Merrill’s return to GNC lauded as good fit

The Great Northern Conference will have a new chartered member in 2025 and, from multiple perspectives, the addition appears to be a welcome and natural fit.

Merrill is set to rejoin the conference in full in 2025 after the WIAA Board of Control voted last week to approve the school’s petition to move out of the Wisconsin Valley Conference and rejoin the GNC.

Merrill was one of the founding conference schools when the GNC began play in 2008. At the time, the WIAA formed the conference by taking two of the smallest schools of the Wisconsin Valley Conference (Merrill and Antigo), combining them with the four largest remaining schools of the disintegrating Lumberjack Conference (Medford, Lakeland, Tomahawk and Northland Pines) and Mosinee from the Cloverbelt Conference. 

Rhinelander was left in the Valley during the GNC’s creation, but the WIAA reversed course and put Rhinelander in the GNC — and moved Merrill back to the Valley — beginning in the 2010-11 school year. The latest change sees the two schools reunited in the same conference in all sports for the first time since 2007. It also sees the GNC grow to eight members, with the Valley reduced to six. 

“I think Merrill is a good fit for the GNC size-wise and as you said they were one of the founding member schools,” GNC commissioner Scott Winch said in an email to the River News. “(An) eight-team conference is nice for scheduling purposes and truthfully most of the schools are playing Merrill in non-conference games now so it will be good to have them back.”

Merrill’s final approval to join the GNC came nine months to the day that the Lincoln County school submitted its request to the WIAA. In its application to the WIAA, Merrill cited declining enrollment, struggles to remain competitive within the Valley and a desire to revitalize rivalries with former Wisconsin Valley Conference mates Antigo and Rhinelander as reasons for the move. 

“The shift to the GNC presents an exciting opportunity for Merrill sports, primarily due to the more competitive balance it offers,” Merrill High School activities director Christopher Hahn told the River News. “The school populations in the GNC align more closely with ours, creating an environment where the competition is fair and robust. This, in turn, is a tremendous boost for our athletes and teams, as it allows for a more level playing field where the focus can be on skill, strategy, and teamwork.”

Merrill went through a multi-step process before its application was even considered by the WIAA. The Wisconsin Valley Conference signed off on Merrill’s departure and, according to WIAA documents, will seek a scheduling solution with the Fox Valley Association for its remaining schools. Meanwhile, Merrill’s move to the Great Northern Conference was unanimously supported in separate meetings of the GNC’s athletic directors and principals last fall. 

Merrill’s enrollment, geographic location with the current boundaries of the conference and familiarity with many conference schools led to the overwhelming support.

“Lakeland is excited to welcome Merrill into the Great Northern Conference. We play against them in many of our sports already, so it will be a natural fit,” Lakeland Union High School activities director Emily Wizner said. 

“We thought that, overall, Merrill coming into our conference is only going to strengthen our conference,” Rhinelander High School activities director Brian Paulson said. “We were with open arms welcoming them.”

The WIAA’s Conference Realignment Task Force approved Merrill’s proposal back in December. There were no appeals, allowing the WIAA board to act on the plan during last week’s meeting.

By the numbers

According to the WIAA, Merrill High School’s 2023-24 school enrollment of 801 students is larger than any other school in the GNC. Rhinelander currently has the largest enrollment at 747 students while five of the seven current chartered schools have enrollments of 620 or higher. Tomahawk (371 students) has the smallest enrollment followed by Northland Pines (452).

However, in its conference realignment application, Merrill stated that its projected high school enrollment is slated to drop to 710 students by the time it joins the GNC in the fall of 2025 and could bottom out in the low 600s by the 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years. 

“You look at their enrollment, their enrollment fits more with the GNC, and their projected enrollment fits more the GNC than the Wisconsin Valley Conference,” Paulson said. 

Overall, Merrill’s athletic programming matches well with the rest of the conference. The Bluejays offer 17 of the 20 sports that the conference and WIAA sanction. The lone exceptions are gymnastics, boys’ swimming and boys’ tennis. 

“I think Merrill is an excellent fit,” Rhinelander girls’ basketball coach Ryan Clark said. “They are a similar rural community to us, Antigo, Medford, etc., and are in our geographic area. Regarding girls’ basketball, we’ve played them for a non-conference game all 11 years I’ve been here, and it has always been competitive. They are a quality program and are a positive addition to the GNC.” 

