De Pere... the real story

[Believe It]

So here goes.  Our AD was notified by an AD at another school in our conference that our schedule was in violation of the rules.  This notification was made to us the Friday after our last dual February 3rd.  Which school told us and how long they new for I am not getting into.  The De Pere AD notified the Wiaa immediately afterit was brought to his attention.  So self reported yes, self discovered no.  We supplied the Wiaa with a spreadsheet with all our matches, dates, what events and how they were classified (jv or varsity).  The wiaa worked with our AD and head coach to find a way to make us eligible for regionals that night.  NO information was left off the spreadsheet, so the Wiaa's claim that they had new information is 100% false.  I was not in on the call that told us we were eligible so how the wiaa interpreted that information I do not know.  We were told this Wednesday February 15th that due to new information the Wiaa was ruling us ineligible as of 7:00 am the next morning.  The Wiaa informed us that two member schools had informed them that we wrestled an illegal schedule (a fact that we never disputed) and they needed to review the information.  Everything that happened at the appeal has been well discussed on the other De Pere thread, and most of the information is correct.  Now, I myself take responsibility for the mistake.  I do not do the scheduling but I have been involved in this program for 11 years now and I know better than to put my faith in individuals who do not appreciate the sport of wrestling as much as I do.  I have coached most of these wrestlers since they were in grade school.  I failed them.  They do not deserve to be punished but that is the ruling that was given to them, and I have to live with that.  We appreciate all the support we have received in the past few days.  I told our kids to keep their heads up!  If people feel the need to try to take you down then you have already won.  Three years ago nobody would have said a word if De Pere had wrestled in 30 events, and that is a credit to the hard work these young MEN have put in to make De Pere Wrestling relevant.  It will be hard for them to understand the ruling nor do I expect them too. I would ask people to only speak on this matter if you are educated on the situation, which I hope I have helped with, and not make dumb comments and then hide behind your screen name.

Thank You,
Brian Corrigan

[JMBaker]

This is a really unfortunate situation.  Why isn't there some compliance function as part of the WIAA?  Schedules are published at the beginning of the season.  Why is DePere being subjected to this at a point in the process that they have no ability to correct the situation?  My guess is once the the spreadsheet was submitted it was pretty easy to see that DePere was not in compliance.  Why  not have schedules validated by the WIAA at the beginning of the season?  Seems like a reasonable checkpoint.  Are teams adding events in the middle of the season?  Maybe it will never happen again based on this occurrence, but it seems to me that it should have never happened this way in the first place.

[wraslfan]

Soooooo PATHETIC of the 2 schools! PAAAAAAATHETIC!!!!!!!

Yep.

[onwisconsin]

Thank you Brian for posting what occurred.

Wade Labecki was the one who signed off on the approval.  Wade Labecki had all the information provided for him. He should have made the correct decision the first time before regionals. End of story.  Once he made hi initial decision it should have been final.  He needed a coach from Kaukauna to tell him where to look (you would think he would know where to look).  So he reverses his decision and puts the De Pere boys through this again.

Then the part that gets me equally as much is he implies to Gannett news that the De Pere administrators and coaches did not get him all the information the first time.  That gets me that he can hide behind that comment, when it is not at all accurate. 

The WIAA's handling of this is terrible.  Wade needs to be called out just like the De Pere coaches and AD are deservedly being called out.   

On a side note I hope other teams think twice about inviting Kaukauna to tournaments in the future.  How they get to host both Regionals and Sectionals is beyond me.  Plenty of other nice gyms here in the Valley.   

[MARSHDOC]

No good deed goes unpunished.  Self-report and get burned.  You did nothing wrong coach.  The kids wrestled an extra tournament or meet and are therefore ineligible to complete the the season???

Some tournaments give kids 3 matches others 7 over two days (Cheesehead etc..) but now we all pretend because these kids showed up to one extra event their hard work for a lifetime gets tossed out the window right before the most important time in the season.  This is just wrong.  Is it the number of matches the kid wrestles that matters or the number of events they attend that matter?  There are schools that have athletes with 50 matche's , others with 30.  
These kids were cheated out of their chance to compete for a state title for no reason.

