Published: April 23, 2016
Slinger once sued WIAA
Challenged organization’s plan for realignment
Daily News
In nearly 20 years, schools and conference affiliation has changed in Wisconsin high school sports.
What hasn’t changed are the heated debates on conference realignment and Slinger played its part in them.
Almost 20 years ago, Slinger School District was tired of being “the
odd person” when it came to conference realignment and the WIAA.
So, on Sept. 29, 1996, it sued the WIAA. And on Oct. 22, 1996, Slinger won the case in circuit court.
“Part of the reason was we weren’t satisfied with the realignment,”
said Doug Riesop, who was Slinger’s athletic director at the time. “I
don’t think under normal circumstances we wouldn’t been satisfied,
except with our history with the WIAA.
“It was like we were the odd person and we always got placed somewhere. It got to a point where we weren’t really happy.”
Riesop added Slinger was continuously shuffled around as the WIAA
struggled with conference alignment and membership demands for it.
“We were probably in five conferences in 10 years and none were
conferences were where we were a good fit size-wise, distance-wise,
program-wise which is the WIAA’s big thing,” he said.
“We decided it was enough.”
According to court documents, Slinger sought “temporary and
permanent injunctions enjoining the WIAA from placing Slinger in an
athletic conference known as Conference A pursuant to the realignment
conference plan adopted September 12, 1996. The circuit court granted a
temporary injunction, dated October 22, 1996, enjoining the WIAA from
placing Slinger in Conference A and ordered the WIAA to place Slinger in
an athletic conference which is reasonably close to Slinger and
contains other schools of comparable size which offers similar
programs.”
At that time, Slinger was about 700-800 students.
The plan by the WIAA, according to Riesop, was for Slinger to join the
Wisconsin Little Ten Conference, which had nearby Hartford Union.
However, Hartford, at that time, had more than 2,000 students and
Oconomowoc had more than 1,300.
“It was a mess for us,” Riesop said.
“The goal was to get some put in a conference where schools were more conducive to size and programs,” he added.
The circuit court considered three criteria with its ruling:
■ Distance to be traveled,
■ Enrollment size, and
■ Comparability of athletic and nonathletic programs.
The circuit court said the WIAA “did not follow its own realignment
policies when placing Slinger” in what was called “Conference A.”
Plus, the circuit court said, “The WIAA shall put Slinger in a
conference which is reasonably close to Slinger, comparable in size of
schools, and, most importantly, have similar programs.”
Not happy with the decision, the WIAA appealed.
The WIAA argued that Slinger is a
voluntarily member of the organization and by being a member, the
members agree to abide by the bylaws and Constitution of the
organization, including conference alignment.
On April 23, 1997, the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin reversed the circuit court’s decision and ruled in favor of the WIAA.
“It was difficult,” Riesop said. “There was no perfect fit for us. But there were a lot better fits than where we were.”
The WIAA also argued, “what Slinger perceives as satisfactory
alignment is not a ‘personal or property right.’ The question is more
fundamental.”
Slinger eventually joined the WLT and 10 years later is enjoying success in several sports.
“We weren’t happy when we went into the Little Ten,” Riesop said. “As it turned out, it’s worked out fine.”
Almost 20 years later, conference alignment is still an issue the WIAA and its more than 500 member schools are continuing to deal with.
At Tuesday’s WIAA Board of Control meeting, the board voted 7-4 in
favor of the conference realignment plan that was debated, often
heated, for nearly two years.
At that meeting, 18 schools stated their case for appeal. Among those
schools were Waukesha South, Waukesha North, Catholic Memorial,
Wauwatosa West and Wauwatosa East.
Germantown Athletic Director Jack Klebesadel, a former Board of
Control member, spoke at the meeting and said he was not in favor of
the proposal. But it wasn’t because of Germantown’s placement with
several Greater Metro schools.
“The issue we had is the schools that asked for help didn’t get any,” Klebesadel said. “It made it worse.”
Waukesha South and Waukesha North argued changing demographics
hindered their ability to compete against other Classic 8 schools, such
as Arrowhead, Waukesha West and Mukwonago.
The only thing Klebesadel disagreed with regarding Germantown’s placement was a nine-team conference.
The plan passed Tuesday, dubbed the “Hauser Plan” after WIAA Associate
Director Deb Hauser who came up with the alignment, affected 45
schools, including Germantown, Hartford, Slinger, West Bend East and
West Bend West.
Kewaskum, Kettle Moraine Lutheran and Living Word Lutheran were not affected.
The arguments 20 years apart haven’t changed.
“I don’t envy the WIAA at all for having to do this,” Riesop said. “It is a no-win
situation for them. Programs change, schools change. There’s too many
times where there’s people that look at the situation and they’re not
looking at size, program and how far they’ve got to travel. They’re
looking at the success of schools.”
Nearly two years ago, the membership voted overwhelmingly against
turning conference alignment power over to the schools from the WIAA.
Riesop liked the alignment for Slinger with the Hauser Plan, putting
the Owls with East, West, Hartford, Port Washington, Cedarburg, Grafton,
Nicolet, Whitefish Bay and Homestead.
While the plan was passed, don’t look for conference realignment discussion in southeastern Wisconsin to go quiet.
“I see coming back every year asking for relief,” Klebesadel said. “They’ve been asking for relief for years.”
But is it a battle that can be won?
“Everybody wants to have the best of both worlds,” Riesop said. “It’s so difficult.”
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The Waukesha Freeman contributed to this report.
Reach sports editor Nicholas Dettmann at ndettmann@conleynet.com.
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