East, West combo would impact state

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

East, West combo would impact state

KML makes surprising move

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

If the West Bend School District decides to combine East and West high schools, the whole state could feel the aftermath.

Plus, Kettle Moraine Lutheran made a surprising move during Tuesday’s WIAA area meeting at Oconomowoc High School.

Per WIAA rule, a school’s conference affiliation is aimed to be best in line with the enrollments of the other schools in the conference. Combining East and West would bring the potential West Bend enrollment to about 2,300 students. Hartford Union and Oconomowoc are the largest Wisconsin Little Ten Conference schools, each with an enrollment of about 1,400. Wisconsin Lutheran has an enrollment of less than 800 as the smallest school in the WLT.

Wisconsin Lutheran requested to withdraw from the WLT last year.

So, in a nutshell, if East and West combine, what conference does West Bend go to?

“The questions have been raised,” West Athletic Director Scott Stier said. “There are no answers to it.”

If East and West were to combine, what would be done about the vacancy that would exist in the WLT? It’s a move that would impact a large number of the WIAA membership schools when determining proper conference alignment. Who should fill what vacancies and where does West Bend fit? Which school will have to leave?

Speaking of conference alignment, KML Athletic Director Len Collyard requested to be considered for conference realignment, despite KML set to join the newly formed East Central Conference next fall.

KML will join the East Central as part of a massive realignment plan that included more than 70 schools. When it was proposed, Collyard said he was against KML’s placement as it complicated travel for the school’s teams and its supporters.

Collyard tried to find a positive about the realignment.

What happens next is on hold for now.

The WIAA presented possible amendment proposals for next spring’s annual meeting regarding conference alignment. One of them that piqued interest was the possibility of re-evaluating school’s enrollment every eight years and change conferences then, if needed.

There is support for that idea.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Collyard said. “Because I think the shuffling that happens too frequently makes it hard to establish some type of conference continuity.”

Deb Hauser of the WIAA Executive Staff estimated about 30 percent of the membership has requested conference realignment. There are more than 500 members in the WIAA.

Collyard indicated KML wants to move south and join more schools in the southeastern region of the state. As far as what conference suits KML’s interest, Collyard didn’t know.

“Our clientele is more closely related to the suburban Milwaukee area than it is to as far as where we’re going right now,” Collyard said.

The East Central Conference will have, as it stands now, Berlin, Campbellsport, Kewaskum, Plymouth, Ripon, Waupun and Winneconne. Play with those teams start in fall 2015.

“There is the travel issue, but I think the connection issue is also a factor,” Collyard said. “More people connect (KML) with urban Milwaukee than it does rural areas of the conference we’re joining.”

As for West Bend, potential conference destinations could be the Classic 8, the North Shore or Fox Valley Association. The Classic 8 features Arrowhead, Catholic Memorial, Kettle Moraine, Mukwonago, Muskego, Waukesha North, Waukesha South and Waukesha West. Catholic Memorial has the smallest enrollment (659), while Arrowhead has the largest (2,266).

The Fox Valley has Appleton East, Appleton North, Appleton West, Fond du Lac, Hortonville, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Neenah, Oshkosh North and Oshkosh West. All schools have an enrollment of at least 1,000, with Neenah having the largest (2,022).

The North Shore Conference, which East and West play in for summer baseball, has Germantown, Homestead, Cedarburg, Nicolet, Whitefish Bay, Port Washington, Grafton and Milwaukee Lutheran. Germantown is the largest at 1,409 and Milwaukee Lutheran is the smallest at 582. Milwaukee Lutheran has requested withdrawal from the NSC.

A course of action on the potential consolidation is slated to take place within the next month.

“They are aware of that and are concerned about that,” East Athletic Director Shane Hansen said about the West Bend School Board’s knowledge of the conference alignment situation. “There’s so many chips that are associated with athletics.”