[Andersonman1234]

The Wisconsin schools that go to the Cheesehead should skip out and make another tournament stronger! I hope the out of state teams hear about this too! Get some karma going!

Where are you even from? Are you Upset because kaukauna beats up on you or something? Or are you mad that your team isn't good enough to make it in the cheesehead or something? This shouldn't be put on Kaukauna because some other school can't add.

[ramjet]

It takes Lots guts stepping up here coach. Thanks for your response.

I see you were aware that the team or school or program violated the rules. Is this correct?

Was the decision by the WIAA that interpreted that you had violated the rules wrong?

Did you have an opportunity to present your case to the WIAA?

So another program or someone reported the potential violations to the WIAA?

You made statement about trusting someone who "does not take wrestling as serious" as you with the scheduling?

What does this mean you had doubts about the ADs ability to follow rules or schedule correctly?

If so did you approach and discuss this issue with a higher authority at the school such as the Principle or Admin staff?

If the WIAA got this information from you or your AD and from the other schools reporting the violation would it be reasonable to contend that they had to have time to go through the evidence to determine exactly what happened? My thought here is you have allot of information aka evidence coming from different places and consideration of the source certainly has to be evaluated. This may mean taking the time to varify and investigate that information presented from different sources. I mean you want to be sure right?

So you said the WIAA had enough information was that what they said or was this your (or the AD that you may not trust) interpretation?

So if they had not allowed the wrestlers to compete during the Regionals and the investigation went in favor how would they go back and fix the Sectional qualifications? Chicken or the egg here.

Seems to me they wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt for the wrestlers looking for any angle to try let these young men wrestle without compromising the integrity of the rule.

You do not have to answer these and I will understand it if you do not, but I just want to try and get clear picture of what happened here.

[Believe It]

As I said, we did not know we were in violation.  If I did I would not have risked putting our kids in this situation.  An AD from another school in our conference sent an email to our AD stating that they felt we were in violation.  At that point the De Pere AD reported it to the WIAA.  So as I stated before we self reported but we did not realize our error.  We added a tournament two years ago and I asked that our schedule was verified and we were within the rules.  I was told we were, and this is the part where I blame myself for not picking up the phone and doing it myself.  When the violation was reported the WIAA asked for a full list of our matches.  We sent ALL of our kids matches to them with the event name, date, and classification.  To my knowledge they used trackwrestling to try to verify our matches/events.  They did not know how to use trackwrestling correctly and obviously never looked at the spreed sheet.  We knew after looking into it we were in violation.   Again,  I was not in on the phone call when we were ruled eligible to wrestle at regionals.  I do not know there rationalization for making that decision.  There reason for changing their mind is that they had new information, which I stated before is 100% false.  During the appeal, they told us one of the two schools who was responsible for the secondary complaint because that school is represented on the WIAA board.  I think most people already know who that is.  We violated the rule, we deserved to be punished, no one is arguing that.  Does the punishment fit the crime? Are the right people being punished? Was there really a need for the two schools to pursue this after the initial ruling?  That is for everyone else to decide.  That's why we love the forum.  I don't have anything to hide.  It is a terrible situation no matter what side you agree with.

[ramjet]

First I again want to thank you for posting it is not easy I am sure and appreciate that you are taking the time.

You are correct it is very tragic.

Now you admitted that you were not on the phone call but then state the finding of new evidence is "completely false".

What evidence do you have the WIAA never looked at the spread sheet or knows how to use Track Wrestling?

That seems alittle far fetched they use track for the entire tournament series and most meets and tournaments are on track or at least the larger percentage are. That assumption would mean the WIAA does not have the resources or contract people to look at Track with trained experienced eyes. That seems odd to me that you are making this assumption. Some meets and Tournaments might not be , were those not on Track included on the spread sheet?  They must have been because you admitted you were in violation.

I understand the self reporting but it is still a violation? In most of the bylaws the violation has the punishment pretty clearly defined and the WIAA had set a precedence in previous simular instances although different sports they set the precedence. If they strayed from that precedence what type message or litigation would they open themselves up to?

