment, an enrollment multiplier would make more sense.
However, the one stipulation with the enrollment multiplier to consider is a look at the school’s location.
Yes, it’s a lot of math, but it’s a far better way to reach equality than this silly and damning proposal.

Equality changes looming

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: March 13, 2014

Equality changes looming

Nonpublic schools could face enrollment multiplier

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

Equality within the WIAA may have new meaning if the organization’s membership votes in favor of a new and likely controversial proposal.

In a stunning move, the WIAA has announced a new amendment proposal that would multiply the enrollments of all nonpublic member schools by 1.65 for tournament placement purposes in all sports. It will be voted on during the WIAA’s annual meeting April 16 in Stevens Point. “After the initial surprise and second thoughts and consideration, I was comf ortable with the fact that members were engaging and exercising their rights,” WIAA’s Executive Director Dave Anderson said Wednesday.

In most cases, proposed amendment changes go through a process of being introduced to the WIAA. It is a three-step process, starting the Sports Advisory Committee, then the Advisory Council and then the Board of Control. Once through that process, the amendment is voted on at the WIAA Annual Meeting each April. That’s not how this proposal came about.

In the WIAA Constitution, a proposed amendment can be generated from the membership based on 10 percent support by member schools. There are 505 member schools in the WIAA.

Anderson said about 70 schools have signed off on the proposal, which is why it is now in the hands of the membership. And that’s why, according to some in the area, this proposal is shocking.

“It took me by surprise because I didn’t even know they were considering it,” Kettle Moraine Lutheran boys basketball coach Todd Jahns said. “To me, it’s like where did it come from?”

For KML, its enrollment, based on the multiplier, would go from 392 (the projected 2014-15 enrollment) to 646.8. Living Word Lutheran’s would go from 155 to 255.8.

Anderson said it is hard to foresee the impact of the rule, if passed, adding it all depends on each school’s particular situation.

For Living Word Lutheran Principal Dave Miskimen and Jahns, this proposal, if passed, would be devastating.

“It doesn’t work,” Miskimen said. “The research shows in other states that it doesn’t work.

“I do also believe that there’s a component to it that thinks private schools have it easy and they don’t have to work that hard. ... I’ve never understood the rationale of it.”

“I think there’s a misconception that private schools recruit,” Jahns said. “That’s just not the reality. That’s not true. ... With open enrollment, kids can transfer from public school to another public school.”

Looking at the 2013 WIAA football playoffs, of the 224 teams that qualified for the postseason, 43 would have played in a different division (20 percent), including Slinger, which is a public school.

The football playoffs are broken up into seven 32-team brackets and are placed based on enrollment.

If this rule was in place last season, Slinger would’ve competed in the Division 3 playoffs, instead of Division 2. Germantown and Kewaskum would’ve remained the same.

However, schools like Division 6 power St. Mary’s Springs would’ve played in Division 4. Milwaukee Pius, Winnebago Lutheran Academy, Manitowoc Lutheran, Lake Country Lutheran and Burlington Catholic Central would’ve gone up two divisions.

“You’re going into very delicate areas,” Jahns said. “It becomes a hard sell for getting kids motivated to play. It will create some very huge issues. If it passes, there will be some backlash.”

Miskimen said the proposal is discriminatory.

“If recruiting is a problem, multipliers aren’t the solution,” he said. “Unethical recruitment is not a private school issue.”

The 1.65 number was set because that’s the rule in Illinois.

“There are a number of other states where multipliers are in place,” Anderson said. “If they are discriminatory, I struggle to understand how they’re able to exist in other states.

“I think any time a segment of a membership (is) singled out, then certainly someone will scrutinize it.”

He added, “It’s premature to speculate.”

Much better ending

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: March 11, 2014

Much better ending

West’s Wagner takes 5th on vault

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — The medal hanging around West Bend West’s Bailey Wagner brought the senior some closure.

Wagner took fifth place on vault with a 9.433 at the WIAA Division 1 individual gymnastics state meet Saturday at Lincoln High School.

Wagner’s score was just off the school record of 9.5, set by Stephanie Kirn during the 2008-09 season. Wagner also has the second- highest score in school history with a 9.483.

“I did not think I was going to get on the podium today just because the competition is so fierce,” Wagner said. “I was surprised. It’s one of the best surprises I’ve ever had.”

Wagner, the 2013-14 Wisconsin Little Ten Conference Gymnast of the Year, finished 15th in the all-around with a 36.183. Teammate Amanda Wanie was 17th out of 25 gymnasts with a 35.749.

Hartford’s Halli Mc-Cauley was 20th out of 26 gymnasts on the uneven bars with an 8.567, while teammate Megan Maloney finished 23rd out of 26 gymnasts on the balance beam with an 8.7.

“I was really happy with how they did,” Hartford coach Mary Scherr said. “That’s probably one of the best bar routines I’ve seen Halli do all year.”

