The WIAA Board of Control granted final approval Wednesday of a realignment plan that affects 76 area schools and overhauls the Bay and Eastern Valley conferences for the 2015 season.
The new-look Bay Conference will include current Bay schools Shawano, New London, Seymour and West De Pere and add Appleton Xavier from the Eastern Valley, Menasha from the Fox Valley Association, and Green Bay East and Green Bay West from the Fox River Classic Conference. Waupaca will join the Bay for football, but will remain in the Eastern Valley for the rest of its sports.
The new Eastern Valley will include current teams Clintonville, Fox Valley Lutheran, Freedom, Little Chute and Waupaca, with the addition of Denmark, Luxemburg-Casco, Marinette and Oconto Falls from the Bay and Wrightstown from the Olympian Conference.
Shawano Community High School’s coaches have been keeping a close eye on the issue and are ready for the changes ahead.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re going to lose our longtime rivalries with Oconto Falls, Luxemburg-Casco, Denmark and Marinette,” softball coach Kevin Isaacson said, “but, from a travel perspective, this probably makes more long-term sense for the school districts involved.”
“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” football coach Al Tomow said. “It’s out of our control, but we look forward to playing a couple of schools we haven’t seen and hopefully developing a little bit of a rivalry with some of the new teams.”
Tomow is familiar with Green Bay West from scrimmages over the last few seasons.
“Our goals will stay the same,” Tomow said. “We’re still going to try to get into the playoffs and go one game at a time from there.”
“(Menasha and Xavier) are both tremendous programs,” basketball coach Chris Kellett said. “We’ll have our work cut out for us. It’s two quality teams coming in. I don’t know a whole lot about Green Bay East and West. They’re usually pretty athletic, which is a little bit different than what we’re used to.”
Last April, when the plan was first introduced, former SCHS athletic director Tim Mayer praised one aspect of the realignment.
“For us, this isn’t that bad of a move because our travel isn’t going up that much,” Mayer said. “If you look at the replacements, all the other teams are shorter (trips).”
Clintonville athletic director Scott Werfal said he’s disappointed to see some of the schools leave the Eastern Valley, but he’s happy with the new conference.
“I think the conference will be strong, just like it is now,” Werfal said. “We’re looking forward to the opportunity. Our big thing is that we’re looking to improve our programs regardless of where we’re at.”
Some schools, such as Xavier, objected to the realignment plan, but the board had to approve or reject the whole plan at Wednesday’s meeting. It passed by a 10-1 vote.
“Rivalries are being torn apart a little bit,” Kellett said. “I can definitely see where Xavier is coming from, but I think the WIAA is doing their best to make the conferences make sense.”
The Central Wisconsin Conference was not a part of the realignment.
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