Editorial: If it really is about the students, WIAA must reverse Amherst decision

By Brandi Makuski

The 14 senior Amherst Falcons on Friday played what might (wrongly) be the last game of their high school careers. With their teammates, they played it like champions—besting the Stratford Tigers 28-21 with a degree of dignity and class most adults wouldn’t have been able to muster under the same circumstances.

The 64-member team was notified by the WIAA on Oct. 10 that its season would end on Oct. 14; all of its wins would be forfeited and they’d be disqualified from the playoffs. The reason? One of its players participated in frosh/JV football for Manawa High School in 2018, reportedly violating a rule that states players are only eligible to participate in WIAA sports for four consecutive years.

The student, who was home-schooled at the time and not enrolled in any classes MHS, had exhausted his athletic eligibility during the 2021-22 school year, the WIAA decided.

According to Falcon parents, an anonymous tipster called the WIAA with the allegation after the team played Manawa on Oct. 7, when Amherst crushed the Wolves, 49-0.

In a press release from the Tomorrow River School District last week, Administrator Mike Richie said the school was “extremely disappointed by this unreasonable ruling” from the WIAA.

“The facts, in this case, make it clear that none of the WIAA processes in place at the time would have allowed us to discover this situation,” Richie wrote. “As a result, the WIAA is unfairly harming our district, our student-athletes, and our entire community. We did everything in our power to attempt to get this unfair decision reversed.”

Athletic Director Shawn Groshek told WAOW that records the district has on file for the player show he did not compete in football while enrolled as a sophomore during the 2021-22 year at Amherst High School.

“Instead, he played soccer for Amherst in [the] fall of 2020. In 2021-22 he joined the Amherst football team for his first season of football competition at the school as a junior,” the district’s press release reads.

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates high school sports as far back as 1895. It denied the school’s appeal on Oct. 13. In response, Amherst High School filed an injunction in Portage Co. Court that will be heard on Monday morning.

For those who don’t follow high school sports: For all intents and purposes, these young men and women have already jumped into adulthood. Some rise before dawn, maybe chug a protein shake before hitting the gym or going for a run, then shower and get ready for class. Living in Amherst means many of their players come from farming families. Their involvement in sports comes only after their chores at home.

And Amherst has done it so well. According to a 2015 piece by local sportswriting legend Scott Williams, “every single Amherst player on the field is willing to sacrifice whatever time and energy is required to be bigger, faster, stronger and better prepared than any team showing up on its schedule.”

Those words remain true today. The team regularly tops its conference, and after the Oct. 15 Stratford game, it remains undefeated for the year in conference play.

It means that the Amherst football program has been doing something right for a very long time.

But the decision, which was unanimously approved by WIAA’s Board of Control, presents some important questions. What purpose does this rule serve? Could it be considered discriminatory against homeschoolers who aren’t always uniformly transitioned into public schools?

Also, how does this rule make any sense? Aren’t students already vetted for sports participation via a school’s minimum academic requirements? If a student attends more than four years of high school, they likely aren’t meeting it, but there are clearly exceptions, as we see in this case.

It sounds like a policy problem on the WIAA’s end. Perhaps it should better regulate how it tracks homeschoolers, and how those students participate in organized sports so that four years don’t go by before a potential violation is noticed and retroactively penalized.

Under the WIAA’s own mission statement, its purpose is, in part, to “formulate and maintain policies that will cultivate the high ideals of good citizenship and sportsmanship.”

If the ruling stands, it will show how little regard the organization has for the citizenship and sportsmanship displayed by 64 Falcons—or the results of the players’ hard work, abilities, and sacrifices. This policy has already proven its worthlessness by showing such a disregard for the 63 players who’ve broken no rules—and the athletic staff who say they had no way of knowing one player had, though likely unknowingly so.

Moreover, it strikes at the soul of every Amherst resident whose heart bleeds blue every single fall. People are mad, and not all of them are Falcon parents or have students in Amherst schools. This ruling could have unintended consequences across the entire state.

If you didn’t catch the Friday night game, we’d encourage you to check out Zaleski Sports, which does an excellent job of covering high school contests.

The Falcons aren’t champions because of Friday’s final score. It had to be a hard game to play, knowing it might be their last and that all their work thus far this season could be for naught, at least officially. But there were no cheap shots. No attitude. That’s not easy for any teenager, even in the best of circumstances, but the dignity, honor, and heart displayed by the Falcons that night were damn near heroic.

And for the Stratford Tigers, all one needs to see is the 47-second video from Mike Wendlandt’s (Zaleski Sports) short post on Facebook, which shows the two teams coming together as one for a brief on-field prayer, to know the character of the team they’re cultivating, as well.

The penalty levied against Amherst doesn’t match the rule that WIAA says was broken. This team isn’t involved in a doping scandal and there’s been no allegation of cheating. The punishment doesn’t fit the “crime” in this instance. This is a policy problem with the WIAA, and it should be amended.

To the Falcons: Know that much of your community supports you. While we’re spread out across the 800 square miles of Portage County, our hearts are with you in Amherst.

Editor’s note: Amherst High School is taking the WIAA to court. The injunction hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 17, in Portage Co. Circuit Court Branch I. Watch for coverage on Monday. To donate to the legal fund, click here.