View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on sports
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
I believe Terri Skrzypcak, mother of Edgar senior star running back and linebacker Austin Dahlke, has a legitimate beef with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) not considering her petition to reverse its decision on not holding football state championship games this year.
Skrzypcak was spot on when she said in a letter she sent to the WIAA that football is the only fall sport that doesn’t have a final state game to reward the “best of the best” athletes.
She goes on to say football is probably not any more risky to play than soccer. The volleyball and swimming state championships are held indoors, which Skrzypcak assumes would carry the greatest risk of the viral transmission of coronavirus.
Skrzypcak sent her letter and a petition she organized with over 500 signatures from people throughout the state wanting the WIAA to reconsider its previous position of not having football state championships.
On Thursday, she e-mailed the letter and petition to the WIAA executive staff, WIAA Board of Control, WIAA Advisory Council, Wisconsin Athletic Director’s Association Board and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Board of Directors and regional representatives.
Skrzpcak received a response from Dave Anderson, executive director of the WIAA, within an hour of her e-mailing her letter and petition. Anderson provided her with the following statement: “The Board has reviewed and considered all of the plans for this fall’s culiminating events and have affi rmed and reaffirmed them. Football will have two rounds of culminating play this year and it will be kept more regionally based.”
She was frustrated with Anderson’s response because he didn’t provide her with any answers why football is the only fall high school sport being excluded from having a state tournament.
Skrzpcak believes COVID-19 is rampant throughout Wisconsin, therefore it no longer matters whether high school football teams need to travel far for playoff games. She said the WIAA required high school volleyball teams to travel far in the playoffs. The example she gave was Marathon’s volleyball team needing to travel three hours to Grantsburg for its WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinal match on Thursday.
She argues state championship football games for various divisions could take place at different turf fields in the state. I also agree with Skrzpcak that it’s much easier for fans to socially distance on the bleachers in large football stadiums, as compared to state cross country on Saturday, in which droves of people gathered together along the ropes to watch runners at the finish lines.
