Published: April 30, 2016
8-year plan needs a long look
Are you tired of
conference realignment? If you are, you’re not the only one, which is
why it is time to look at the eight-year realignment idea.
What is the eight-year realignment idea?
It is an idea that was presented by Deb Hauser of the WIAA’s
executive staff Sept. 9, 2014, at an area meeting at Oconomowoc High
School.
The idea came
up as schools from throughout the state continued to request conference
realignment. At that 2014 meeting, she estimated about one-third of the
more than 500 schools within the WIAA membership requested conference
realignment. Locally, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, West Bend East and West
Bend West fit that statistic.
On April 19, the WIAA’s Board of Control voted to approve the
conference realignment affecting most of southeastern Wisconsin,
including East, West, Hartford Union, Slinger and Germantown.
Barring any more challenges, it will go into effect in fall 2017,
making it the second mass conference realignment plan to go into place
in three years.
The
reasons for realignment request are varied, but they all seem to circle
around three factors: enrollment or demographics and competitiveness.
There are cries for a concrete process, rather than a school
representative standing up at a meeting and requesting realignment.
“Many schools that appealed, they said the process is flawed,”
Hartford Union Athletic Director Scott Helms told the Daily News on
April 19. “They’d like to see some changes.”
The eight-year realignment plan is the solution.
Hauser said the reason for eight years is it gives communities a
chance to cycle through any dips in population and/or enrollment. Plus,
it’s a larger sample size to evaluate trends in competitiveness and
the ability to field teams.
But the most important aspect here is it sets in stone a procedure.
And from what I’ve heard and read, that’s what athletic directors and
administrators want.
That way we know every eight years, we’ll have realignment, rather than it be a yearly conflict between school administrators.
The one thing that continues to stick out at me is how the WIAA
membership overwhelmingly denied the opportunity to align themselves at
the 2014 WIAA annual meeting. Then, those same schools complain about
the WIAA not doing what’s best for the members.
Something else to keep in mind that I think nobody is considering.
If you saw what some area student-athletes said about conference
realignment and enrollment multipliers or whatever you want to call
them, they don’t care who they play.
Living Word Lutheran’s Jacob Bolwerk said, “You just go out and play.”
If we don’t explore the eight-year realignment idea, maybe we should start getting the student-athletes involved in this.
What do they think?
Either way, it’s time to take a serious look at the eight-year
realignment idea because, frankly, if we don’t, this will be an ongoing
cycle year in and year out.
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