April 23, 2020 at 4:56 p.m.
Game Over
Tuesday's decision by WIAA a sad but inevitable reality for coaches, players
Game Over
With Wisconsin's Safer at Home order extended through May 26, and school closed for the remainder of the school year, the WIAA Board of Control voted Tuesday to effectively cancel the spring prep sports season in Wisconsin due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state tournaments in WIAA sanctioned spring sports - baseball, softball, girls' soccer, boys' golf, boys' tennis and track and field - will not take place.
Competitions will also not be permitted during the Safer at Home order.
"When you see the writing on the wall and you know that something's going to happen, you're expecting it and kind of prepping yourself for it, but then when it happens, it still hurts," RHS girls' soccer coach Richard Kotula said. "It's like you have this small seed of hope that something maybe will be different, even though you're like 100 percent that it's going to happen. It was definitely still very painful for me and, for sure, for a lot of people in this town and Wisconsin overall."
The WIAA left open the possibility of an informal spring sports season, allowing teams to gather, practice and possibly play games beginning July 1, provided restrictions on assembling in groups are removed by then.
With the announcement, the prep sports careers of the members of the Class of 2020 effectively came to an end.
"This definitely isn't how I imagined my senior soccer season ending," said senior Izzy Haverkampf in a video to her teammates on the RHS girls' soccer team's Facebook page. "Not being able to take the field with my teammates and some of my best friends is really disheartening."
It was inevitable
The record will show the final day of the 2019-20 prep calendar was March 12. That day the semifinal games in a number of divisions took place at the WIAA girls' basketball state tournament in Green Bay and a handful of boys' basketball sectional semifinal games took place with heavy restrictions placed on the number of people who could attend.
The next day, the WIAA canceled the remainder of the winter sports season. On March 19, shortly after Gov. Tony Evers initially announced the Safer at Home order, the WIAA suspended the spring sports season.
The fate of spring sports took another hit earlier this month with the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced it had extended the closure of its campus through June 30, eliminating the use of venues that would have hosted the state boys' tennis, boys' golf and softball tournaments in June.
The extension of the Safer at Home order last Friday proved to be the final straw, with the WIAA stating that afternoon that it would determine the fate of the spring sports season at Tuesday's regularly scheduled Board of Control meeting.
"With Gov. Evers direction a few day ago, it kind of determined how the WIAA would move forward," Rhinelander High School activities director Brian Paulson said. "That came out in a timely manner before the Board of Control meeting. The WIAA has decided to cancel spring sports, which is probably the best thing right now. We need to be at home and be safe right now."
"The writing was on the wall ever since Gov. Evers closed the schools down," RHS baseball coach Joe Waksmonski said. "There wasn't going to be a way, at least for the WIAA, to have competition without school taking place."
Tough for the seniors
Waksmonski said his heart especially goes out to this year's senior class, which has not had the easiest career in terms of the ability to play spring sports.
Major April snowstorms each of the last two years either delayed the start of, or put a pause to, competition shortly after the first handful of games were played. This year's RHS baseball senior class essentially had only nine weeks of games in the last three years of their spring sports careers.
"It's kind of heartbreaking for them because, basically, their entire high school career they've kind of spent their spring season in limbo - whether it's practicing in a gym or the situation we're finding ourselves in this year," he said. "You feel for them and you kind of hoping moving forward for them, they don't have a bad taste in their mouths about baseball."
RHS track coach Aaron Kraemer said he will miss the chance to be with his team.
"I think the biggest disappointment for me is the relationships you build with these players over multiple years and not being able to have some closure and what that would look like, what their senior seasons would look like," he said. "To not be able to see that for all of our athletes, especially our seniors, is a big blow to us."
"I feel really bad for my seniors," RHS softball coach D.J. DeMeyer added. "Actually I feel bad for everybody. I've got some seniors that have been with me for the last four years - basically my whole coaching career. I think I had them in 14 and under (youth softball). There's some really good girls there ... I feel sorry for the kids - especially for the softball girls - but the whole senior class. Unfortunately we're in new times and it's going to change things forever."
Though the RHS boys' tennis team did not have any seniors on its squad this year, coach Bob Heideman sympathized with those who have had their high school careers cut short.
