GNC preparing for hockey expansion

The Great Northern Conference’s house is getting fuller in terms of boys’ hockey. 

With one program already slated to join the conference in two years, and another potentially joining next year, the GNC could be looking at as many as 10 teams in the sport in the near future.

The WIAA’s Board of Control approved having the Shawano/Bonduel co-op join the GNC for boys’ hockey for the 2027-28 school year during its March 10 meeting. Shawano went through the WIAA’s conference realignment task force to find a new conference home after competing as an independent the previous few seasons. 

Merrill could also make its way back to the GNC for the first time since 2009-10 season. After dissolving its co-operative agreement with Wausau East for the 2026-27 school year, Merrill has applied for fast-track approval to join the GNC next season. The WIAA said the board of control will take up that application following the completion of the current realignment cycle in April. 

Though adding two additional teams could create some scheduling challenges, those involved with Rhinelander’s and Lakeland’s boys’ hockey programs feel the additions would be natural fits for the conference. 

“I think they fit well into the GNC when you’re looking at populations of the school enrollment,” Rhinelander activities director Brian Paulson said.

“Merrill is already a school that they joined our conference anyway,” Lakeland AD Emily Wizner said. “So (Shawano/Bonduel), obviously, would be an independent sport or like a singular sport entering, but Merrill, we play them in everything anyway now because they’re part of the GNC.”

By the numbers, Shawano figures to fit right into the GNC when it joins in two seasons time. The Hawks posted a 14-11-0 record as an independent during the 2025-26 season, including a 4-4 mark against the GNC. Three of those games went to overtime, including the Hawks’ 3-2 double overtime defeat at Lakeland in the first round of the WIAA tournament. 

“They had a great group of young men on their team, and I was impressed by the maturity of the players,” Lakeland boys’ hockey coach Jake Suter said. “Hopefully they help make us stronger as a conference. It only makes sense to have them in our conference as they are already in our section for WIAA playoffs anyways.”

“They are a much-improved program,” added Rhinelander coach M.J. Laggis, whose Hodags were twice beaten by the Hawks this past season. “They have some feisty, pesky kids that play hard, and they are very, very competitive against the GNC landscape, and against our team. Geographically, it is a bit of a poke to the east there, but I think it’s a good fit and I think that they are the right size and the right kind of team to be in the GNC.”

Merrill went back to the Wisconsin Valley Conference from the GNC in 2010-11 during a realignment process that essentially swapped Merrill and Rhinelander between the conferences. Merrill and Antigo were the two teams originally pulled from the Valley to help form the GNC in 2008. 

The Bluejays played several years as a standalone program before merging with Wausau East and becoming the East/Merrill United Bluejacks beginning with the 2016-17 season. 

Merrill was moved back to the GNC by the WIAA for virtually all of its sports for the 2025-26 school year, though it remained in the Valley for boys’ hockey with its co-op with Wausau East still intact. 

“They were a co-op with East at that time and they felt like they had enough numbers, to have a varsity and a  JV. And so I heard that staying in the Valley would be able to provide varsity and JV for every level, and they thought that would be good for growing their program because they had that co-op,” Paulson said.

East/Merrill United went 1-4 against the GNC in 2025-26, with the lone win being a 5-4 overtime triumph over Waupaca Dec. 30.

While the disbanding of the co-op has left a handful of Wausau East players without a home next year  — multiple published reports state the Wisconsin Valley Conference blocked a move that would have allowed them to skate with cross-town Wausau West next year — Laggis applauded Merrill for going against the grain and returning to standalone status in a landscape where co-op have become more prevalent. 

“I applaud Merrill for breaking away on their own, and forming their own program. I don’t know how it went down with East, and I feel bad if it didn’t go down good there, but I think the idea of them having their own high school boys’ program is really, really key and it’s the right way to go,” he said.

Both Paulson and Great Northern Conference statistician Gregg Scott told the River News that the conference already has a contingency plan in place to keep the same number of league games it currently has for 2026-27, even if Merrill’s addition to the GNC is approved by the WIAA. 

Both said the conference slate would remain at 10 games, with the nine schools playing each other once in a single-game round robin. After eight games, the conference would be split into three tiers, with the top, middle and bottom tiers all playing mini two-game round robins with each other. Only the top three teams in the GNC after the first eight games would be eligible to win the conference title. 

That’s similar to what the conference did this season with eight teams playing a seven-game round robin, followed by a mini three-game round robin with the top four and bottom four teams. 

Paulson said doing that, opposed to a double round-robin with 16 conference games, affords teams both at the top and the bottom of the league more flexibility to tailor their non-conference schedules to match their skill level.

It’s something that has worked at the upper end, certainly, as the past two WIAA Division 2 state championship — Tomahawk and Northland Pines — have both haled from the GNC. 

“They have found some success down there, which is awesome, and it speaks highly of what the coaches and the ADs are doing for the conference sport,” Paulson said. 

Where things become murkier is if both Merrill and Shawano/Bonduel are in the league by 2027-28. Paulson said that would force the conference into an 11-game schedule and take a non-conference game off the books. He said the format of an 11-game season has not yet been determined, however one possible solution would have the top three and middle three teams could play a two-game round robin at season’s end, like what’s proposed for next year. The bottom four teams would play a mini two-game tournament.

“If you do have a conference tournament, How do you create parity in those games,” Laggis said. “So I think those are the big issues. And then, does that impact or change the way our sectional goes. There’s a lot of funky little inner (details) in there of how it’s going to work.”

Lakeland Times sports writer Brett LaBore contributed to this report from Minocqua. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].