The Boys of Summer return to fields across Wisconsin tonight. If you are thinking “haven’t they been playing baseball for five months now?” I’m talking about the other “boys of summer”–high school football teams. Two weeks before students go back to class, and three weeks before Labor Day, the WIAA football season kicks off–before many summer baseball leagues wrap up their seasons.
It wasn’t always like this. High school football in Wisconsin used to start around Labor Day weekend–after kids had gone back to school and “summer” was over. But the start date had to be moved forward over the years as the WIAA continued to grow and grow the playoff field. Now that the field is 224 teams, that requires 5 weeks for the playoffs at the end of the season. And because the WIAA wants to play those championship games at Camp Randall Stadium on the Thursday and Friday before the start of deer hunting, the start of the regular season has been pushed into the middle of August.
And a middle of August start to the season means practices start in early August. And that means sweltering–and sometimes dangerous temperatures–for practices, not just before the season starts, but for the first few weeks of the season as well. An early season Wisconsin football tradition is now a thunderstorm delay. There is a very good possibility that games scheduled for both tonight and tomorrow night will have to clear the field and the bleachers because of lightning in the area. And what school wouldn’t like to see their natural grass field turned into a mud bog and destroyed by having to play in or after a torrential downpour? A rule that had to be added in recent years is that if kickoff temperatures are above a certain point, there needs to be “water breaks” taken during the game–where play is stopped and everyone goes to the sidelines to drink water.
I’ve also noticed that these pre-Labor Day games tend to be more lightly-attended as well. That is especially true for student sections–where the last thing kids want to be reminded of is that school starts again soon. It also means no season-kickoff pep rallies in the gym on gameday, no decorating lockers for the first two or three games, and no girlfriends wearing your jersey to class that day. You know–all the stuff that makes high school football unique and fun.
I’m sure there are plenty of families that would prefer to be sitting on the deck at their cabin the next couple of nights staring out at the lake instead of sitting on an aluminum bench at a ball field. There are precious few beautiful summer days in Wisconsin. The high school football coaches association has complained about the NFL scheduling Packers pre-season games on Friday nights now–saying it “takes away” interest in the high school games. But the NFL is done playing pre-season before Labor Day weekend, so maybe waiting until then to start your season would do away with that conflict?
For years now, I have been railing against the WIAA for its bloated and pointless football playoff process. Thirty-two teams in seven divisions is about 28-teams per-division too many. And it creates two to three weeks of nearly meaningless matchups between teams that don’t even deserve to be on the same field. We know who the likely state champions are going to be almost every year–and the 4-5 team from the Cloverbelt Conference that got in on the “strength of schedule” computer tiebreaker over two other 4-5 teams only to lose 56-0 to Edgar in Level 1 isn’t one of them.
AT MOST, we need 56-teams in the WIAA football playoffs. Eight teams in seven divisions–with just 3 weeks of playoff to determine the champions. Almost every year, you could start on Labor Day weekend–or even the week after Labor Day and be done by deer hunting. Families would get more “summer” to enjoy together. Officials wouldn’t need to have lightning detectors. And players wouldn’t have to worry as much about suffering heat stroke.
But I know that won’t happen, because I know at the WIAA it’s all about the money. I mean it’s all about the kids. Yeah. The kids.