Does self reporting dictate a different set of rules or punishment?

Do you hold any disdain for the school or people who brought this violation forward to the AD or WIAA?

Do you think the head coach,coaches or the AD should be aware of this rule?

In your last post you seemed to indicate some concerned about the schedule prior to executing it did you go the AD and ask him or her to get clarification on the concerns?

Did the AD when these concerns were raised go any further with this to get clarification? If not why not?

I absolutely agree this is just terrible for those wrestlers, the WIAA , the State Tournament and the fans but mostly for the wrestlers and thier families who saw them work so hard to get this opportunity. Yup they should be mad as inappropriate term3 but I wonder who is responsible? The contracts with the WIAA are signed as School District not as indivdual coaches, athletes or ADs but as an ENTIRE School District (Team or program entity) for those sports you want to be part of that organization. When that contract is signed you sign up for the oversight and rules as well as the defined punishment for rule violation. What you do within the school as a Dsitrict with those involved is your business and the School Boards and Admin teams call. But when you agree to be part of the WIAA you know what you are signing up for. If you do not then you need to get up to speed. Sad terrible situation.

Again thank you for stepping up to takes allot courage to do so and there is no doubt how terrible you feel about this.

[Numbers]

Soooooo PATHETIC of the 2 schools! PAAAAAAATHETIC!!!!!!!

I think most believe Kaukauna (either coaches, parents, and/or wrestlers) wanted The DePere wrestlers in violation removed from the State series, because now Kaukauna might get additional wrestlers down to State since they are in that Sectional.  There was an opening and Kaukauna pounced to benefit their program or was it just double checking that the WIAA made the "right" decision this week?

[onwisconsin]

knight/purgolder   

I finally agree with you on something:) (you are not so bad after all:).

Kaukauna will get their Karma in the future.  Wisconsin teams need to skip the Cheesehead unequivocally (and yes I have gone to the Cheesehead to watch good high school wrestling ... but never again). 

De Pere was wrong ... inadvertently and they admitted it (and no competitive advantage at all, unless you call a dual with Sheboygan North, South, or Manitowoc an advantage), but were declared eligible prior to regionals only to have Kaukauna have to tell Wade Labecki how to look at the info he was provided initially.   De Pere kids possibly deserved to be disqualified prior to regionals, but not after they were allowed to compete in the first round of the WIAA tournament series.  Wade Labecki needs to be a stand up individual and apologize publicly and admit his negligence in the handling of this situation.   

Wade it is on you right now.  You need to be forthright in your negligence.

Once again the WIAA has disgraced the great state of Wisconsin.

[I Remember]

What upsets me about this the most is the WIAA seems to be treating De Pere differently than the last time I can recall this happening.  The last time I remember this happening the WIAA decided to take away all the points the person earned at the last regular season tournament, but did nothing to change the post season.  Had they of ruled in that case as they did with De Pere, Stoughton would have one more state championship and a "Big Red" power would have one less.  One needs to be consistent or it appears as though they are playing favorites.  This situation is De Pere's fault and no one else, but they should have been treated the same as any other wrestling team.

[wraslfan]

The Wisconsin schools that go to the Cheesehead should skip out and make another tournament stronger! I hope the out of state teams hear about this too! Get some karma going!

Where are you even from? Are you Upset because kaukauna beats up on you or something? Or are you mad that your team isn't good enough to make it in the cheesehead or something? This shouldn't be put on Kaukauna because some other school can't add.

Where are you from?...Kaukana? Why should Kaukana not be in the discussion? After all, they brought the infraction to the attention of Depere and the WIAA. They also (apparently) appealed the initial ruling as well. It would seem to me someone in Kaukana has something to gain by taking away these opportunities from Depere wrestlers. Is someone from Kaukana that otherwise would not have made the state tournament now going to? I don't know, but I see no other reason why they would be concerned with, or even know the number of matches of another school.  Or is it just that Kaukana is as pure as the wind driven snow and just could not let even the most minor infraction ruin the integrity of the sport?  

[bigoil]

First I again want to thank you for posting it is not easy I am sure and appreciate that you are taking the time.

