Opinions differ on WIAA postseason changes

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association made changes to postseason play for high school basketball and wrestling, balancing out the amount of teams per division and announcing some state venues.

The changes altered the postseason path for seven area basketball teams and made state berths tougher for all wrestlers.

Girls basketball

The Bonduel, Menominee Indian, Wittenberg-Birnamwood and Gillett girls basketball teams were among the 127 schools to move up a division for postseason play. The WIAA updated its brackets so that all five divisions would have 87 teams in them after several teams had to drop out because of coronavirus concerns.

Bonduel, Menominee Indian and Wittenberg-Birnamwood all moved from Division 4 to Division 3, while Gillett jumped from Division 5 to Division 4.

While the changes kept a number of postseason pods mostly in tact, some new potential playoff opponents are now on the mind of coaches.

“The first couple rounds, I think we’re pretty familiar with who we could possibly end up (playing) against,” said Bonduel coach Jerry Reinke. “We certainly had a lot of teams scouted in D4 that we needed to which has changed a little bit now, so we have a little more legwork to do on that.”

In a wissports.net coaches poll, undefeated Bonduel had been ranked No. 5 in Division 4. After the change, the Bears became the 10th-ranked team in Division 4.

Witt-Birn competed in Division 3 last year but was bumped down to Division 4 because of its enrollment. When that change was made, coach Nick Mechelke said “I am happy going down, and I think that this is where we belong.”

While the move back to D3 surprised Mechelke, it won’t change his team’s focus. “Just like every year you have to beat great teams to move on and it gets harder and harder every round. I won’t change my expectations for my athletes,” said Mechelke.

Like Reinke, Menominee Indian coach Michael Skenadore sees plenty of familiar teams that could soon become postseason foes. As the playoffs get into the later stages is when unfamiliar opponents might start appearing.

Gillett has enjoyed plenty of postseason success over the past several seasons, so Gillett coach Justin Daul wasn’t thrilled at the fact that his team would now go up against D4 opponents.

“Certainly with three natural D4 teams in our pod the competition is higher, but I don’t think the talent gap is as severe as some might worry about,” said Daul. “There’s some familiarity with all of the teams as we’ve now played three out of the other four. I’m happy my kids will get the opportunity to compete, that we just have a chance at something as opposed to how it ended last year for some teams at state which would have been heartbreaking. We’ll suit up, lay our cards on the table if you will and see how we stack up!”

State tournament sites have not been announced yet.

Boys basketball

The Bonduel, Menominee Indian and Gillett boys basketball teams were among the 134 schools that moved up a division. The five divisions have either 89 or 90 teams in them.

Bonduel and Menominee Indian jumped from Division 4 to 3, while Gillett was bumped from D5 to D4.

“I don’t necessarily agree with the thought that each division should have to have an equal number of teams, particularly this year,” said Bonduel coach Duke Copp. “The differences between a mid-enrollment D4 team and a high-enrollment D3 team can be substantial. I don’t think that exists as much in the D2 and D1 levels. But overall we are just happy we are able to play and get the kids a fairly substantial season.”

“Much like my approach this whole COVID-19 influenced season, I am just thankful to be playing,” said first-year Gillett coach Russ Young. “We will play the teams scheduled and leave the outside noise to greater minds to figure out.”

Like girls basketball, boys basketball state tournament sites have not been announced.

Wrestling

While no area wrestling teams had to move up a division, several other aspects of the wrestling tournament were adjusted.

“The WIAA Sports Medical Advisory and the (WIAA) Board of Control approved an increase to six teams gathering for wrestling competitions during the period of Jan. 17-23, and an increase to eight teams beginning Jan. 30, which clears a threshold to conduct the tournament series with revised procedures,” a release from the WIAA stated.

There will be 16 regionals and four sectionals per division for the individual tournament. The top two wrestlers from each weight class at regionals will advance to sectionals. Wrestlers placing first or second — among the eight wrestlers at sectionals — will qualify for state.

“It does certainly change things because you always think that you got that chance to come back and take third place (at sectionals) to get to the state tournament,” said Bonduel coach Chris Rank. “Unfortunately this year, there’s going to be a large group of kids that are not going to have that state experience, which is sort of disappointing, but it’s just one of those crazy years that we got to deal with.”

Team state will include the top two scoring teams from the four Division 1 sectionals, while only the sectional team champion from Division 2 and 3 sectionals will qualify for state.

Instead of all the state wrestling events being held in Madison, each division’s state meet will be held in a different location.

Division 1 team and individual state will be held at Kaukauna High School, while both Division 2 tournaments will be at Adams-Friendship High School. Division 3 team state will be wrestled at Wausau West High School, while individual state is at Wausau East High School.

Individual state is scheduled for Feb. 13, with team state taking place on Feb. 20.

ONLINE

To view full details on the wrestling or basketball postseasons, visit https://www.wiaawi.org/Tournaments/Winter and click on “Boys Basketball,” “Girls Basketball” or “Wrestling.”

sports@newmedia-wi.com