By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – Despite most area high schools moving their fall sports to the alternate season next spring established by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, Notre Dame Academy, members of the Fox River Classic Conference, plans to play now.
Although difficult to predict what a season could look like, Notre Dame Athletic Director Matthew Koenig said he feels it’s important for the school to move forward with fall sports.
“We’re going to attempt to play now,” he said. “It may work, it may not. There are many factors why we want to play now. If you look at playing next spring, girls’ golf and girls’ tennis would start in early March. Would there be snow for cross country meets? You’re rolling the dice with the weather when participating that early in the spring.”
Coaches and parents have been surveyed, and Koenig said the results have been mixed.
“Our community has a deep appreciation and passion for the FRCC,” he said. “Thinking about what a potential season would look like this fall, kids won’t be playing conference games. We would join another conference or mix and match games. Kids and parents are saying they’d like to play in the spring, so they can play FRCC schools. It’s about 50-50.”
On Aug. 14, the Green Bay Area Public School District, which includes East, Preble, Southwest and West high schools, announced it was taking advantage of the WIAA’s spring proposal.
Four days later, the FRCC said it was doing the same.
The other area FRCC teams include Ashwaubenon, Bay Port, De Pere and Pulaski.
“I think the superintendents meeting deciding how to move forward in the FRCC caught everyone a little off-guard,” said Koenig. “The superintendents have lots on their plate right now, but I think most of us wanted more time before a decision was made. I respect their decision, and I think they respect our decision, too. There are no hard feelings for us wanting to play. Some other athletic directors have reached out to me and said, ‘I hope you can make it work.’”
Denmark, Seymour, West De Pere and Wrightstown are the other local high schools committing to play now, but both Seymour and West De Pere are members of the Bay Conference.
West De Pere, which was supposed to be in the FRCC for football this year, was accepted back into the Bay for this season only.
“There’s nothing firm yet, but I found out (Aug. 24) we’re not able to join the North Eastern Conference,” said Koenig. “We’re waiting to hear what limited options are out there. We have a long road ahead.”
The WIAA set a deadline of Sept. 1 for schools to decide on playing now or moving to the spring.
“There are still plenty of schools deciding what to do,” Koenig said. “If a school drops out, maybe a conference would come back to me and ask for games.”
Koenig said many conferences are going to conference-only games, which makes it even more difficult to schedule.
“I sent out an email to 125 athletic directors last week which said, ‘Notre Dame is here if you need us,’” he said. “I’m getting responses back, but many are in the same boat as us. I know parents and my coaches are anxious – they want to know if we’re going full-go or not. We should know more this week.”
Koenig also said there could be conflicts with moving fall sports to the alternate season in the spring with the scheduled spring season, which starts in mid-April for some sports.
“We have a football player who’s also a good golfer,” he said. “What happens if you have a big football game on the same night as a conference golf meet? It puts that kid in a tough spot. That’s another reason we’re going to attempt to play now.”
Koenig said he’s still not sure about fans at games if the Tritons play this fall.
“We were in the process of putting together our sport-to-sport guidelines for the fall and what that was going to reflect, but once the superintendents put a kibosh to the FRCC season, it got put on the back burner,” he said. “I have athletic director friends from Ohio I can learn from. Ohio has its first set of games coming up this week and knowing our first home football game wouldn’t be until Sept. 25, I can keep an eye on that. I know people want answers, but I can wait a bit and see how it goes in other states. I’m trying to stay optimistic.”