Wagner is West’s first gymnastics state medalist since Hannah Lawrence was tied for fifth on balance beam in 2011.

“She had her best vault probably of her three-year career (at West),” West coach Jackie Vorpahl said. “That was a very, very nice fault. She stuck it; nice form; stuck the landing; very, very nice.”

First-time state qualifier Sam Lemminger took 22nd out of 25 gymnasts on vault with an 8.9 for West. It was a personal-best score for the senior.

“It was a good way to end the season,” Vorpahl said.

“It took her three years to get that,” she added about Lemminger. “To finally hit it like that, hard work does pay off.”

For Wagner, the state gymnastics meet was a better ending than the one she experienced in November.

Last fall at the state diving championship meet, Wagner was expected to be one of the state title contenders, or at the very least, make the awards stand (the top six). On her second dive attempt of the competition, her knee buckled as she was about to make her dive and faulted.

It was a devastating blow for Wagner, who is committed to dive at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on a scholarship. She was unable to get out of the preliminary round and finished in last place (24th).

“I couldn’t have fixed it,” Wagner said. “No amount of training could’ve prevented that. It was just one of those things.”

Wagner’s response to the unfortunate conclusion to the diving season was admired by Vorpahl.

“She got back up and handled herself with such maturity to go, ‘OK. It is what it is,’” Vorpahl said. “That to me was a bigger sense of the character and person.”

It wasn’t quite redemption, though, in Vorpahl’s eyes.

“This was different in the sense that she didn’t expect it to happen,” she said of Wagner finishing on the podium at state gymnastics. “She got rewarded for that.

“(At diving) she was ranked No. 3 going in. ... She could’ve said, ‘Screw this.’” There was still some disappointment from Wagner not being able to medal in diving. It all changed with a medal at the gymnastics meet.

“I wanted to get revenge at the state competition today,” Wagner said.

“I’m very pleased with my performance. I don’t think anyone’s going to remember what happened at the dive meet. They’ll remember this.”

It was also bittersweet ending for Wagner as it was her last gymnastics competition, a sport she has competed in for more than 10 years.

She dazzled, with a smile on her, on the floor exercise for her final event. The moment she walked off the apparatus, her emotions began to kick in, a realization that something she had poured so much effort into for so long was over.

Wagner, a three-time state qualifier in gymnastics and diving, insisted they weren’t tears of sadness, but happiness.

“I finished my gymnastics career with a boom,” Wagner said.

West happy with performance at state

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: March 8, 2014

West happy with performance at state

Spartans finish 8th with score of 136.116

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — Smiles far outweighed an otherwise tense competition in Friday’s WIAA Division 1 team state gymnastics championship meet. West Bend West finished eighth out of 10 teams in the competition at Lincoln High School with a team score of 136.116. Despite it being four points fewer than what they scored at last week’s sectional, the Spartans were pleased with their performance.

“We did good,” West coach Jackie Vorpahl said. “We’re looking at having everybody in and scoring 136 with three freshmen on floor, two sophomores on beam. “This is a young team getting that experience for state so this is good.”

While it would’ve been nice to contend for a state championship, West had more fun just having fun, not worrying about scores.

Some other teams had a different approach in what turned out to be a historic battle for the team championship.

The Franklin co-op won an unprecedented fourth straight team state title by the smallest margin since 2007, 0.052 points over the Burlington/ Badger/Catholic Central/ Wilmot co-op, giving that co-op a fourth-straight state runner-up finish. Franklin scored 147.285 points, while Burlington had 147.233.

Third-place Arrowhead wasn’t far behind with a 146.484, a difference of 0.801 between first and third, in one of the closest finishes among the top-three Division 1 teams since 2000.

Had it not been for a score inquiry by Franklin coach Katie Moore on balance beam, which gave Franklin a 0.034point boost, the score would’ve been even closer (0.018).

“It took every ounce of effort we had,” Franklin coach Katie Moore said.

“Burlington and Arrowhead were both awesome teams and we knew we were going to have to give it our all.”

Whitefish Bay won the Division 2 team title for the fourth time in six years.

“Anything’s possible,” West’s Bailey Wagner said. “We should never rule out we can’t win, can’t do this, can’t do that. I think that the goal for today was to have and do what we do best.”

The difference between first and second in the Division 1 team competition was the closest since the Waukesha West/North/South co-op got the best of Burlington by 0.983 in 2007. In that meet, however, Burlington was penalized one point for leaving its springboard by the balance beam after one of its gymnasts used it to get on the beam, giving Waukesha the title. Since then, Burlington has a third-place and four straight runner-up finishes.

It is just the second time since 2000 where the top-three teams were separated by less than one point. The other time was in 2011 (0.986).

“We knew it would be close,” Arrowhead coach Bob Pulkowski said. “But that was eight schools we just competed with. When you put those guys together, they’re pretty hard to beat.”

Arrowhead won the 2009 and 2010 titles before Franklin’s current run.

