STEVENS POINT – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) recently announced several changed/initiatives from its June meeting for the upcoming fall/winter seasons.
Girls’ wrestling state tournament
The board of control approved the addition of a state tournament series for girls’ wrestling beginning with the 2021-22 season.
Girls and boys will be permitted to wrestle each other during the regular season, but the tournament series will be gender exclusive.
Basketball, hockey changes
For basketball, a computerized seeding system for the state tournament series will be used.
This action will require members designated as the home team to enter the scores of their regular-season games into the WIAA score center database.
In hockey, the board approved retaining a two-division state tournament series indefinitely by eliminating the experimental language from the existing regulations.
Also approved was a recommendation for the state boys’ hockey tournament to involve the head coaches of qualifying teams for both divisions to determine seeds for each division.
The board also implemented an eight-minute, sudden-victory overtime period followed by a five-minute, three-on-three period during the regular season.
If no winner is determined after the two overtime periods, the game is recorded as a tie.
In a tie following regulation during the tournament series, an eight-minute, sudden-victory overtime period will be played.
If no victor is determined, the ice will be resurfaced followed by a 17-minute, sudden-victory overtime period.
If a winner is still not determined, a five-minute, four-on-four, sudden-victory period will be played and then a five-minute, three-on-three, sudden-victory period, if necessary.
If a winner remains undecided, a 17-minute, three-on-three, sudden-victory period will be played after a resurfacing of the ice.
State tournament ticket prices
To address the impact on the operational budget following the cancellation of revenue-producing tournaments during the COVID-19 pandemic, the board approved several executive staff recommendations to increase revenue during the 2020-21 school year.
All regional, sectional and state tournament ticket prices will be increased $1.
In addition, state tournament school mileage reimbursements for team and individual travel will decrease 50 cents per mile for 2020-21 only, and the regional and sectional host revenue sharing percentage will be decreased by 5 percent for one year only.