"This is just a letdown," he said. "There was that hope that you would get some opportunities to demonstrate and to showcase what you can do, and that's now gone. That's a huge bummer."
Virtual practice may go on
Though teams are currently barred from gathering in one physical location at the same time, a number of squads have tried to make the best of the situation through a virtual environment.
Kraemer posted on the track team's Facebook page exercises for athletes to do on a weekly basis. Waksmonski said he had a Google Classroom set up for his team where he posted various drills players could do at home, even a video going over some of the team's bunt coverages. Kotula has a mix of exercises and motivational videos on the girls' soccer Facebook page. Heideman said the Hodag tennis team - which, ironically, was devoid of any seniors for the 2020 season - had a team objective of a certain number of workout hours per week. Those workouts could be achieved by doing exercise, watching tennis instructional videos and/or shadowing particular strokes.
The WIAA, in its decision Tuesday, allowed spring sports teams to continue to practice virtually until the final originally scheduled date of each sport's state tournament - anywhere from June 6 for track and field to June 20 for girls' soccer.
However, many coaches feared 2020 would essentially be a lost season in terms of the development of players in their programs.
"It's going to be difficult because we had some kids that were going to be freshmen and sophomores that were going to get some quality playing time, get some at-bats and fielding that would help them grow as ball players," DeMeyer said. "Now the freshmen this year are going to be freshmen again next year when it comes to the sport."
Added Waksmonski: "It's a huge impact. I guess it's like the last two years where this senior class had two seasons where they were stuck inside for half the season. That kind of hampered their development a little bit but, obviously with this happening, this is a big-time setback as far as our younger guys developing their skills for baseball."
Holding out hope
Provided the state lifts its restrictions on gatherings on or before June 30, the WIAA left the door open for an opportunity to provide closure to this year's spring sports teams.
The Board of Control voted to extend the unrestricted summertime coaching contact opportunities for spring sports only. This action will permit school teams that include the current year's seniors to assemble and conduct practices and competitions for up to 30 days, provided restrictions on assembling in groups are removed, until the start of a student-athlete's fall sport season.
"That's something I was hoping for and I'm happy they put it out there. When everything is safe and available, there's still a chance this summer to do something," Kotula said.
In theory, this opportunity allows team to practice, scrimmage and even play games - provided the school districts involved approve the competition and WIAA requirements for preseason acclimatization and the use of WIAA-licensed officials are met.
Paulson said he was still trying to wrap his head around what that may mean for his spring sports teams beginning July 1.
"This is the first I've heard of it, so I'm going to send a message out, talk to my coaches here soon to figure out what our plan would be to move forward," he said. "They're leaving it pretty open-ended right now, to be creative about how we want to do this. We're going to have to figure out how all the pieces are going to work. This is something new."
Kraemer said the track team would jump at the opportunity to have one more chance to compete.
"I know there are some coaches around the area that are super excited about track season and will do anything to make sure their athletes get the opportunity to compete," he said. "I'm going to try my best to work with Mr. Paulson and the coaches around the area, gauge the interest of our athletes and work our way into having an opportunity to compete."
Added DeMeyer, "I'm hoping with those 30 days, we can get the girls playing as much as we can because, really, a lot of them have lost a year of growth in the sport. Hopefully we can get some of that back."
What now?
Many of the coaches expressed that while what constitutes the 2020 spring sports season will be unlike anything we have seen before, they hope their athletes can take away some valuable life lessons and turn the situation into an overall positive experience.
"I try to look at things in a positive lens and the best I can say for our athletes is simply that we're going to get stronger through this," Kraemer said. "We might have lost an opportunity but that doesn't mean other opportunities won't be presenting themselves to us."
Haverkampf shared one of those lessons in the message to her team.
"My heart goes out to all the spring sports senior athletes who had to hang up their cleats one last time and learn this from a text message, a phone call or seeing a Facebook post," she said. "Although this is a hard and tough time, I've learned a huge life lesson through this - and it especially applies to the juniors this year, the underclassmen - that life lesson is to capitalize on every opportunity this sport and high school offers you."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at jeremy@
rivernewsonline.com.
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