Wisconsin Soccer Central

The WIAA ad-hoc committee charged with finding a way to address competitive balance in prep sports in Wisconsin has come up with a proposal.

Our partners at the Wisconsin Sports Network posted a summary of the committee's Oct. 28 meeting, at which it endorsed a "success factor" proposal as the answer to issues brought up at this year's WIAA annual meeting. Read the summary (pdf)

Under the plan, teams – both public and private – would be assessed points for success in postseason play.

Winning a state title would be worth four points, losing in the state final would be three, losing state semifinalists would be given two points and teams advancing to the final eight would receive one point. Any team collecting seven points or more in a three-year span would be required to move up one division the following season.

Promoted teams would drop back to their regular divisions – as determined by enrollment – once they have fewer than seven points in a three-year span, in any division. Also, teams cannot be promoted in consecutive school years.

The "success factor" would be applied in seven WIAA team sports: boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball, baseball and softball. The proposal calls for it to begin in the 2016-17 school year, using results from the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years as the first three-year span.

If the plan had been in place for the past three years, four boys soccer teams would be moving up for next fall's tournament: Brookfield East and Oregon would move to Division 1, Mount Horeb to Division 2 and Racine Prairie School to Division 3. All four teams would have collected seven points from 2012 through '14.

(As an aside, Milwaukee Marquette would have had eight points, but since the Hilltoppers already play in Division 1, they can't be moved up any higher.)

In girls soccer, five sides would be moving up in 2015, led by Waukesha Catholic Memorial – the Crusaders would have earned the maximum 12 points, having won Division 2 state titles in 2012 and '13 and the Division 3 title this year, and would be placed in Division 2. Mount Horeb (9 points) also would move up to Division 2.

Waukesha West would be pushed into Division 1 after collecting seven points, while the Lake Country Lutheran co-op (8 points) and Prairie School (7 points) would have been promoted to Division 3 based on the past three years' results.

The plan will be presented at the Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association Conference, which starts Saturday in Wisconsin Dells, according to WSN. The ad-hoc committee is scheduled to meet again Nov. 18 and then make its proposal to the WIAA Board of Control on Dec. 5. If the Board of Control approves it, the plan would be put up for a vote by the full WIAA membership at the 2015 annual meeting in April.

The committee, made up of administrators from 21 schools across the state, was formed in May in response to a proposal at this year's annual meeting that would have applied a 1.65 multiplier to all private schools' enrollments for placement in WIAA tournaments. No vote was taken on the multiplier proposal.

• Division 1 boys state champion Marquette won its final 16 games of the season and was unbeaten in its final 20 matches (19-0-1). The Hilltoppers beat Menomonee Falls 4-1 in Saturday's final at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee to extend their record with their 10th WIAA state title in 15 years – it was their 25th overall, as the school won 15 championships in the defunct Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association.
• Private schools have won 31 of the 45 boys state soccer titles awarded since WISAA dissolved in 2000 and its members started to join the WIAA.
• Marquette went 15-0-2 against Wisconsin teams this fall, outscoring them by a 92-14 margin – Kettle Moraine and Whitefish Bay each posted 2-2 draws against the Hilltoppers. Marquette outscored foes 44-4 in winning all six of its playoff games, and its 124 goals in all competitions tied the program record set in 1989.
• Marquette earned the 700th win in program history earlier this season, reaching the milestone in a 2-0 victory over Brookfield Central on Sept. 23. The Hilltoppers have a 715-96-55 record in their 38-year history – they have scored 2,935 goals and allowed just 525, an average game score of 3.39 to 0.61.
• On the heels of its latest title, Marquette rocketed up the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Top 25, rising 12 spots to No. 7 in this week's poll. WIAA Division 2 state champion Brookfield East was among the other teams receiving votes in the NSCAA poll, which will be issued again the next two weeks before the final poll Nov. 25. The Hilltoppers also moved to the top of the Region VI rankings, which also include No. 5 Brookfield East, No. 11 Menomonee Falls, No. 14 Eau Claire Memorial  and No. 15 Beloit Memorial.
• Marquette also moved up five places to No. 15 in this week's Top Drawer Soccer Fab 50 and remained No. 4 in the website's Great Lakes Region rankings. Brookfield East checked in at ninth in the regional rankings.
• Senior forward Brandon Dantone matched a state tournament record by scoring four goals in Menomonee Falls' amazing 5-5 tie with Beloit Memorial in the Division 1 state semifinals Friday night. Dantone scored in the 85th and 87th minutes to level the score for Falls, then gave them the lead with his final goal of the night in the 92nd. The other players with four-game games at state are Neenah's Scott Suprise (1983), Whitefish Bay's Brian Martin (2003), Marquette's Patrick Hodan (2010) and Appleton Xavier's Austin Weigman (2012).
• Brookfield East blanked Pulaski 4-0 in the semifinals and Cedarburg 2-0 in the Division 2 final to claim its third state title – the others were in 1995 and '97. The Spartans, who were making their record 17th state appearance, are the fourth team to post two clean sheets at state en route to winning Division 2 titles, following Whitefish Bay in 1995, Sauk Prairie in 1996 and Mount Horeb in 2011. Brookfield East beat its six postseason opponents by a combined 28-2 margin, recording five shutouts.
• Delavan-Darien, behind the high-scoring duo of senior Juan Rocha and sophomore Tigrio Huerta, scored nine goals at state and outscored playoff foes 33-9. The Comets topped Mount Horeb 3-1 in the Division 3 final for their second state title and first since 2000, scoring all of their goals in a 12-minute span in the first half. Rocha and Huerta combined for 88 goals and 49 assists this season.
• Prairie School stopped Milwaukee Thomas More 2-0 in the Division 4 final to earn its fifth state championship – only Marquette has won more WIAA boys soccer titles. The Hawks also didn't allow a goal in their two state matches, just as they did in winning Division 3 titles in 2004 and '10.
• As noted, all four of this year's champions had previously won state titles. A total of 36 teams have claimed boys state championships in the tournament's 33 years.
• All four state champions were ranked in the final Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association polls of the season - Marquette and Prairie School were first in divisions 1 and 4, respectively, while Brookfield East was second in Division 2 and Delavan-Darien was fourth in Division 3.
• Here's a look at the final state leaders in goals and assists this season, as reported to the Wisconsin Sports Network. See more on the WSN boys soccer statistics page