Competitiveness 

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Success has been hard to come by for Merrill as the smallest school, based on enrollment, in the Wisconsin Valley Conference. The last conference championship it claimed came in 2019, when it shared the boys’ basketball title with Marshfield. 

Four of the eight team-only programs that Merrill will bring to the GNC have failed to post an overall winning record each of the last three seasons, according to the WIAA database. Over the last two years, only the Merrill volleyball and girls’ basketball teams have posted winning records. 

“Overall, the shift to the GNC is a positive step forward for Merrill,” Hahn said. “It aligns well with our commitment to providing the best opportunities for our students, both in terms of athletic competition and overall educational experience. We are optimistic about what the future holds and are ready to embrace the new challenges and opportunities that come our way.”

While Merrill has struggled against the Valley, it has fared OK against a number of GNC schools it has played in the same timeframe. For instance, the Merrill boys’ basketball team went winless in the Wisconsin Valley this past winter, but was 4-2 in games against the GNC. That included a home win over GNC co-champion Rhinelander and an overtime win over Lakeland, which placed fourth in the conference. 

“It’s going to be a qualify conference opponent, so it gives us a quality opponent twice and puts a little more meaning behind that game,” Rhinelander boys’ basketball coach Derek Lemmens said. “Sometimes non-conference, it’s not that they’re not meaningful, but when you suddenly make that a conference game, it adds a little extra to it, which only sharpens the sword.”

“I think it’s going to increase the depth of our league a little bit,” added first-year Lakeland boys’ basketball coach Jacob Jarvensivu. “It takes away a little bit of non-conference flexibility. Really, it’s only one non-conference game we won’t have in the future. And I’m a big fan of proximity, and they’re right, smack dab in the middle of the conference. So to me, it makes a lot of sense.”

In terms of football, Merrill was only out of the GNC for one year — 2010 — and was put back into the conference in 2011 after Tomahawk and Northland Pines withdrew due to low enrollments. 

“Merrill coming in the conference further solidifies their involvement and competitive nature for other sports,” Lakeland football coach Dan Barutha said. “They’ve been in the GNC for football since 2008 so nothing changes from our perspective. They have some really good players, coaches and programs across all sports and will continue posing great competition on the football field in addition to other arenas for other sports for our student-athletes moving forward.”

Details to work out

While Merrill’s move was roundly accepted, there are still some logistics to figure out before 2025 rolls around, and the challenges vary from sport to sport. 

In baseball for instance, Rhinelander head coach Joe Waksmonski wondered what adding two more games to a double-round robin schedule would do — especially in years like 2021 when Rhinelander’s first game did not take place until April 27 due to lingering snow.

“From the baseball perspective Merrill would be a good addition to the conference. They have a quality program that would be competitive year in and year out at the top of the GNC,” he said. “The only downside is having to try and fit two additional conference games to an already tight spring schedule where weather can wreak havoc on our schedule.”

The biggest logistical hurdle appears to be boys’ hockey for a couple of reasons. For starters, the conference already has eight teams — with the seven current chartered members and Waupaca. The conference constitution states that the GNC “will have no more than eight schools for each of the Conference sports. Charter members of the conference shall have priority over non-charter members if they were to add a specific sport.”  

Further complicating matters is that Merrill co-ops with Wausau East for boys’ hockey. 

“Personally, I have spoken with each group once (coaches, ADs and principals) to get it on the radar,” Winch said. “I am not sure at this point what will happen. I would assume we will have it on the agenda when I meet with the principals and ADs combined in May.”

Winch also stated that the GNC will likely move away from a end-of-season tournament in hockey and go back to a double-round robin schedule beginning in 2025-26, which also may impact how the league moves forward. 

There may also be some challenges in wrestling, with an odd number of teams (Northland Pines does not sponsor the sport). The GNC went to a quadrangular format for its dual season beginning in 2022 and how that would work with a seven-team league remains to be seen. 

There is also the matter of hosting conference championships in a number of sports. Schools rotate hosting year by year, with the rotation set in alphabetical order. Inserting Merrill into the current rotations, it would host one leg of the GNC volleyball tournament in 2025, the conference wrestling meet in 2027, the GNC girls’ swim meet in 2028, the GNC cross country meet in 2030 and the GNC track meet and final round of the GNC golf tournament in 2032. 

Winch noted he would likely have a discussion with the conference ADs this summer in regard to where Merrill falls within the hosting rotation. 

Lakeland Times sportswriter Brett LaBore contributed to this report from Minocqua.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].