WIAA approves alternate state event sites
The WIAA moved a step closer Friday to having state championships this fall.
The Board of Control unanimously approved championship sites for girls golf, girls swimming and diving, and girls tennis at its monthly meeting at the WIAA office in Stevens Point.
The news, however, came with a caveat.
“Next week this could be all on its ear,” WIAA executive director Dave Anderson told the board.
The unpredictability of the coronavirus pandemic has made planning events a challenge, but if the WIAA is able to follow through with its plan, there will be state championships in those sports held at sites on the eastern side of the state.
Girls golf will take place Oct. 12-13 at Blackwolf Run's Meadow Valley Course in Kohler.
Swimming and diving will be held at Waukesha South. The Division 2 meet will be held Nov. 13 and Division 1 Nov. 14.
Girls individual tennis will be held Oct. 17-19 with the Division 1 competition taking place at Lake Geneva Tennis and the Division 2 competition held at the Sports Core in Kohler.
The tournament series calendars will remain as they have been in past years. There will be some changes to the number of state qualifiers in each of those sports, though.
Golf: The top two teams and three individuals from each sectional still will advance to state, but there will be just four sectionals in Division 1 instead of six. There will continue to be three sectionals in Division 2.
Tennis: Sectional champions will advance to the state team tournament, but there will be four sectionals in Division 1 instead of eight. Division 2 will remain at four sectionals. Due to the reduced competitors in Division 1, there will be 40 singles players and 40 doubles teams competing at state in Division 1. In Division 2, the number of singles and doubles spots will remain at 28
Swimming and diving: The setup has yet to be determined.
While the tournament will be condensed compared to the usual, each of those sports has a significant number of schools that are not competing this fall due to COVID-19.
According to statistics compiled by the WIAA, 74% of the swimming programs in the state declared for the fall season. For golf, it was 74% and tennis was 73%.
The WIAA's decision Friday doesn't guarantee there will be state tournaments in other sports. During the meeting, however, there was discussion about how such championships might be set up. One idea shared is to hold a four-team state tournament at a school and make it a one-day event with each division at a separate location.
“It's all in one day, no more than two teams in the building and you would still have a state champion, it just wouldn't be all in one venue and bring in all those people to one place,” WIAA assistant director Stephanie Hauser told the board.
Before the WIAA goes forward with any season-ending plans for volleyball, football, cross country and boys soccer, it plans to survey its members to find out where schools stand on the postseason.
Some of the questions the WIAA is seeking to answer: Will schools participate this year? Will its participation be limited to the regional or sectional level? Will districts agree to participate in a state tournament but only under certain conditions?
“I feel like we need more information from our schools before we can really make a final decision of what it's going to look like,” Hauser said. “All we know right now is if they've opted into the season or not. We don't know if they're opting into a tournament series yet.”
Usually postseason tournaments are played without question, but this year there could be instances when a team advances in the tournament but can't continue due to safety measures or travel restrictions placed on it by its district. In the event of those situations, the board passed a measure that allows for the last opponent that team beat to advance in its place.
Contact days: The other big vote of the day involved increased unrestricted out-of-season contact days for coaches in all sports.
Here is how it would look: Fifteen days for fall coaches whose sports did not start the season, five days for winter coaches and 15 days for spring coaches. There would be no additional days allowed for schools/teams that were unable to use their five contact days this summer. No competition between schools is allowed.
The thinking behind awarding winter coaches just five days is that COVID-19 had little effect on their seasons. The only winter sports that didn't finish last year were girls basketball, which reached the state tournament and boys basketball, which completed sectional semifinal games. The spring season, which was canceled entirely, and the fall, which has been postponed in some districts, has been affected more, the board felt.