The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) Board of Control acted on additional accommodations for transfer students in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and followed  coaches’ committee recommendations impacting hockey and wrestling at its June meeting.

Many students experienced challenges with access and adapting to virtual schooling in 2020-’21 following school closures because of COVID-19. The board voted unanimously to provide one-time unrestricted eligibility in 2021-’22 for student transfers who 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.

Meanwhile, in hockey, the board supported a coaches’ recommendation to alter the overtime procedure during the Tournament Series. After an eight-minute overtime period, the former 12-minute rest period followed by a 17-minute sudden victory overtime will be eliminated. 

With the new overtime rule for hockey, play will resume after a three-minute rest period with a five-minute, four-on-four sudden victory period and then continue with the existing subsequent overtime protocol. In this area, the rule will affect Northland Pines boys and girls hockey team.

Two wrestling coaches’ recommendations received approval, effective in 2021-’22. The rules will affect the Three?Lakes-Phelps wrestling team.

The first implements seeding at the State Individual Wrestling Tournament for all qualifiers in all divisions. Trackwrestling.com will calculate and determine placement on brackets using the criteria developed by the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association. 

The second change for wrestling 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.

The membership of the WIAA oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 515 senior high schools and 48 junior high/middle level schools in its membership. It will sponsor 24 sports with championship tournament series in 2021-’22.