View from the cheap seats

A weekly perspective on sports

Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review

The high school fall sports regular seasons are coming to an end soon, meaning now is the time teams either step up and win conference championships or fall just short of accomplishing their goal.

Stratford’s varsity football team is in the driver’s seat to win its first Central Wisconsin Conference-Large (CWCLarge) championship this year. Stratford just needs to beat winless Spencer/Columbus on the road this week and then defeat the conference’s other undefeated squad, Amherst, next week to capture the CWC-Large title.

Edgar’s football team, meanwhile, needs help to win the Marawood Conference championship this fall. Edgar needs to beat unbeaten Auburndale this Friday on the road and then hope Auburndale defeats Colby next Friday so there is a three-way tie for first place in the conference, resulting in all three teams sharing the conference title.

The Edgar Wildcats and Stratford Tigers are already in the WIAA playoffs this season. The Marathon Red Raiders, however, need to win their final two regular- season games against Pittsville this Friday and Edgar next week to have an over .500 conference record which is required to qualify for the playoffs.

Each of the six Marawood Conference football schools are playing two games against the six-member Central Wisconsin Conference-Small (CWC-Small) this season. The kicker is these football games count in the Marawood Conference standings.

There’s not a level playing field because the Marawood football squads are not playing against the same CWC-Small schools this season. Marathon and Pittsville are the only Marawood Conference football teams who played against Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, which is by far the best squad in the CWC-Small this year. Assumption has a 6-1 record and is ranked No. 8 in Division 7 this week.

Undefeated Auburndale, meanwhile, played against cupcake CWC-Small football opponents Loyal and Wild Rose this season. Well actually Auburndale received a forfeit win against Wild Rose which cancelled its 11-man regular season schedule when it didn’t have enough players. Auburndale thus has more overall wins, eight, than any other Marawood Conference football squad this season.

Auburndale technically obtained two wins in the same week with a forfeit victory against Wild Rose and a non-conference win against Hurley, which was the opponent that filled Wild Rose’s spot in the schedule.

Marathon’s football team easily beat CWC-Small squad Rosholt but it got dominated by Assumption. How is it fair that only Marathon and Pittsville played against Assumption this season? If Marathon would’ve played one of the other cupcake CWC-Small teams like Loyal this season, then the Red Raiders would already be eligible for the WIAA playoffs if they defeat the Pittsville Panthers this Friday.