Rice Lake heading to state - Wisconsin football

[Voyageur]

Rice Lake knocked off West DePere last night to make it to state a second year in a row. My Brother's Grandson plays for Rice Lake, and this is his second trip. His older Brother made it down there, and was on a state championship team.

Rice Lake is one of the smaller schools, whose football program is amazing. They moved them up into a higher level, and are playing against schools twice their size, in Division II.

A long time ago, a guy named Vern Pottinger, whom I knew as the head football coach at Belvidere HS, in Illinois, left the city and started teaching in Rice Lake, where he took over the football program. Since then, he brought it to one of the best in the state, and passed it on to one of his assistants, whose football acumen is a lot like Vern's. Anyone who believes a coach can't turn a program that's weak into a winner in HS, doesn't understand just how important the entire culture of football is in communities. It's why there are programs in the South that are amazingly strong.

 

[weeds]

Rice Lake knocked off West DePere last night to make it to state a second year in a row. My Brother's Grandson plays for Rice Lake, and this is his second trip. His older Brother made it down there, and was on a state championship team.

Rice Lake is one of the smaller schools, whose football program is amazing. They moved them up into a higher level, and are playing against schools twice their size, in Division II.

A long time ago, a guy named Vern Pottinger, whom I knew as the head football coach at Belvidere HS, in Illinois, left the city and started teaching in Rice Lake, where he took over the football program. Since then, he brought it to one of the best in the state, and passed it on to one of his assistants, whose football acumen is a lot like Vern's. Anyone who believes a coach can't turn a program that's weak into a winner in HS, doesn't understand just how important the entire culture of football is in communities. It's why there are programs in the South that are amazingly strong.

The coach is EVERYTHING in my book.

 

[Poppa San]

Rice Lake is one of the smaller schools, whose football program is amazing. They moved them up into a higher level, and are playing against schools twice their size, in Division II.

D2 with 7 divisions isn't a small school. Plus there is an 8-players division for the really small schools.

 

[weeds]

D2 with 7 divisions isn't a small school. Plus there is an 8-players division for the really small schools.

Oh, and it gets better. The WIAA penalizes small schools who consistently win by kicking them up into the higher division - even if they're winning as one of the smallest school in their conference. The divisions used to be dictated by actual enrollment, and you'll know what I'm talking about since we both went to small schools that were relatively close to each other, limiting the talent pool by "school districts".

I could be wrong but my understanding is that now parents can send their kids to whatever school they want to - not necessarily for a better educational experience. You know what I'm getting at....and you need to look no further than schools like St. Mary's Springs out of Fond du Lac - "We don't recruit football players!"

When we were in school, there was a "WIAA" for public schools and a "WISSA" for parochial/private schools. I can say point blank that the WISSA schools actively recruited athletes in the mid to late 70's in that Manitowoc had two private/parochial schools that actually offered tuition and travel to and from Manitowoc to come there - to me and two of my grade school teammates (none of us went there), through our religiously "involved" parents to continue our Catholic and Lutheran educations. Those offers weren't made to the smartest kids in school - we were part of a grade school program that was very successful. Needless to say, my father and mother weren't happy with my refusal to go there.

Now I'm surprised when a non-private school makes it to the highest level of the playoffs which didn't exist when I was in school with the WIAA. I do remember Roncalli winning a state football championship in the 70's with WISSA but really didn't pay attention to whether they had playoffs or just a "declatory" champion.

 

[Voyageur]

D2 with 7 divisions isn't a small school. Plus there is an 8-players division for the really small schools.

I was actually referring to Rice Lake being the lowest student body size in the division. They were moved up from D3 last year. They were moved because of performance levels, not students. There are schools that are much larger than Rice Lake who are in D3. In fact, based on student numbers, the Rice Lake ranking would be in the lower 1/3 of D3 schools.

One of the factors that effects Rice Lake is that they play D1 schools for the most part during the regular season. They play in the Big Rivers Conference which consists of:

Chippewa Falls - 1,424
Eau Claire Memorial - 1666
Eau Claire North - 1697
Hudson - 1732
Menomonie - 966
New Richmond - 1,088
Rice Lake - 706
River Falls - 1.123
Superior -1,273

Menomonie is a D3, while Hudson, Eau Claire North, Eau Claire Memorial, and Chippewa Falls are all D1 schools.

Their non-conference schedule included Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln, 1,380 students, DC Everest, 1,390, and Marshfield, 1,242.

Slinger has 1,041 students.

The smallest in their division, but their 11-3 record, with only two losses, and against D1 schools during the regular season, and to a team that's truly a D2 school in the state finals? It speaks for itself. One really good program. Other schools should look to it, and emulate it. Hill's program is right out of Pottinger's playbook for success, which brought him state championships with the big boys in Illinois, and again in Wisconsin.

Enrollment numbers & unofficial divisional projections for the 2024 football season

The 2024 high school football season is just a few weeks away, but it's never too early to start thinking about the playoffs. Enrollment numbers determine divisional placement in the WIAA postseason, but unlike any other sport, football does not have pre-determined divisions at the start of the year

www.wissports.net

 

[Voyageur]

Oh, and it gets better. The WIAA penalizes small schools who consistently win by kicking them up into the higher division - even if they're winning as one of the smallest school in their conference. The divisions used to be dictated by actual enrollment, and you'll know what I'm talking about since we both went to small schools that were relatively close to each other, limiting the talent pool by "school districts".

I could be wrong but my understanding is that now parents can send their kids to whatever school they want to - not necessarily for a better educational experience. You know what I'm getting at....and you need to look no further than schools like St. Mary's Springs out of Fond du Lac - "We don't recruit football players!"

When we were in school, there was a "WIAA" for public schools and a "WISSA" for parochial/private schools. I can say point blank that the WISSA schools actively recruited athletes in the mid to late 70's in that Manitowoc had two private/parochial schools that actually offered tuition and travel to and from Manitowoc to come there - to me and two of my grade school teammates (none of us went there), through our religiously "involved" parents to continue our Catholic and Lutheran educations. Those offers weren't made to the smartest kids in school - we were part of a grade school program that was very successful. Needless to say, my father and mother weren't happy with my refusal to go there.

Now I'm surprised when a non-private school makes it to the highest level of the playoffs which didn't exist when I was in school with the WIAA. I do remember Roncalli winning a state football championship in the 70's with WISSA but really didn't pay attention to whether they had playoffs or just a "declatory" champion.

Rice Lake is punished because they have a great program. They're even put into a conference with all D1 schools, despite being a D3 school by size. They figure they can't do well enough in conference to even make the playoffs. Their way of getting rid of those "pesky" programs who hit above their weight.

And you are right. Schools do recruit top players. Especially parochial schools. In fact, a parochial school that had a history of winning state football championships tried to recruit my #2 son after his freshman year in HS, to play there. The school was 35 miles away, but had a coach and two players from the town where we lived, and they would furnish him transportation to school, and he was essentially guaranteed a full ride in college, to a major D1 university, if he graduated from that parochial school.

I let him choose which way he wanted to go, and he decided he wanted to stay where he was, because that's where his friends were. Good or bad choice? It could have been either, but he did get a degree out of football from a different school, even after he blew out his knee three times playing for them, in a little over a year.