Decisions on transfer students, three winters sports made

The WIAA Board of Control reviewed and acted on coaches committee recommendations impacting winter sports and additional accommodations for transfer students in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at its annual meeting.

The board voted to provide one-time unrestricted eligibility in 2021-22 for student transfers that choose to return to their most recent previous school or after 365 days if they remain at the school they transferred to in 2020-21 because of a better-suited instructional model.

The state meet in gymnastics will be altered beginning this season. The Division 1 and Division 2 meets will be held on separate days at Wisconsin Rapids, which will combine the individual and team components in each division into one meet with the gymnasts only competing one time in an event.

Two wrestling coaches’ recommendations received approval, effective this winter.

The first implements seeding at the state individual tournament for all qualifiers in all divisions. Trackwrestling.com will calculate and determine placement on brackets using the criteria developed by the coaches association.

The second was an amended recommendation to change the regular-season maximum number of matches for individuals to 50 with the total number of events for a team remaining at 14 without the limitation of multi-school events within that number.

In hockey, the board supported a coaches’ recommendation to alter the overtime procedure during the playoffs.

After an 8-minute overtime period, the former 12-minute rest period followed by a 17-minute sudden victory overtime will be eliminated. Play will resume after a 3-minute rest period with a 5-minute, four-on-four sudden victory period and then continue with the existing subsequent overtime protocol.

– WIAA staff