April 6, 2018 at 12:09 p.m.
GNC soccer scheduled halved by weather
Single round robin to begin May 1, games held prior to then will be non-conference
GNC soccer scheduled halved by weather
Great Northern Conference commissioner Scott Winch told conference activities directors in an email that the GNC would play only a single round robin schedule in girls' soccer, as opposed to a double round robin.
Each of the eight schools in the GNC for girls' soccer will play each other only once, resulting in a seven-game conference season.
"In light of the wonderful Wisconsin weather, a decision has been made to have a single round robin determine conference championship and the conference stats for this year," Winch told the ADs in the email.
That means, essentially, the GNC season for girls' soccer will commence May 1, when the second half of conference schedule was supposed to begin.
Games between conference schools scheduled prior to May 1 are not necessarily canceled. Teams may still play each other, if they wish and weather conditions allow, however those games will be considered non-conference contests and will not count toward GNC standings or statistics.
The conference season was to have begun Thursday but, with games already postponed into next week, RHS activities director Brian Paulson said "the writing was on the wall" regarding condensing the conference schedule.
"Obviously, I talked to my coach about it and I'm sure many of the ADs did (the same)," he said. "I think it's pretty much an agreement between (the ADs and) the coaches, too."
RHS girls' soccer coach Dan Millot told the River News earlier this week he would prefer to keep the full 14-game conference schedule intact, if at all possible. Though he said he understands circumstances are beyond anyone's control.
"I feel bad for the girls, especially the seniors, that worked hard and will continue to work hard with the season we have in front of us," he said. "When it comes to the conference season and facing each team only once, you've got to put your best foot forward every single night. There can be no mistakes."
This is not uncharted territory for the GNC. The conference was forced to use a similar schedule in 2013, with league games beginning May 2 that year. It worked out well for the Hodags that season as they went 6-0-0 in league play and did not concede a single goal en route to the second of their six straight conference titles.
As of right now, no additional games have been canceled or postponed on the RHS girls' soccer schedule.
"It just forces us, as coaches and ADs to (re-evaluate the schedule)," Millot said. "I know, right now Mr. Paulson and I are trying to find some games we can pick up yet this month south so we can get on the field."
The Hodags had already moved a contest at Medford from this coming Tuesday to April 23 and had pushed Thursday's conference opener at Lakeland to May 22.
With the conference going to a single round robin, Paulson said Rhinelander and Lakeland will switch their home dates during the month of May.
"We gave Lakeland back their day, that will be May 1," he said. "Then we'll play that second game the Tuesday (a week) before the playoffs. We'll play that as a non-conference matchup here at home."
The switch to a single round robin does eliminate one complicated quirk in the GNC girls' soccer schedule, at least for one year, which allowed conference teams to play each other only once for twice as many conference points. Now every team will play each other only once during the conference season.
The RHS girls' soccer team has already had its first four games canceled or postponed due to inclement weather.
As of now, the team is scheduled to host Northland Pines in a non-conference game April 12 to begin the season.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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