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Athletics forced to deal with a pandemic reality
North Crawford and Seneca school districts
Football Field
CHARLEY PREUSSER
Published: Aug 7, 2020, 2:29 PM

NORTH CRAWFORD AND SENECA - It looks like athletics are about to run straight into the COVID-19 Pandemic and the fallout will be large.

Already, professional sports are struggling to find a way around the giant pandemic obstacle. 

The NBA (National Basketball Association) has opted for quarantining players in a large sports complex and playing games there, while the players live inside the complex-the Orlando Bubble.

The NFL (National Football League) decided to cancel all pre-season games and start with the first regular season game in September.

Major League Baseball (MLB) started their reduced 60-game regular season recently and is playing games with no fans present in the stands. Unfortunately, the Florida Marlins have already reported an outbreak of COVID infection on the team with at least a dozen players testing positive for the virus.

On the college-level, there have been cancellations of the upcoming football season. Both the Ivy League and the Patriot League cancelled their football seasons. This week, the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) cancelled the football season and fall sports. 

What will happen to UW-Madison’s football season in the Big Ten Conference is also unknown at this point. There is talk of a 10-game regular season only. If the UW football season cancels completely, the lost revenue will exceed $100 million, according to ESPN.

Then, there are high school sports. Will there be high school football this season? The WIAA (Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association) has delayed the start of practices and games for the fall sports seasons. (See story in this edition.) However, the WIAA Board voted 8-3 to allow the seasons to be determined by the schools and conferences themselves. 

The WIAA Board declined to embrace a planned forwarded by 35 school district administrators from Southwest Wisconsin that would have not played fall sports in fall, but rather in spring and then sent the spring sports into a summer season. The board allowed that such a plan could be pursued by local schools on their own.

The Big Eight Conference, which includes the large schools in the Madison area, has already cancelled the entire fall sports season.

Amidst the confusion about sports being played in the pandemic, two local school district administrators (Seneca’s Dave Boland and North Crawford’s Brandon Munson) offered some thoughts on the current situation earlier this week.

“It’s a fluid situation,” Dave Boland said. “There are still a lot of pieces in play.”

As for the WIAA Board’s action and letter last week essentially delaying the start of the fall seasons, Boland ssees no major effect.

“I don’t think moving the seasons back addresses most of the concerns,” Boland said. “I guess it gives people more time to think about it. More time for school boards to decide.”

The Seneca administrator said that he had heard 51 percent of district administrators statewide wanted the fall season moved to spring.

The Seneca Area School District Board will meet on August 17 and is expected to decide how to proceed with fall sports at that time.

North Crawford District Administrator Brandon Munson compared the situation with sports this fall to the academic plan put in place for the district.

“It’s a tougher situation to navigate than the academic side,” Munson said. “We don’t have any guidance. It’s really hard. We were hoping for the CESA 3 plan to be accepted.”

The North Crawford District Administrator noted what happened in college towns like LaCrosse when the ‘Safe at Home’ order was removed.

Munson explained that just reopening the school safely will be challenging enough. He believes despite the best efforts at social distancing and mask wearing there will be some contact.

“They’re kids after all,” Munson said. “Things are bound to happen.”

However, the school has a plan to attempt to mitigate risks of exposure to the virus–a very serious plan.

“So, at 3:35 p.m. that all goes to the wayside?” Munson wondered.

“We’re between a rock and a hard place,” Munson said. “Are we going to be the only district not playing or cancelling the seasons. It’s an impossible position. It’s a lot harder than the academic side.”

Munson said the district can institute things for the coaches to do at practice that could help mitigate the transmission of the virus. However, what happens once the game starts is another matter.

“There’s a lot we can’t control,” Munson said. “Once they’re on the field or the court, it will look like any other year.”

As for last week’s WIAA Board guidance, Munson felt that it didn’t provide much help.

“Moving the timeline (for starting the seasons) did not accomplish much,” Munson said. “It probably has not solved a thing.”

Munson believes there will be a special North Crawford School Board meeting scheduled soon to make a decision on fall sports. He noted the board could decide to proceed with all three sports or cancel all three, or it could consider each sport individually.

WIAC cancels

Following a very deliberative process to allow for full consideration of the most up-to-date information pertaining to COVID-19, the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) has announced updates to the fall sports season.

Conference seasons and championships in the sports of football, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country are to be canceled for the 2020-21 academic year. Institutions will retain the autonomy to establish practice opportunities within the limitations stipulated by the NCAA throughout the 2020-21 academic year.

