Ready or not, some things to watch as 2024-25 quickly approaches

The abundance of rain and lack of days with highs in the 80s make it seem like summer has barely started, but the passing of the July 4 holiday and the slow but sure shrinking of daylight that will become noticeable soon remind us how quickly summer in Wisconsin slips by.

I’ve found that’s become especially true when there’s a three-sport athlete in your family. Rarely is there a dull day between summer league games, practices, contact days, open gyms and camps.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned many times over the last 26 years, one of my attempts to make time slow down is to not look ahead during the first half of the summer respite. And why would you when it’s gotten to the point where it takes nearly the entire month of June now to finish off the spring awards season and college recaps, coaches associations all-star games, etc.? It sure feels like it takes longer than it once did to put the final bows on a school year and a senior class.

But after July 4, it becomes time to turn the page. As I write this on Tuesday, Wisconsin high schools are four short weeks away from opening their football seasons, at least those who remain in the traditional 11-man format.

Actually, this is one of those summers where you theoretically gain almost an extra week. The 2023-24 school year was based off the second-earliest starting dates possible. But, with this being a leap year, we jump ahead two notches for 2024-25 and skip over the earliest start date year going right to the latest starts possible on the calendar.

The process of clearing out old files, starting to enter new schedules into the desktop calendar and compiling composite fall conference schedules began last week. Doing that and looking at the WIAA tournament assignments naturally starts the mental wheels spinning as to where the big stories of an upcoming season may occur.

2024-25 is the first year where the Tournament Performance Factor kicks in, which will create noticeable changes in some post-season brackets. One local team gets bumped up a division this year, the Medford-Colby gymnastics team, which will compete in Division 1 after qualifying for state in D-2 for, not only the last three years, but the last six. Medford’s girls cross country team came close but was a point shy of the six-point threshold thanks to not winning the sectional last fall.

It will be interesting to see how the reactions to the success factor evolve statewide now that it actually comes into play. Early on, it has a chaotic feel to it, especially in cross country where some programs will see their boys and girls teams running in different sectionals.

When it comes to fall, football here will be interesting. The Great Northern Conference welcomes Wausau East and Tomahawk to the mix, while the long trips to Hayward and Ashland are now gone for Medford.

Gilman slides into the new North Central East Conference for eight-man football. With the Pirates, defending state runner-up Thorp, Owen-Withee and McDonell Central in that league, you’d expect it to rank among the state’s best conferences most years. Then, there’s Rib Lake’s first foray into the eight-man pool. Separated from Prentice for the first time in nearly 40 years, the Redmen will host Gilman on Thursday, Aug. 29 in nonconference play in their eight-man debut. From there, we’ll see how they match up with old Marawood rivals Phillips, Chequamegon and Athens as well as Hurley and Flambeau in their new conference. The Sept. 27 homecoming game with Prentice should be spirited.

Of note from a success factor standpoint, defending Division 3 state champion Rice Lake will bump up a division this year, meaning the Warriors aren’t likely to be in Medford’s bracket, assuming the Raiders get to the postseason.

Volleyball brings some significant postseason changes as it expands to five divisions. In Division 2, Medford shifts to face western competition in the first phases of tournament play with teams like Rice Lake, Altoona, Hayward, Somerset, St. Croix Central, St. Croix Falls and Ashland in its sectional half-bracket. The rest of the GNC’s D-2 teams are on the other side of the sectional. Tomahawk and Northland Pines drop to Division 3.

After winning its first regional title since 2000, Gilman lands in a new-look D5 bracket that, based on recent history, could be tough to navigate. Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, Athens and Columbus Catholic are in the half-bracket. Defending D-4 state champion Wonewoc-Center is on the other side. Wonewoc-Center was the only volleyball team that had its appeal for bumping up a division upheld. The Wolves were an interesting case having played in Division 4 last year. They had accumulated enough points to bump up, theoretically to D-3, but by winning their appeal, they were allowed to go down to D-5 with the school’s enrollment of 115.

