Sauk Prairie still planning to have fall sports

The schedule will look different. Dates, times and opponents remain up in the air. But Sauk Prairie’s athletic programs still hope to have a fall sports season. The Badger Conference — which the Eagles are a part of — announced last week that it will not have league competitions or crown conference champions in the fall of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven of the conference’s 16 schools are in Dane County and are restricted by the county’s health guidelines, which will limit full participation by those schools this fall.  Sauk Prairie elected to stay the course, though, and will schedule events against the remaining teams inside the Badger Conference and others in the area. Sauk Prairie offers football, boys and girls cross country, girls golf, girls tennis, girls volleyball, girls swimming and boys soccer in the fall. “Right now, we are hopeful that we can still participate and have a fall season with schools in our conference and surrounding area that decide they too can safely play,” Eagles athletic director Josh Boyer said. “If the options of the fall do not come to fruition, we will work on exploring and planning what a spring opportunity would look like for fall sports.”  The Badger Conference includes 16 schools in seven different counties – Dane, Sauk, Rock, Green, Jefferson, Dodge and Columbia. Madison Edgewood, Monona Grove, Oregon, Stoughton, DeForest, Mount Horeb and Waunakee are all in Dane County. The WIAA Board of Control recently announced that it will hold a fall sports season, but that the start to the season will be delayed. Girls golf, girls swimming, girls tennis and boys and girls cross country — all considered low-risk by health officials — can begin practicing Aug. 17. Football, boys soccer, and both boys and girls volleyball — which are considered the higher risk sports — cannot begin practice until the week of Sept. 7. The earliest dates for the first competitions are Aug. 20 for girls golf, Aug. 21 for girls tennis, Aug. 25 for cross country, and girls swimming and diving. The earliest permissible date for the first boys soccer, and boys and girls volleyball contests are Sept. 15. And the first possible football game may be scheduled for Sept. 23 if the first practice is conducted on Sept. 7. “Again, we are doing everything we can to hopefully still play fall sports this fall,” Boyer said. “These are unique times and what we have been accustomed to or expected out of schedules of athletic contests for each season will most likely not be the case for this upcoming school year as we will experience differences in how things are scheduled.” The WIAA Board of Control has said that schools which are unable to start fall sports in 2020 may have an opportunity to conduct their fall seasons in the spring. The Board of Control directed its executive staff to develop details and calendars for an alternative three-sport season in the second semester of the 2020-21 school year, but how exactly that will work remains a major question. Boys basketball is the final winter sport with an end date of March 20. Spring sports such as track and field (March 8) and softball (March 15) begin before winter sports even end. So how schools will wedge fall sports between winter and spring sports remains hazy. For now, that’s a path Sauk Prairie would rather avoid. Badger Conference members Reedsburg and Baraboo (Sauk County), along with Portage (Columbia County), Fort Atkinson (Jefferson County), Milton (Rock County), Beaver Dam (Dodge County) and Watertown (Dodge and Jefferson counties) are all still planning to have a fall sports season. Monroe is looking to leave the Badger Conference for this school year alone and join the Rock Valley Conference. Janesville Craig and Janesville Parker (both Rock County) are part of the Badger Conference for football only. “We understand the need to be flexible, adaptable, and use creative thinking as we move forward and appreciate the understanding of our school communities as we continue to work together to navigate the COVID-19 situation,” the Badger Conference said in a statement. “Therefore, we are committed to offering opportunities to our students, assuming it is safe and allowable as determined by public health.” Boyer hopes the opportunity remains — and that fall sports can occur at Sauk Prairie. “We have always viewed sports as an important component to the educational process,” Boyer said. “Participation in sports provides opportunities for developing and cultivating a variety of skills, such as communication, teamwork, discipline, leadership skills and respect for others.  “In addition, participation in sports encourages healthy choices, leads to increased physical activity, and is simply fun. Therefore, we are committed to offering this opportunity to students, assuming it is safe and allowable as determined by public health.”