WIAA bringing back 'COVID checklist'; baseball, girls' wrestling, lacrosse get board attention

Posted at 1:30 p.m. on October 7, 2021

The Brillion News

STEVENS POINT – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control approved two baseball recommendations and one track and field coaches’ request as well as created a competitive balance subcommittee at its October 7 meeting.

It also made a decision regarding COVID safety protocols.

With guidance of the WIAA Sports Medical Advisory Committee, the Board voted to re-implement the requirement for member schools to complete the COVID-19 System Checklist form for all regular season and Tournament Series contests beginning Monday, Oct. 11.

The form re-emphasizes the importance of identifying student-athletes that may have COVID-19 symptoms prior to competing.

Baseball seeding

The Board approved a baseball coaches’ recommendation to adopt language requiring seed meetings to be conducted in-person or via real-time electronic means. Seed meetings conducted by email and fax were eliminated. The second recommendation supported was seeding the Divisions 2, 3 and 4 brackets in half sectionals (including two regionals) beginning in 2023.

The one track and field recommendation advanced and approved by the Board extends the sunset clause, originally approved by the Board in 2017, for determining divisional placements. This will provide one more year of data collection, which lost a year of compiling data in 2020 with the cancellation of the season and the perceived unique participation numbers in 2021.

[<< The WIAA will survey schools about adding lacrosse as a sanctioned sport.]

Competitive balance

A competitive balance subcommittee was created to determine the formation and composition of the committee to include a percentage that reflects the demographics of the membership and committee structure with gender and ethnic representation.

In other action items, the Board approved the football-only conference realignment fast track proposal that moves St. Francis from the Metro Classic Conference to the Midwest Classic Conference, and moves Watertown Luther Prep from the Midwest Classic Conference to the Metro Classic Conference for the fall of 2022.

Girls wrestling

Also approved was the reformated $8.4 million 2021-22 operational budget that recognizes the addition of the State Girls Wrestling Tournament as well as revenue and expenses of a new process for State Tournament facility contracts and Tournament Series apparel sales.

Other discussions included a review of the 2021 Area Meetings, a membership survey to gauge the interest in adding lacrosse as a WIAA-sponsored sport, ongoing information on the recruitment and retention of licensed sport officials, and a potential amendment for the 2022 Annual Meeting that would reduce the penalty for voluntarily withdrawing from a conference in football to be consistent with all other sports.