Keeping Wonewoc-Center in D-5 and bumping McDonell Central to D-3 surprisingly bumped Rib Lake up to Division 4, where the Redmen have the smallest program by enrollment at 148. There are smaller schools, but they are part of two-school co-ops making their joint enrollments larger. Hillsboro, who has had strong teams in recent years, is the next smallest at 151 and New Lisbon is at 153. Nine teams in Rib Lake’s side of the sectional have enrollments of 200 or more, including Phillips, Abbotsford and Edgar.

The only other major fall post-season shift locally happens to the Prentice-Rib Lake cross country team, who was assigned to the D-3 Cadott sectional. The Hawks will see many of the same teams they saw up north the past couple of years but also will see more teams from the Eau Claire-ish area like Osseo-Fairchild, Augusta, Durand-Arkansaw, Eleva-Strum, Mondovi and Elmwood-Plum City.

Medford girls tennis, unfortunately, remains stuck in Division 1. Medford’s cross country teams will run at the D-2 Colby sectional, which has a few tweaks but is mostly the same as last year with all four state-qualifying teams from last year back (Lakeland and Shawano boys/ Shawano and Medford girls). The only change in the boys soccer D-3 sectional is the addition of Seymour. The D-2 girls swim sectional is at Menomonie rather than Merrill but has exactly the same 14team lineup, including defending state champion Rhinelander.

The winter assignments have long been out so we can take a quick peek at them too. Not much changes in Medford’s D-2 basketball brackets other than Menasha joining the other side of the boys sectional. Sectional champion Clear Lake and regional finalist Hurley bump up to D-4 and out of Gilman’s and Rib Lake’s girls sectional and those same schools bump out of the boys sectional too.

Now in D-1, the Medford-Colby gymnastics team will compete in a sectional hosted by the West Salem Co-op, another program bumped up by the success factor. The Raiders will face teams like Chippewa Falls, the Eau Claire Memorial-North co-op, Hudson, Wisconsin Rapids and La Crosse Logan-Central.

The boys swim Ashwaubenon D-2 sectional regains Lakeland, who did not field a team last winter, and Notre Dame.

Nothing changes in the girls hockey sectional. The boys, however, will shift eastward. Now listed as a Medford-Abbotsford-Rib Lake co-op, the Raiders will join GNC rivals Antigo, Lakeland, Mosinee, Northland Pines, Rhinelander and Tomahawk in sectional 2, along with Shawano-Bonduel. The co-op raises the Raiders’ total enrollment to 1,103, which puts them as the seventh-largest program by enrollment out of 32 teams in D-2.

Finally, there’s wrestling where the tournament will see several changes that were approved last month by the WIAA’s Board of Control. From an assignment standpoint, Medford fans are excited to see the Raiders will host the D-2 team sectional on Tuesday, Feb. 18 rather than having to travel more than two hours one way, which has been the usual case. Now the Raiders just have to get there out of the Hayward super regional, which will have a more northwestern flavor than the Medford regional did last February. The individual sectional is at Amery. The Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe Wolfpack is back at a D-3 regional in Edgar, while Ladysmith hosts the sectional.

State tournament structure changes will allow for qualifiers to get a two-match guarantee, which will be new for D-2 and D-3 wrestlers who aren’t top-four seeds, so that’s a big deal. Also, all matches through the quarterfinals will be completed on Thursday of state weekend, adding early intrigue at the Kohl Center.

The entire girls tournament is in line for major changes with a regional level added to the tourney trail and now the top two finishers in each weight class in eight sectionals, rather than the top finisher in each weight class in 16 sectionals, will fill the state field of 16 per weight class. The regional and sectional sites have not been announced yet, but Medford and the Wolfpack have been assigned to the same regional. Regional and sectional competition takes place the Friday before the boys meets.

How about next spring? No chance I’m looking that far ahead yet, but those assignments should be out before too long.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Matt Frey is the Sports Editor at The Star News.