August 17, 2020

It’s hurry up and wait for schools hoping to build a fall season

Art Kabelowsky | Wisconsin State Journal

Chris Zwettler was handed the corner piece to his fall sports puzzle on Friday.

That leaves only a few hundred more pieces scattered around his desk, waiting to be put into place one by one while the clock ticks away.

Zwettler, the athletic director at Madison Edgewood, has coaches, parents and athletes who’d like to pursue some sort of fall sports season — a rarity among schools located in Dane County.

“That is my recommendation. I’m waiting for approval,” Zwettler said Saturday. “The majority of our fall sports would like to do what we can in the fall.”

The first piece of the permission puzzle came during Friday’s WIAA Board of Control meeting, where schools were presented with the option of playing traditional fall sports in the fall or in the spring, both in an abbreviated format.

Almost all Dane County schools, with the possible exceptions of Edgewood and Deerfield, already have committed to postponing fall sports until the WIAA’s mid-February to mid-May spring window.

Including the county schools, all 10 Big Eight Conference schools and several in the Badger and Rock Valley conferences have decided to wait until spring. All three leagues have declared that no official conference games, matches or tournaments would be held in the fall.

However, Badger schools outside Dane County, such as Baraboo, Beaver Dam, Fort Atkinson, Portage, Reedsburg, Sauk Prairie and Watertown, are at least considering a fall sports option, made up of non-conference events. Other schools, such as Waunakee, may be considering playing some fall sports in the fall and others in the spring.

“With (seven) different counties involved with the Badger Conference, getting a confirmed list has been challenging for schools as we wait for guidance from public health and school board approvals,” Monona Grove athletic director Jeff Schreiner said in an email Saturday.

The WIAA has permitted fall sports practices to begin as early as Monday for girls golf, girls tennis, girls swimming and boys and girls cross-country. Practices for football, boys and girls volleyball and boys soccer can start on Sept. 7.

Competition can begin almost immediately afterward in some sports — for instance, Wisconsin Dells is working to organize a season-opening golf tournament on Thursday at Wild Rock Golf Club.

Deadline looms
Overall, schools have until Sept. 1 to declare their intention to compete in specific fall sports. That’s to give the WIAA a chance to consider what sort of postseason competition — likely not a state tournament, but what they call a “culminating event” — can take place.

Before that, more puzzle pieces remain to put into place. One is the specific set of rules put forth by the public health department of each school’s county. They vary somewhat, with Dane County’s among the toughest — limiting gatherings (such as practices and/or games) to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors.

“All our games will have to be road games.”

There are additional guidelines, set by the health department and the WIAA, that include social distancing whenever possible, masks for nonparticipants, private water bottles supplied by each player, and a rigorous cleaning protocol.

Another must-have puzzle piece is the administration and school board of each district, which must sign off on the athletic director’s recommendation to play in the fall or wait until spring.

Even if that approval is granted, the athletic director faces a time-sensitive challenge of finding practice sites and times, building schedules and reserving event locations, and booking transportation, officials and event staff.

“That’s 2020 for you,” Zwettler said.

On the road
To deal with the complicated process, Zwettler has pushed back Edgewood’s first fall practices until Monday, Aug. 24, two days before Edgewood begins virtual classes.

Edgewood will work around the county’s guidelines by breaking practices into smaller groups, separated by distance (different gyms in the Edgewood complex for girls volleyball) or different times (multiple shifts of practice for Edgewood’s football roster of 50 to 60 student-athletes).

And, of course, the worst part is: “All our games will have to be road games,” Zwettler said.

Zwettler said it seems obvious that boys volleyball would have to wait until spring, because five of the area’s eight schools are located in Dane County and six have confirmed they’re waiting for spring.

Zwettler said one or two other Edgewood girls sports might hold off for spring, but said on Saturday that it was too early to elaborate.

More meetings
The other area schools that are considering a fall season also still have work to do. Athletic directors in the Big Eight and Badger will meet today, and the Capitol and Trailways coaches will undoubtedly meet in the next couple of days, after which recommendations will be made for action by administrators and the school board. Many school boards then will meet this week to make final decisions.

“Right now, we don’t really know much of anything, but by the end of the week we should know a lot,” said Deerfield football coach Derek Sweger, who is not very optimistic about his wish to play a fall season — joining many of the other football programs in the Trailways Conference, all but Deerfield located outside Dane County.

And with all that said, even if plans go perfectly for some area schools to pursue their wishes to compete in the fall, any sort of uptick in COVID-19 cases — especially among student-athletes — could take all the work and planning to rebuild a fall season and make it completely moot.