All competition in the sports of women’s tennis & women’s golf will be suspended for the 2020-21 fall term. The WIAC seasons and championships in the sports of women’s tennis and women’s golf will be moved to the 2020-21 spring term. Institutions will retain the autonomy to establish practice opportunities within the limitations stipulated by the NCAA during the fall term.

Determinations with regards to the winter sports season, including the start date and the manner in which competition will be conducted, will be determined at a later date.

Any practice opportunities or competitions must be conducted in accordance with NCAA resocialization guidelines in effect at that time, in addition to any mandated restrictions imposed by local, county or campus entities.

For further information or questions, please contact WIAC Commissioner Danielle Harris at dharris@uwsa.edu or (608) 263-4402.
Boland retires from Seneca
After decades
Seneca School District
CHARLEY PREUSSER
Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout
Published: Mar 26, 2025, 1:43 PM

Seneca School District Administrator David Boland’s resignation from his position was accepted by the Seneca School Board at their meeting on Monday, following a closed session discussion.

David Boland has had a long career at the school including serving as a teacher, athletic coach, principal and district administrator. Boland will formally retire from his current administrator position effective June 30, 2025.

During the public input portion of the meeting, Seneca Director of Food Service Michelle Updike requested that the board consider a change to graduation. She proposed letting staff members hand diplomas to students at graduation. Updike is also the parent of a high school student.

Updike explained that staff members could be chosen by individual students because of a special impact that staff member may have had on that student.

The current policy is to have designated school board members hand out the diplomas at graduation.

Seneca teacher and parent Shelly Davidson agreed with Updike’s idea. She added that the staff member need not be a high school teacher, but could even be a kindergarten teacher.

Board member Britany Joy asked if coaches could be included as eligible to hand out the diplomas as staff members.

Seneca School District Administrator Dave Boland said if the designation was staff members, it would include not only teachers, but paraprofessionals, coaches and anyone else who works for the district.

Updike told the board that she would poll the senior class to see if they favored having staff members, as well as school board members, be eligible to hand out their diplomas.

Boland emphasized that if the change was made it would include a list on the back of the program denoting what person was giving a diploma to each student. To accomplish this, the board would have to decide by April, so that information could be gathered in a timely fashion for inclusion in the program.

The next item discussed impacted the date of the next meeting. The third Monday next month is April 21. However, because of spring break and family plans, four board members indicated they could not make the meeting. After some discussion, it was agreed that the next Seneca School Board meeting would be held on Monday, April 14.

The school calendar was explained and discussed. Phy ed teacher and volleyball coach Shelly Davidson asked if the parent-teacher conferences could be changed, because the date chosen means she can never attend a parent-teacher conference, because they are held on the same dates as the state high school  volleyball tournament, which she attends every year.

In a discussion, the board considered moving the date of conferences back two weeks. The calendar approval was tabled for more study.

The senior class trip expenses were also discussed. Teacher and senior class advisor Michele  Updike said that the senior class funds are used to pay for the substitute teacher for class advisors, who are often teachers. The cost can range from $700 to $900 if both class advisors are teachers. Updike pointed out that can be close to 10 percent of the funds raised by the senior class, which are often around $10,000.

Updike asked that school district to consider paying for the substitute teachers when needed, to replace teachers acting as class advisors on the school trip, creating more funds for the senior class to use.

Shelly Davidson asked if it would be possible to use professional development funds from the missing teachers to pay for the subs.

District administrator Dave Boland explained switching those funds would not be possible.

School board member Crisse Reynolds suggested that perhaps the district could share the cost of the substitutes with the class.

After more discussion, Seneca School Board president Shawn Lenzendorf said she had no problem with the cost of the substitutes being paid by the district. Lenzendorf moved to pay costs of any substitute teachers hired to replace teachers because they were acting as class advisors on the senior class trip. The motion was seconded by Adam Green and passed unanimously by the board.

During the discussion, Green had said he was shocked when he learned the senior class was paying for substitute teachers for the class advisors going on the trip.

In other business, the Seneca Area School District:

• approved the 2025 CESA #3 contract to provide specialized services to the district with a 2.5% increase that was well explained by the agency’s director Jamie Nutter

• learned that the district had chosen a Skyward automated time sheet program that was less expensive than the alternative and fit with other Skyward programs already in use by the district

• learned roof leaks around drains in some previous heavy rains were fixed under warranty

The Seneca Area School District’s Monthly Recognition Award was given to the Royals’ boys and girls basketball teams and to the North Crawford Seneca Wrestling Team’s Seneca wrestlers; Jaren Grimsled, Thomas Sprosty and Sawyer Swiggum for wrestling in the sectional and to Grimsled and Swiggum for wrestling the WIAA State Wrestling Tournament.