A hope and plea for change
If you’ve been reading the paper the last few weeks, you’ve seen my sports preview stories in here. Unlike last year, this season has begun on time. There’s no month-long delay for football, no stop-and-go to the swim season or volleyball season.
Man, does it feel good to be back and have some sense of normalcy returning. Of course, COVID-19 is still the specter in the room, and as we move forward, I advise cautious steps. I can only hope and pray that by the time school starts, cases of the Delta variant trend downward.
My own reasons are somewhat selfish because, as a sports reporter, I have some truly amazing teams and kids in Colby and Abbotsford that I get to cover. I want them all to have full seasons, and to be able to take advantage of competitions and being a student-athlete.
The Colby girls cross-country team has more than enough firepower to not only retain their Cloverbelt title for an unprecedented fourth straight season, but to repeat as state participants. The Colby football program has the talent to defend their Marawood title.
Of course, as things return to normal, other things have also reverted back to the mean.
Once again, the WIAA is forming another ad hoc committee to examine competitive balance in high school athletics. I humbly submit Regis Ramblers versus Kenosha Bradford as Exhibit A for why this needs to happen.
I’m sure everyone knows the Ramblers’ reputation, and last week, Regis, high school population 198, defeated Kenosha Bradford, high school population 2,000 plus, 27-10, on the road.
Kenosha Bradford boasts multiple football players being scouted by NCAA D-I football programs. This should come as no surprise for a team with that large of a student population ranked near the top of the state in the WIAA D-1 polls. The fact that Regis, with just under 200 high school students, also has multiple players being scouted by NCAA D-1 programs should be surprising. Only it isn’t.
Time and time again, I have seen outstanding small town talents wind up at a Regis or some other private institution. These programs then go on to dominate their competition year after year. In 2019, it was a private school that won the state title in the WIAA D-6, D-5 and D-4 games. And this has been going on for years now.
What kind of message does Regis’ win send to smaller schools in the state? At this point, why even have state title games in the smaller divisions when the same teams win year in and year out? If a ranked D-1 program playing at home loses by double digits to the Ramblers, and that’s the expected outcome, what hope does an Edgar, a Colby or Abbotsford team have?
This problem extends beyond football. I can tell you that the lower divisions are dominated by the private institutions in other sports like basketball or track.
Competitive balance needs to be restored in this state, or else more schools will lose their best and brightest. Sportsmanship, teamwork and camaraderie matter, so let’s not allow a rigged game to continue.
Until there is a change, the message is clear — if you want to play college ball, or win a state title, the best way to do it is to leave your small town behind.
M USINGS AND G RUMBLINGS
ROSS PATTERMANN REPORTER
