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Waupaca puts hold on fall sports

Board action affects WHS activities

By Greg Seubert


The effects of COVID-19 are starting to trickle down into local schools.

Co-curricular activities – including fall sports – have been put on hold at Waupaca High School.

The Waupaca School Board met Aug. 21 and approved a request from administration to delay all activities at the school until Monday, Sept. 28.

“The bottom line is we’ve already delayed the start of our activities,” District Administrator Ron Saari said. “What we’re looking at with our main focus being to open up in-person and to stay open as long as possible in-person, we just feel it would be detrimental if we started our after-school activities – athletics and clubs – and got kids together at this time. A possible spread could allow us to not even open up on Sept. 1.”

The district is scheduled to open its schools to students Tuesday, Sept. 1.

“We are asking the board for approval to delay high school activities – including all athletics – until Sept. 28,” Saari said. “We would re-evaluate it a week ahead of time, look at the data and consult with our county health official and our doctor and see if we should open it up on the 28th or further delay.”

Fall or spring?

Four of Waupaca’s five fall sports – volleyball, cross country, boys’ soccer and girls’ golf – compete in the North Eastern Conference, while football is in the Bay Conference.

The cross country and girls’ golf teams were able to begin practicing Aug. 17, while football, volleyball and boys’ soccer were going to start Monday, Sept. 7.

Earlier this month, the WIAA Board of Control shortened the 2020-21 winter season and pushed back the 2021 spring season to create a window of time for school districts to move their fall sports to the early spring.

Each district has the option to decide if it wants to offer sports in the fall or postpone those sports to an early spring season. Teams that play at least 50% of their season in the fall would not be eligible to move those sports to the spring.

“We have four schools in our athletic conference (the North Eastern) that want to begin,” Saari said. “They don’t want to delay, the don’t want to switch the season to the spring.

“There are a few that are willing to do whatever,” he added. “With the WIAA not making decisions and leaving all in the hands of local control, that’s what we’re asking the board to approve at this point.”

“Regardless of how we proceed, there will be critics,” board member Steve Johnson said. “That’s the case with many things, not only with how we have to deal with this pandemic, but with education and life in general.

“Many of these kids have been involved in sports throughout the summer with no negative impact,” he said. “There are some that would prefer that we not delay or alter. There are others that have obviously taken a thought process like this of delaying. Just to let you know, there are both opinions out in the community.”

Activities director Joe Sbertoli said each sport would be affected with the delay.

“For instance, girls’ golf, their season ends Sept. 23,” he said. “With that sport, I would look for opportunities for them to play in the early spring season that the WIAA created.”

He estimated that the football, volleyball and boys’ soccer teams would be able to play about three games or matches.

“Because our conference wants to give it a shot in the fall for high school sports, it might be challenging to find games in the early spring season,” Sbertoli said. “It’s obviously something I would explore if we go that route. If schools in our conference end up switching to virtual learning at some point this fall, then they would probably have to postpone their events to the spring, which then makes scheduling easy.”

No WMS sports

Sbertoli and Saari also recommended that Waupaca Middle School cancel its fall sports seasons of football, volleyball, cross country and soccer.

“Their seasons are shorter and with the challenges of being on an A day/B day, the students that are not in school for that day would have a hard time making it to practices and games, potentially,” Sbertoli said. “That would cause us to cancel our fall season. Our middle school fall soccer conference already canceled all of their fall sports. Our cross country middle school schedule has been canceled. Half of our football and half of our volleyball schools have already determined they would cancel their fall sports for middle school.”

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