M&O officials irked by conference realignment

There were bound to be people unhappy with the WIAA conference realignment proposal. Marinette and Oconto Conference officials, though, didn’t think it would be them. After the M&O went untouched in early drafts of the proposal, Oneida Nation High School was added to the conference in the latest plan, approved by the WIAA Board of Control by a vote of 6-2 Dec. 6 in Stevens Point. Officials from the M&O went to the meeting to express the conference’s reservations about bringing Oneida Nation into the conference. “We thought it would be in our conference’s and our students’ best interest to appeal that process,” said Doug Polomis, principal of Coleman High School. M&O officials voiced three concerns: the limited number of sports and extracurricular activities that Oneida Nation offers its students, lack of communication between the WIAA with Oneida Nation and M&O schools, and the amount of travel that would be required by northern M&O schools. Oneida Nation offers volleyball, boys and girls basketball, and softball, while other conference schools also have wrestling, track, cross-country and others. “Some sports they are active, some they are not,” Gillett High School athletic director Michael Kaczmareck said. “Wrestling they’re not. In football they play eight-man and most of us play 11-man. I think there’s only four sports they are going to participate in.” Travel time, distance and costs will go up for the schools. “Perfect example is Niagara, which is over 200 miles away,” Polomis said. “When you are talking about busing to make it there during a school week, that’s going to affect students.” The original proposal changed at a regional meeting in Antigo, with little input from M&O officials. “Oneida Nation was supposed to join the Packerland Conference,” Polomis said. “That was what was presented to all of the conference athletic directors that attended that meeting. At the end of that meeting, someone proposed putting Oneida Nation in the M&O without any input from the invested parties that would be affected by it.” The conference has until Jan. 15 to appeal the proposal, with the WIAA board scheduled to take final action Jan. 29. “They would have to reject the entire realignment plan, not just make modifications,” Polomis said. “The possibility of that happening is not realistic at this point in time.”