Sports Digest

Hodag swim team plans alumni gathering Friday

The Rhinelander High School boys’ and girls’ swim teams invite all former swimmers back to the Heck Family Community Pool for the alumni swim gathering, taking place at 5:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 22. 

If alumni choose, they may don their swimming suits to participate in 25- or 50-yard races in the four core strokes. Based on interest, the swimmers may gather afterward at Bucketheads in downtown Rhinelander. 

For more information, check out the team’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057189921383 or by searching “RHS Swim Team.”

Performance factor process results in divisional movement

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association performance factor initiative has advanced through the process for the first time with a review of the fall sports for implementation in 2024.

An ad hoc committee consisting of 11 superintendents/district administrators, six athletic directors, one principal and one principal/athletic director proposed the performance factor process, which was approved by a 265-115 membership vote at the 2023 Annual Meeting for implementation in 2024-25. The initiative promotes school programs that reach a threshold of tournament success based on a performance point system allocated over a three-year period.

School programs reaching the six-point threshold during the past three seasons are placed in the division containing the next largest set of enrollments from where the schools’ enrollments would place them for each respective sport other than track & field, swimming & diving — which do not have a team component to advancement in the tournament series — and sports with only one division. Schools are restricted to moving up a maximum of one division from the previous year’s placement.

This new initiative affords schools the opportunity to request to move down a division with lower enrollments for all fall sports except football next year. The inaugural Classification Committee reviewed nine such requests for girls’ volleyball, three for boys’ soccer, four for both boys’ and girls cross country, two for girls tennis and one for girls’ golf. The committee approved four requests in girls volleyball, one in boys soccer and one in girls tennis.

The performance factor process affords schools the opportunity to appeal their promotion to the division with the next largest enrollments based on performance points. Of the 60 programs listed above that compiled points to engage in a promotion, 24 appeals were submitted. The Classification Committee reviewed and evaluated these with one approval (Wonewoc-Center, girls’ volleyball).

The WIAA will determine the tournament series assignments to be released for all 2024 fall sports except football and girls’ volleyball in early January, 2024. Girls volleyball, which is expanding to five divisions in 2024, will be posted in February 2024.