For those enjoying the beautiful weather on the path around the Falls, March Madness can come in a number of forms. This year’s madness includes Old Man Winter refusing to retreat to the land with the maple leaf flag.
Seriously, the days are getting longer. The coming weekend’s start of daylight saving time encourages people to anticipate that we will soon come to the end of what has been “The Winter of Our Discontent” for school decision-makers watching heating and snow removal budgets.
Student data drives much of what we do. Temperature data may not affect student achievement, but when school superintendents review the 2013-14 school budgets, we suspect that more than a few will throw in statistics in that category to explain potential overruns.
The next “madness” chapter in the annals of this school year most likely will star athletic directors and how they deal with outdoor playing fields that are slow to dry as a result of heavy snow cover. Practices will be held indoors, and calendars may run out of open days on which games can be rescheduled. However, that dilemma is a bit off in the distance.
For now, the focus is on the close of the winter high school sports seasons, with boys and girls basketball being the big ticket draws. Boys basketball came to an end Friday night in Peshtigo. Hearts were pumping at the start of the fourth quarter when the Panthers were up by five, and the fans got a whiff of an upset in the making, but that was not to be.
Saturday’s WIAA state wrestling tournament match at 145 saw another individual championship slip away by the slimmest of margins.
The Panthers girls basketball team is still in the hunt for a state championship.
The local school really can be the heart of the community, especially in some of our smaller communities. A good basketball team hot on the tournament trail can bring a community together. Fans get into the action on the playing court with alumni in the bleachers often reliving some of the highlights from games from a generation ago. Friday night split the Oconto Falls crowd since all three sports were being featured in different venues at the same time.
The media loves the Cinderella stories with small-town teams making it to state.
The WIAA division restructuring a few years ago gave more communities a chance to have that state tournament experience, not to mention generate a little extra revenue for the WIAA.
In a time when enrollment is declining in more than half the school districts in Wisconsin, school consolidation is a real hot-button topic. In informal settings with legislators, they comment that the concept of consolidation needs to be considered, yet a Google search for “Wisconsin Legislator Comments on School Consolidation” will come up with nothing connected to a current legislator.
It is the hottest of hot potatoes.
Only somewhat facetiously we have argued that the strongest argument against school consolidation has to do with the fact that a community would lose its basketball team. The handful of districts that have gone through a consolidation process find choosing a team mascot and school colors to be one of the agonizing tasks on the to-do list.
Even though March is noted for the culmination of the winter sports season and all the excitement that can bring, the month is also one in which music and the arts are celebrated. Districts that host solo and ensemble festivals at basketball tournament time find that extra coordination is needed as two very different crowds are brought into school buildings, often on the same weekend. Oconto Falls High School finds itself in that situation this weekend.
Our hats go off to all the people working in the custodial departments who make this happen. There are key people who take pride in their buildings and deserve lots of compliments when we open our buildings to visitors. It’s amazing what a few kind words to that crew can do to bring out the smiles. Thank you notes often get prominent places on the custodial room bulletin boards.
Speaking of prominent displays, March is also Youth Art Month. We encourage readers to check out the Youth Art Month reception Thursday at the Oconto Falls Community Library.
We encourage all readers to dip their toes in the local March Madness, whatever form it may take. It does a lot to bring a little sanity to a very busy time of year.
Categories
