Two of Ripon High School’s fall sports — cross country and girls’ tennis — began practicing Monday.

But the future of them, as well as the other three that can begin Sept. 7 — football, boys’ soccer and volleyball — remains in the air.

The Ripon Area School Board will hold a special meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12:30 p.m. to discuss whether to utilize an alternative season for some or all fall sports that are being allowed in the spring.

This comes after the WIAA Board of Control approved several details of a one-year alternative season in the spring for fall sports and reduced the number of weeks for sports during the 2020-21 winter and spring seasons at its August monthly meeting last week Friday.

The WIAA board also established the parameters and context of the alternate fall season with seven weeks of competition in the spring.

“What we need to decide, I think, as a collective [group] here is what we think we need to do in the best interests of our students here at Ripon,” Athletic Director Bill Kinziger said during Monday’s regular School Board meeting.

Superintendent Mary Whitrock added that “depending on what happens with those teams, we could potentially be impacting our academic environment as well.”

Kinziger was asked if he knew the student-athlete’s feelings on the issue and he noted, “If they were like me, I would want to play.”

School Board member Betsy Heffernan echoed that thought, saying her son, J.P Stanfield, is “go, go, go” about cross country.

Whitrock, who’s son Isaac is a junior for the varsity soccer team and has been chomping at the bit since school went virtual this past spring, noted the excitement is there for both parents and athletes, but that the district needs to look out for everyone’s best interest.

“The excitement and enthusiasm from parents of a varsity athlete is going to be in many ways supportive of their sports’ season with the optimism and hope that it’s going to be a great, healthy season,” she said. “However, should that team or members of that team become infected with COVID and become deathly ill, the question isn’t going to be whether the parent chose to have their child participate, it’s going to be what decision did the administrators and School Board take with the information that they had to put reasonable measures in place. So that’s a tough decision for all of us to have [to make].”

Whitrock added she connected with superintendents in the East Central Conference Monday to try to get on the same page and that meeting also included athletic directors and high school principals.

The group will meet again Thursday, Aug. 27, when she can pass along the School Board’s decision from today’s special meeting.

“Ideally you move as a conference so your team has teams to play,” Whitrock said, to which Kinziger pointed out there will be a “COVID Games Wanted” tab on the WIAA website for schools who need to find teams to play.

Backup plans, as well as other changes

If the School Board decides to go forward this fall with all of its sports, the WIAA has a plan in place should the coronavirus were to get worse and schools needed to change their thinking and cancel the season.

According to a release WIAA sent out last week Friday, football programs unable to start or complete 50% of the fall season, including games and practices, are eligible for a prorated alternate season.

Other fall sports unable to start or complete 50% of the fall season, including games and practices, are eligible for a complete alternate season. Fall sports programs exceeding 50% of their seasons will be considered a completed season.

For planning and scheduling purposes, schools will be required to initially declare if they plan to participate in the traditional fall season or the alternate fall season in the spring by Tuesday, Sept. 1.

The revised sports calendar, which is available at www.wiaawi.org, replaces the existing 2020-21 season calendars and identifies — in addition to an alternate fall season in the spring with seven weeks of competition — a period of no coaching contact prior to the start of the respective sport seasons; an acclimatization or practice period before the first allowed competition; and the designated number of weeks for the winter and spring seasons, including any culminating event.

The board also addressed a number of other rules and regulations to be modified or suspended in 2020-21 to provide flexibility to members and licensed officials during the pandemic.

• If tournament series are conducted, regional groupings will be implemented (four teams in football).
• Minimum number of contests requirements for tournament eligibility will be suspended in 2020-21.
•  Tournament series seeding will be conducted virtually in 2020-21.
•  Non-border, out-of-state competitions or practices are strongly discouraged.
• Multiple-team events from outside a host’s region are strongly discouraged.
• Co-op programs that include schools that are unable to participate in activities during 2020-21 may seek other co-op partners to provide opportunities for participation.
• With conference approval, schools whose conference has canceled sports in 2020-21 may seek schedule relief with other conferences as an independent without sanctions or going through the prescribed conference realignment process.
•  For 2020-21, programs may schedule contests after they are eliminated from the WIAA tournament or culminating event in the respective sport’s revised season.
•  Schools that were unable to conduct their five unrestricted coaching contact days during the 2020 summer may schedule those days during the 2020-21 calendar provided there is one week of no contact prior to the start of the respective season. However, during the closed-session meeting, the board directed staff to have discussions on coaching contact during 2020-21 placed on the agenda of the September meeting.
• Licensed officials will not drop in classification in 2021-22 if they choose not to renew licensure or are unable to fill a varsity schedule in 2020-21.