The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association did the correct thing Thursday after a formal appeal from four small schools and a public shaming. But the August 28 Ithaca-Weston game is no longer being forced to count as a forfeit against Wauzeka-Steuben/Seneca. WIAA reversed course, and it will be considered a no-contest.
Ithaca-Weston initially chose to cancel the game due to the tragic death of Briggs Maxwell, a 14-year-old player. He was a freshman running back and linebacker for the new Ithaca-Weston co-op. On the morning of August 27, he was hurt in a skid-loader accident on a farm in the Town of Ithaca and died that day. The district canceled athletics on Thursday and Friday, including the nonconference game against Wauzeka-Steuben/Seneca. Instead of a game, the town rallied together and held a memorial in the high school gym.
The WIAA’s initial reaction was to count the game as a forfeit loss for Ithaca-Weston. The association’s own calendar rule treats nonconference games canceled after June 15 as forfeits. Stringent, inflexible adherence to the rule book, not decency following the tragic death of a player, drove the call. Ithaca-Weston had opened the season with a win. Three more wins followed after Maxwell’s death. A phantom loss in the middle of that would be a stain on a record the boys were playing through grief.
Both sidelines asked for a no-contest. Ithaca-Weston and Wauzeka-Steuben/Seneca made the joint appeal on September 21. The WIAA first said it was reviewing the appeal. On Thursday, it flipped the result. WKOW reported the executives approved the change after “further review.” Further review was the embarrassing backlash the WIAA received over its insensitive decision. Ithaca-Weston football said the association had to work through the WIAA’s bureaucratic layers to land on a ruling consistent with bylaws.
Give the WIAA the point for reversing. A forfeit punishes a team that will not show up or cannot field eligible players. Loyal/Greenwood forfeited a Week 2 win this month after an eligibility mistake and took a year of probation. That is a forfeit. Canceling 24 hours after a freshman dies in a farm accident is ghoulish, and nowhere close to the same.
We here at the Heartland Post pointed out that this was the latest in a string of poorly constructed, overly punitive decisions the WIAA board has made. This is the WIAA: A pattern of rigid eligibility fights, transfer denials that end in court, and an agency that spent political capital convincing Gov. Tony Evers to veto a bill that would have put it under the public-records law. Parents and lawmakers have watched decision after decision hurt the students it claims to support. The Maxwell forfeit fit the brand. The reversal is the first evidence this week that someone inside the building can still have a basic level of common sense even if they needed three extra weeks to catch up.
Briggs Maxwell liked the Bears, hunting, and his sister Jacey. His teammates went back to work against Cashton and kept winning. The standings should never have asked them to explain a loss they did not play. The WIAA got there. Late and under pressure. The next time a Wisconsin school mourns a player on a Thursday, the association shouldn’t force the team to forfeit a game on Friday.
