By Adam Krebs

akrebs@themonroetimes.net

MONROE — At a School District of Monroe Board of Education meeting July 27, a unanimous 9-0 vote passed that would have the high school petition to join the Rock Valley Conference for the 2020-21 school year.

“It’s obviously not going to be a normal school year, therefore nothing in athletics is going to be normal as well,” Monroe Athletic Director Jeff Newcomer said. “It’s funny that the Rock Valley for all sports thing came up. It kind of turned into our best chance to give as many kids in all sports and opportunity to have.”

The WIAA had made a decision July 23 to allow for local control of sports seasons after a proposal out of southwestern Wisconsin prompted a meeting on fall sports. The proposal would have delayed the 2020 fall sports seasons into the spring of 2021 and then pushed the spring sports season to late summer and into the spring of 2021. 

Instead, the WIAA voted to separate fall sports into two categories of risk for the possible spread of COVID-19: low and high. 

The low-risk sports include girls golf, swimming, tennis and boys and girls cross country and practices could begin Aug. 17. Football, volleyball and boys soccer would be considered high-risk and practice wouldn’t begin until Sept. 7. The next WIAA Board of Control meeting is scheduled for Aug. 14, where further action could take place.

“Basically, the WIAA decided that they wanted to leave it to local control on whether they could or couldn’t play sports and that they would offer flexibility to districts to handle this at a local level,” District Administrator Rick Waski said. “They are giving us local control and flexibility. The issue is two-fold: No. 1, can we conduct fall sports safely, and, if so, which ones?”

Newcomer said that he hoped some of the low-risk sports could take place in the fall, but there are concerns. The Rock Valley was set to vote July 31 on whether to postpone all fall sports to the spring and follow the southwestern Wisconsin plan, as well as whether or not to accept Monroe.

“Can we play low-risk sports in the fall? For me, ideally, I would like to see us attempt to play those low-risk sports,” Newcomer said. “If we move everything to the spring it will be a challenge facility-wise, overlapping the seasons, and with the kids there might be an injury risk. Our coaches are willing to be very flexible.”

Of Monroe’s fall sports, only swimming is unaffiliated in the Rock Valley. Newcomer said that he was confident in finding opportunities for competition. The swimming team is a cooperative with New Glarus. Football was already set to join the Rock Valley this year as part of the WIAA’s state-wide realignment plan for the sport.

Newcomer and Monroe High School Principal Chris Medenwaldt held a virtual conference with all but one of their head coaches July 26. Medenwaldt said he was appreciative of how the coaches looked at the issue as an athletic department team, rather than one program pitted against another. 

“The coaches embraced the idea that things will be very different, and that they will have to look at things differently and work together sharing athletes and sharing time,” Medenwaldt told the school board. “Just like everything else, sports is going to look very different. I appreciated their attitude in really looking at it from an athletic department instead of looking at it as ‘Hey, this is my sport.’ I believe this is our best option and a better opportunity for our kids right now.”

Waski told the school board that hours after the WIAA’s decision, he, Newcomer and Medenwaldt discussed scenarios and what a potential move to the Rock Valley might look like. The next day Waski was in a virtual meeting with other RVC superintendents and half-seriously asked if there was interest in having Monroe join. 

“All of a sudden a whole bunch of superintendents are putting their thumbs up saying that they would like that — it was almost everybody, which was a little bit of a surprise,” Waski said.

Right now, McFarland is in the Rock Valley, but is located in Dane County and cannot participate. Waski said Monroe would simply be filling the void.

Four reasons to move

Waski laid out a list of four reasons why joining the RVC would be good for Monroe this school year.

First, he said that if the school is going to play high-risk sports, the administration “feels that doing so in the spring is more prudent than doing so in the fall.”

Second, Rock Valley schools play in communities less affected by COVID-19 than those in Monroe’s current conference, the Badger. Eleven of 16 schools in the Badger Conference are located in Dane County, which has a current lockdown and mask order. 

“None of the Dane County schools in the Badger Conference can play any sports this fall,” Waski said. “They are, in essence, shut down until November. Every Badger Conference school — at least in Dane County — is out of the question.”

The third reason, Waski said, is that the WIAA all but canceled fall sports state tournaments, meaning only winter and spring sports will still be able to compete for a state title. 

“We talked to the coaches of the fall sports, and they are willing to compete without a state tournament if it means they are able to compete,” he said.

The final reason, Waski said, is that while moving fall sports into the spring will already cause a disruption, keeping with a conference in doing so allows for a better transition and less overlap between the sports.

What Waski left out of his reasons, is that he simply is not optimistic a fall season will happen, anyway.

“I’m not optimistic about us playing any sports this fall. I’m not saying we won’t, I’m just saying I’m not optimistic about it. We have work to do yet on mitigation, and we have to work on some protocols. If we join the Rock Valley Conference, we have to work out some protocols with that conference,” he said. 

Also, Waski said, if Monroe is in Plan C for learning — meaning all students are virtual learning — sports would be shut down anyway.

“If we’re in Plan C, we’re not playing any sports — period,” Waski said. “In my opinion, it’s unconscionable to tell our students they have to stay home to learn and then they have to play in sports.”

Plan B, where students alternate weeks between face-to-face learning and virtual learning, is more complicated, but sports proceedings will be decided on more of a situational basis. “The optimal is we want to be at full capacity if we are playing sports.”