COLEMAN — The WIAA’s competitive balance plan is a hot topic.
The point system that can move top-tier high school teams up a division has been in place for nearly two years, and now we’re starting to see some real effects in northeast Wisconsin, including a school of around 200 students moving up to the highest level in wrestling.
“The membership wanted to try something,” said WIAA Executive Director Stephanie Hauser. “For 25 years, they've talked about competitive balance, and they wanted to try something. We're doing that. We're trying something.”
The competitive balance plan is this simple: it’s based upon a six-point total. If a school accumulates six points at any point over a three-year span, they are bumped up a division. Here’s how the points are earned:
- It’s one point for advancing to a state quarterfinal
- It’s two points for advancing to a state semifinal
- It’s three points for a state title appearance
- And four points for winning a title
“If you were to have back-to-back years, state champion, state runner-up, you'd have seven points, and you'd be promoted up one division. As soon as your point total falls below six points, you move back down,” said Hauser.
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The number of schools it has impacted is not many. According to Hauser, it’s about 1.5 percent. Schools can appeal their promotion to the classification committee, which is composed of athletic directors and administrators from all seven WIAA districts.
“The appeal itself is based upon eight different categories, and the school submits information in each of those eight categories that they feel justifies the rationale why they should not move up, why they should stay at the division where they currently are,” Hauser said.
Something to remember: this plan was put forth by an ad hoc committee and was not voted upon by the WIAA. The membership schools voted on it and approved it.
“It's really one of the most misunderstood things about the WIAA is that nobody here in this office gets a vote,” said Hauser. “The democratic process is that all 514 member schools come together once a year in Stevens Point for our annual meeting, and they vote on constitutional changes.”
But how do schools view it?
West De Pere football, which just won the Division 2 title, will be heading to Division 1 next year, but they already play D-1 teams in their conference.
“I think when we get into the big divisions—Division 1, Division 2—because there's so much overlap of you're already playing schools that are that size, I don't think it's that much of a difference because you're already getting a lot of that competition,” said West De Pere head coach Kegan Wirtz.
Wirtz says his team is excited for the challenge.
“We've got a Division 3 state championship, we've got a Division 2 state championship, and I think we’d probably be one of the only schools that could, if we could win one, be able to boast that we have a D1, D2, and D3 state championship. So that's definitely the goal,” he said.
But he says competitive balance likely has a greater impact on smaller divisions.
“I think for us, it's not as big of a deal as like the smaller schools, because we don't really play guys both ways, we have basically 22 different starters,” he said. “Now, you get to the smaller divisions where they have players going both ways, and you got one stud athlete, he can make a difference.”
Over in the city of Coleman, wrestling is a way of life.
“Wrestling is just something that brings the community together, and you know it's not about wins and winning state titles,” said Cougars head coach Jason Champagne.
However, they are a school of about 200 kids, and because of their success over three years, they are moving up from D-3 to D-1 without even winning a title.
“At the end of the day, we respect what the WIAA is trying to do, creating fairness and balance, but the more that you start to look at it, you start to question is, you know, is it really fair?” Champagne said.
Champagne isn’t worried about the team moving up to Division 1; they’ve taken down D-1 teams. But his school doesn’t have the resources those schools do.
“We live in a very rural area, so again, you know, we don't have a lot of resources at our disposal. Most clubs are over an hour away, and it's hard for families to allow their kids to have access to stuff like that versus bigger cities that have more opportunity.”
It’s also the individual side of wrestling that Champagne is concerned about.
“We definitely believe that we have kids that can win D-1 state titles, but you know, the reality is when you start putting all the best kids in the one division, it's going to create some great entertainment. But at the end of the day, some really good kids are going to get left behind, kids that we know that definitely could have competed in D-2 or D-3.”
Regarding being one of the schools in that 1.5 percent Hauser talked about earlier, Champagne says it’s those 1 percent who are carrying 100 percent of the burden. While the other 99 percent experience no change at all.
“This is the early stages, and you know, we're one of the first programs to have to go through this. But at the end of the day, when you really sit and think about it, it's not just about Coleman. Like, this is going to affect any small rural school in the state of Wisconsin that’s in our position.”
Coleman was denied their appeal to stay in Division 2 last Friday. Champagne said his team will be ready for the challenge.
“Quite honestly, it does kind of generate some excitement amongst the coaching staff and the boys,” he said.
Hauser said tweaks can always be made to the competitive balance plan, and it’s important to give it a chance. It’s still in the early stages.
“I think it's really important that the membership recognizes this is a whole new norm. This is a different way of doing things. Let's give it a little bit of time with some small adjustments, maybe some larger adjustments, and then look at the data. In the very near future, within the next year or two, ask the membership, is this doing what you hoped it would be doing? Yes or no? And what adjustments need to be made?” she said.
