News

STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The membership of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association passed four amendments to its Constitution, Bylaws and Rules of Eligibility at the 2018 Annual Meeting today in Stevens Point.

The new rules will become effective upon publication of the next issue of the Bulletin, which is scheduled for May 25, 2018.

The membership voted 393-10 in favor of the amendment that adds expectations for all new members and members that discontinued their membership in the association and seek to rejoin. The new regulation requires applicants to sponsor and have administrative oversight of at least one boys and one girls sport in each of the three sports seasons. In addition, the amendment expands the probationary period for any new applicants to three years and replaces the one-year probationary status of the former language. 

The former rule stated new schools applying for membership need just one independently sponsored sport program for one year. 

Furthermore, schools applying for membership are now required to have representation at an Area Meeting and at the Annual Meeting during each year of their three-year probationary status. Failure to comply with the requirements at any time during the probationary period will require a reset of the application and probationary period.

The assembly of members also ratified a provision that permits schools that miss the cooperative team request deadline an opportunity to participate as a co-op during the regular season only. The co-op, and the schools comprising the co-op, will remain ineligible to participate in the respective sport season’s State tournament series. The membership approved the amendment by a 377-28 vote.

The former language stated co-op requests received after the deadline were not considered for the ensuing regular season or tournament series. Member schools missing the deadlines were only permitted to form junior varsity co-op teams with approval by their local school boards.

The deadlines for submitting varsity co-op team requests are February 1 for the following fall sports season, April 1 for winter sports and June 1 for spring sports.
 
Two amendments related to the Rules of Eligibility were approved by the membership. The first aligns the language of the residency rule with the language stated in the transfer rule. At the 2016 Annual Meeting, the membership voted to provide non-varsity eligibility to students transferring before or during their fifth or sixth semesters following entry into ninth grade. 

Prior to the membership’s action on the amendment today, 11th and 12th graders who did not meet the residency requirements were ineligible for interscholastic competition. With the new provision, students in the 11th grade will be granted non-varsity eligibility if they fail to meet the membership’s residency requirements, which will parallel the eligibility provided for transfers occurring prior to the end of their sixth semester. The proposal was passed by a 396-9 membership vote.

The second amendment passed in the Rules of Eligibility requires students, who report late to the school team because of participation in a nonschool competition, to forfeit their opportunity to utilize their two 
school-approved, nonschool competitions. The membership supported the action by a 384-16 vote. 

At the Annual Meeting in 2016, the membership implemented the current rule that permits, with school approval, a student-athlete to participate in up to two nonschool events during the regular season of the same respective sport. The rationale for the change is to avoid providing student-athletes with, in essence, additional nonschool opportunities after reporting late to their school team because of nonschool competition.

The editorial changes, which are attempts to clarify existing rules without making changes in the interpretations of the rules, passed 398-3.

The Director’s Report apprised the membership of a number of topics for continued discussions for the Area Meetings, including consideration for an amendment that would remove a student-athlete from all WIAA Tournament Series competition if a member school has applied its code of conduct to a student for a felony involving assault or use of a weapon. Other ongoing discussions will include addressing the conference realignment process and football-only conferences, and assessing emergency action plans for threats of violence at interscholastic activities.

The membership was also updated on the student-athlete concussion insurance program implemented this year, as well as the plan to reconduct background checks on all licensed officials in 2018-19.

A special presentation recognized Bryce Ladwig of Plymouth, who received the 2017-18 NFHS Spirit of Sport Award for Section 4, comprising of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan. In addition, representatives of the 15 schools that received the Award of Excellence in 2016-17 were recognized.

In the 2018-19 Board of Control elections, current president Scott Winch, superintendent at Stratford, was re-elected for a second term on the Board as the District 2 representative. Willy Chambers, the district administrator at Black Hawk, was elected to the Board representing District 5, replacing Luke Francois, who chose not to seek a second term. Colleen Timm, the district administrator at Antigo, was elected as the gender at-large representative. Timm has served on the WIAA Advisory Council since being elected to the committee in 2015. She replaces Pam Foegen, who completes her second term on the board. Foegen, who currently serves on the National Federation of State High School Associations Board of Directors and will continue to serve the WIAA membership as a NFHS liaison to the Board in 2018-19. 

Elected members of the Board of Control serve a three-year term.

In the 2018-19 Advisory Council elections, Roger Rindo, superintendent at Oconomowoc, and Nic Been, associate principal of River Falls, were elected to their second, three-year terms as large school representatives. Matt Hendrickson, assistant principal at Madison Memorial, was elected to the Advisory Council representing large schools. 

Jim Brewer, district administrator at Clinton, was elected as a medium school representative, and both Cory Hinkel, district administrator at Luck, and James Erickson, district administrator at Webster, were re-elected to the Council for their second terms.

The Board authorized a special election for the gender at-large and nonpublic school at-large positions on the Council for 2018-19 at its April meeting yesterday. No candidates declared candidacy for the positions during the initial declaration period.

A total of 480 representatives from 444 schools attended the 2018 Annual Meeting. The membership of the WIAA oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 512 senior high schools and 43 junior high/middle level schools in its membership. It sponsors 27 championship tournament series in 2017-18. For more information, visit the WIAA website at www.wiaawi.org or contact the WIAA office at (715) 344-8580.