For West, it was a kickback-andrelax kind of evening in its final team competition of the season.

Not worrying about points, Vorpahl used an extended lineup to include gymnasts who haven’t competed on varsity all that much this season. She did so as a reward for all those who were a part in getting the team to state for the second straight season.

The expectations were kind of low going into the meet. Trying to unseat arguably the top three teams in the state was going to be difficult. So, to compensate, the Spartans just had fun and it wasn’t more obvious they were having fun with their reaction after Amanda Wanie’s floor exercise routine.

During her first tumbling pass, Wanie had a couple missteps and ultimately stepped out of bounds. At other times of the season, it would’ve been devastating.

Instead, Wanie and her teammates smiled and laughed about it. It wasn’t like West wasn’t taking the meet seriously because it was. The goal was to have fun and they did. Getting to state was the goal since the start of the season.

In the process, the team got a glimpse of next year, which had Vorpahl quite pleased afterward.

“Thinking big picture, we’re going to come back strong next year,” she said.

The individual competition will take place today with Wanie and Wagner competing in the allaround, and Lemminger on vault. Hartford Union’s Megan Maloney and Halli McCauley will also compete on balance beam and uneven bars, respectively.

“I feel like at state the second day is always better because the nerves are completely gone; you’re used to your surroundings,” Wagner said.

New WIAA proposal could cause even more headaches

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: March 6, 2014

New WIAA proposal could cause even more headaches

WIAA would turn over conference alignment authority to member schools

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

If it passes, the WIAA’s latest proposal will induce absolute chaos.

The WIAA revealed the annual meeting amendments in the February edition of the WIAA Bulletin and right at the top of the list is a proposal by the WIAA to turn conference alignment authority and control over to its membership schools.

“I will be shocked if that’s passed,” Slinger Athletic Director Dan Karius said. “We need a governing body to run those things.

“I think it’d be absolute chaos.”

The discussion of turning conference alignment over to the member schools will be the first of seven constitutional amendments the WIAA’s more than 500 member schools’ administrators will vote on at the WIAA’s annual meeting April 16 in Stevens Point.

The other proposals include:

■ Sport meeting requirement for all coaches. This change would require assistant coaches to complete the rule meeting, instead of just the head coach.

■ Summer contact dead period. This change would make the week of July 4th unavailable to coaches for unrestricted school coaching contact.

■ Requiring football acclimatization during the summertime contact days.

■ Providing the same opportunities for soccer coaches during the summertime. This change would provide that all sports with unlimited nonschool coaching contact will be the same.

■ Providing additional contact days for volleyball coaches during the summertime. This change would grant volleyball coaches five additional days of unrestricted school coaching contact.

■ Increased unrestricted school contact for basketball during the summertime. This change would allow basketball coaches unrestricted school contact between June 15-July 31.

The conference alignment control proposal figures to be an engaging and potentially heated conversation before it goes to vote.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of interesting comments made around it regarding what school districts want,” East Athletic Director Jeff Rondorf said.

In January, the WIAA’s Board of Control approved the Green Bay Realignment plan, which impacted more than 80 schools and nine conferences in northeastern Wisconsin and stretched down to Kewaskum and Kettle Moraine Lutheran.

The plan, which had been in the works for more than two years, will have Kewaskum and KML, along with Berlin, Campbellsport, Plymouth, Ripon, Waupun and Winneconne, form a new conference, which hasn’t been named.

KML Athletic Director Len Collyard was against the plan as it increased the school’s travel for conference games.

During a WIAA area meeting in September at Fox Valley Lutheran High School, a lot of athletic directors voiced their displeasure over that proposal. The WIAA’s Deb Hauser, who handles most of the conference alignment requests, said it is hard to accommodate every school’s request and need, especially on this grand of a scale.

Some believe the backlash from the member schools at the WIAA is the reason the WIAA is deciding to turn the authority of conference alignment over to the member schools, especially as a another major conference realignment plan involving southeastern Wisconsin schools, which include East and West Bend West, is imminent.

“I was surprised that came over,” Rondorf said about the proposal. “I thought it was off the table. I thought the WIAA was able to continue as it is. It’ll be very interesting.”

Rondorf and Karius each agreed it opens up the WIAA and its member schools to potential chaos, especially once schools try to get together and form power conferences.

“If you turned it loose, there’s going to be so many schools that will be left out,” Karius said. “There’s going to be so many schools that will be left out. There’s going to be a lot of issues. We need our governing body.

“To say you’re on your own, can you imagine the chaos it will cause?”

The positive, Rondorf said, is it would speed up conference alignment requests. In September, East, West requested to leave the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference for the North Shore. That was one week after Wisconsin Lutheran requested to leave the WLT. Milwaukee Lutheran of the North Shore and a handful of other schools in southeastern Wisconsin have also requested conference realignment in the last six months.

“It’ll definitely be a close vote,” Rondorf said.