When Oconto Falls High School opens its inaugural athletic season in the North Eastern Conference in a week, football coach Jeff Trochil is most elated, while two other fall sports coaches see the move as minimal.
The Panthers’ departure from the Bay Conference was part of a massive realignment plan, impacting 76 schools and eight conferences, implemented last year by the WIAA.
Oconto Falls, Denmark, Luxemburg-Casco and Marinette moved from the Bay and joined several former Eastern Valley Conference members in the new conference.
Oconto Falls’ new conference foes are Freedom, Fox Valley Lutheran, Little Chute, Clintonville, Wrightstown and Waupaca, which will play in the Bay Conference for football only.
Trochil cites multiple benefits from the realignment, including more parity and eliminating perennial power West De Pere and 2014 Division 2 champion Menasha from the schedule.
“The communities are going to be very similar as far as size,” Trochil said.
Last year, Oconto Falls ranked eighth in the nine-team Bay Conference in student enrollment; it is sixth in the 10-school NEC.
“It will be exciting thing to face new teams, instead of teams like West De Pere and Menasha,” Trochil said. “It was hard to motivate kids to believe they had a chance against these teams.”
Clintonville could give Oconto Falls an opportunity to snap its 27-game losing skid. The Truckers had an 18-game losing streak before defeating Random Lake 57-19 last year.
OFHS girls volleyball coach Rochell Otto said the NEC will not have a conference tournament, which makes the regular season more important.
“The new conference does not have a conference tournament, which means there are no second chances in conference play,” said Otto, who enters her second season as varsity head coach.
Oconto Falls lost to Little Chute, Fox Valley Lutheran and Freedom in nonconference play last season. In 2013, the Panthers swept Little Chute in match play and knocked out Wrightstown in the regional tournament.
OFHS cross-country coach Lon Ludemann said it will be business as usual for his squad.
“Cross-country does not have conference match-ups during the season, but we do compete against our conference schools week-in and week-out at various invitationals,” he said.
The conference meet will be held Oct. 17 in Waupaca.
“The conference meet is our one chance to be a conference champion, and we train for that goal,” Ludemann said.
