View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on sports
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
Unfortunately, Edgar football parent Terri Skrzypcak’s petition with over 500 signatures didn’t persuade the WIAA to reconsider its decision to not have state football championship games this season.
The WIAA stayed with its orginal decision to have playoff teams selected in each division compete in a two-week regional pod, which begins this Friday, Nov. 13. It doesn’t make sense to me the WIAA is worried about playoff teams traveling too far for games, when it didn’t care during the regular season.
For example, Edgar’s football team played at Reedsville on Friday in its last regular-season game, after its originally scheduled game at Marathon was canceled. Reedsville is located 2-1/2 hours southest of Edgar, nearly all the way to Lake Michigan.
Edgar football parents are also upset about the Wildcats likely sharing the Marawood Conference championship with Colby this season, even though the teams never played against each other to determine an outright champion.
The Marawood Conference hasn’t yet made a decision on how it’ll handle awarding the conference football championship trophy this season. Edgar football parents are saying the Wildcats should be the outright Marawood Conference champions, because Colby cancelld its game on Oct. 30 in Edgar. The problem is the WIAA isn’t counting cancelled games against teams as forfeits this season during the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s remarkable Edgar’s football team hasn’t been affected by COVID-19 this season, like many other schools surrounding it have. Nearby football teams’ Marathon, Colby, Abbotsford, Athens and Stratford have all had their seasons halted for two weeks because of players either testing positive for COVID-19, or they were in close contact with a family member, friend or a teacher who tested positive for COVID- 19. Whatever COVID-19 precautions Edgar High School has in place are certainly working! Since there are no state championship games this season, I thought it would be fun to at least research the state finals records from 1976 through 2019. I discovered my first cousin, Tyler Berg, still holds the WIAA Division 5 state championship record for the longest rushing play of 88 yards in 1998. Matt Olson of Stratford still has the Division 6 record with a 96-yard run in 2004.
Dennis Daul of Stratford remains second in the Division 5 state championship records for averaging the most pass reception yards per catch with a minimum of three receptions, 34, in the 1986 state title game. Daul caught three passes for 102 yards. Bob Filtz of Edgar is still second in the Division 5 state title record book with the longest interception return, 34 yards, in 1991.
