STEVENS POINT, Wis.– Dennis Birr, superintendent of the New Lisbon School District, presided over the first meeting of the 2019-20 Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control today.
The Board conducted its 2019-20 officer elections. Eric Russell, superintendent at Baldwin-Woodville, will serve as the president-elect, and Willy Chambers, superintendent in the Black Hawk School District, was elected to the role of treasurer. In addition, Phil Ertl, superintendent in the Wauwatosa School District and Paul Pedersen, Principal at Regis were introduced as new members of the Board.
Among the actions taken by the Board was final approval of a conference alignment plan for eight-player football beginning in 2020. The plan places eight-player programs into seven, six-team conferences and one, five-team conference. Each conference will be paired with another six-team league within their region to provide crossover games.
See 8-player football alignment
In other action, the Board gave its approval to new appointments to the 2019-20 Coaches Advisory Committees and the annual renewal of the Association’s membership in the National Federation of State High School Associations. Also approved were editorial modifications to the 2019-20 Media Policies Guide and Administrative Staff Handbook, as well as the newly created Conference Realignment Task Force Handbook.
Among the topics shared in the executive staff reports to the Board reported on the New Athletic Directors Workshop, progress on the development of online submittable Eligibility Verification of Transfer Students and Foreign Student Eligibility Verification forms, and an update on a special election to serve a one-year term representing medium schools on the 2019-20 Advisory Council.
Other topics discussed were the agenda for the 2019 Area Meetings in September, development of the 2019-20 operational budget and a review of the 2019 NFHS Summer Meeting. The Board also received liaison reports from Mike Thompson of the Department of Public Instruction, John Ashley of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards and Todd Sobrilsky of the Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association.
The membership of the WIAA oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 511 senior high schools and 43 junior high/middle-level schools in its membership. It will sponsor 27 championship tournament series in 2019-20. For more information, please contact the WIAA office at (715) 344-8580.
