The Badger Conference appears to be taking a proactive approach to finding more athletic opportunities during the winter season for girls in Wisconsin.
Waunakee superintendent Gene Hamele told his colleagues on the WIAA Board of Control Friday that his school district is talking about adding girls bowling on a club-sport basis. The hope is, Hamele said, that other Badger schools would follow Waunakee's lead.
``We're discussing it,'' Hamele said. ``At least in Waunakee, there is enough interest expressed. Our (school) board will take a look at it at the next meeting. . . . If we get enough interest in it and other schools do, too, we may get to a situation where we want to sponsor it as a conference sport.''
Bowling and ice hockey have been the most-mentioned among potential additions to the winter sports menu for girls. Currently, only basketball and gymnastics are available for girls in the winter and there are only 96 gymnastics teams -- 22 of them cooperative programs -- among the 420-plus schools in the WIAA membership.
Meanwhile, superintendent Phil Sobocinski of Monona Grove, in a letter to WIAA executive director Doug Chickering, has asked that the WIAA study the sequencing of girls and boys sports in all seasons. The goal would be to even out the offerings for boys and girls from season-to-season.
``From a numbers standpoint, it would appear there is an imbalance there,'' Chickering said. ``What a lot of people don't realize is those are the seasons where schools were offering club sports for girls when the WIAA became involved. When we picked them up, they were already in place.''
And history says moving a sport from one season to another for the sake of balance is easier said than done. During discussions of this issue, Chickering has pointed to the three failed attempts to move girls swimming from fall to winter.
``With flip-flopping, we're severely criticized by advocates of boys programs saying that throws us way out of sync with other programs provided on a non-school basis,'' he said. ``If we have them both at the same time of the year, school administrators tell us we were able to build these (pool) facilities on the premise that the public would have reasonable access to them. If you put both programs in the winter, you take that opportunity away from them.''
Milestones
Hustisford boys basketball coach Kirk Kaul recorded his 200th career victory with the Falcons' win Tuesday over Williams Bay. . . . The Johnson Creek girls ended a 32-game Eastern Suburban Conference losing streak with Thursday's 32-31 win over Deerfield. Angel Haumschild's basket with 9 seconds remaining was the game-winner for the Bluejays, whose last ESC victory also came against the Demons, 35-33, Feb. 10, 1995. . . . Cashton's Kristi Larson went over the 1,000-point mark for her career when she hit the game-winning shot ahead of the final buzzer Jan. 16 to beat Royall, 47-45.
From the road
Two days before Jimmy The Groundhog offered his opinion of spring's approach, we saw a sign that winter's days are numbered: Kids in short-sleeves at Middleton serving up brats at the ``Polar Bear Cookout.'' . . . If the sound system at the Kohl Center is as good as we're told it is, then justice says Sound Project 2000 of Sun Prairie High School gets the first state tournament sound check and/or full-fledged gig. . . . Staffer Paul Krueger was treated to a free throw clinic last Tuesday covering the Barneveld-Pecatonica girls game. The teams were a combined 14-for-14 at the foul line in the first quarter.
This and that
Chickering said 13 schools have come forward seeking WIAA assistance in their bid to build new press boxes without mandatory elevators. A recent change in the interpretation for the building code for such structures requires they be handicapped-accessible, meaning built with an elevator or wheelchair lift. . . . Under the seeding plan for the WIAA football playoffs approved Friday, two 1997 champions -- Marshfield in Division 1 and Oconto Falls in Division 3 -- would have been No. 4 seeds in their grouping. Also, Division 6 runner-up River Ridge would have been the only unseeded team to make the state finals. . . . Jim Hoehn, whose WISPREP sports information service compiles the prep basketball scores for Associated Press, reports there were 300 boys and girls results phoned in Friday night, the most in one night in WISPREP's 11-year history.
Alumni update
Former Dodgeville athlete Travis Wellington has left the Viterbo College men's basketball team and transferred to UWC-Richland. He played in four games for the V-Hawks. . . . Former Verona athlete Sarah Schuetz, a senior on the women's basketball team at Butler, is averaging 17.9 points and 7.5 rebounds. Her Bulldogs host UW-Green Bay Thursday.