You are correct it is very tragic.

Now you admitted that you were not on the phone call but then state the finding of new evidence is "completely false".

What evidence do you have the WIAA never looked at the spread sheet or knows how to use Track Wrestling?

That seems alittle far fetched they use track for the entire tournament series and most meets and tournaments are on track or at least the larger percentage are. That assumption would mean the WIAA does not have the resources or contract people to look at Track with trained experienced eyes. That seems odd to me that you are making this assumption. Some meets and Tournaments might not be , were those not on Track included on the spread sheet?  They must have been because you admitted you were in violation.

I understand the self reporting but it is still a violation? In most of the bylaws the violation has the punishment pretty clearly defined and the WIAA had set a precedence in previous simular instances although different sports they set the precedence. If they strayed from that precedence what type message or litigation would they open themselves up to?

Does self reporting dictate a different set of rules or punishment?

Do you hold any disdain for the school or people who brought this violation forward to the AD or WIAA?

Do you think the head coach,coaches or the AD should be aware of this rule?

In your last post you seemed to indicate some concerned about the schedule prior to executing it did you go the AD and ask him or her to get clarification on the concerns?

Did the AD when these concerns were raised go any further with this to get clarification? If not why not?

I absolutely agree this is just terrible for those wrestlers, the WIAA , the State Tournament and the fans but mostly for the wrestlers and thier families who saw them work so hard to get this opportunity. Yup they should be mad as blazes but I wonder who is responsible? The contracts with the WIAA are signed as School District not as indivdual coaches, athletes or ADs but as an ENTIRE School District (Team or program entity) for those sports you want to be part of that organization. When that contract is signed you sign up for the oversight and rules as well as the defined punishment for rule violation. What you do within the school as a Dsitrict with those involved is your business and the School Boards and Admin teams call. But when you agree to be part of the WIAA you know what you are signing up for. If you do not then you need to get up to speed. Sad terrible situation.

Again thank you for stepping up to takes allot courage to do so and there is no doubt how terrible you feel about this.

Ram,

You are off base here, the coach gave you the facts and then you have a barrage of questions.

De Pere violated the rules. Someone in their conf made them aware (fan- that is not Kaukauna). They reported it and the WIAA found them in violation but allowed them to wrestle while putting them on probation.

Now the WIAA is saying they have more information. When this came out before regionals, I clicked on track, seasons and searched De Pere. It took me 5 minutes to check (clicking on a tournament to see if this was varsity or JV).

They wrestled 8 duals (2 were on the same night which can either be 2 duals or 1 multi), they had 7 multi's besides the double dual.

There could be no new information, it was all right there. The only logical reason for probation was they counted 6&8 which violates 7&7 but not 14. That tells me they can't count to 7.

I will agree with Ram that we all agree the punishment is not appropriate and should be fought to be changed. While the punishment is misdirected, I would definitely understand had it been prior to regionals as there has been precedence (Westosha).

[faceplant]

Ram - check the other thread on De Pere and some additional relevant facts are there.  In the appeal hearing, Wade Labecki stated the WIAA checked trackwrestling but looked at the team page and not each individual wrestler page.  On the Tuesday before regionals, the WIAA issued a written ruling that our young men were eligible.  This past Wednesday, Kaukauna and one other school contacted the WIAA and told them they should look at individual pages and not the team page.  That is what led the WIAA to reverse their decision on Thursday.

Our AD and coaches have taken full responsibility for the counting error.  That is not in dispute by anyone.  Personally, my issue with the WIAA is with how they handled this and the lack of any responsibility they took.

This could have been resolved before regionals even started.  They had a full week to look into this thoroughly.  Everyone assumed they had when they issues their ruling.  Then to change it after regionals?!?  Had they ruled our kids ineligible before regionals started, I could live with that decision.  Then it comes down to the argument about the punishment fitting the crime.  The problem is they did not and impacted more than just De Pere.  What about the kid who decided to lose or gain weight to avoid a De Pere wrestler at regionals or sectionals?  What about the kid who took second place at regionals?  The WIAA took away his moment to be announced as a regional champion.  What about the kid who took fifth at regionals, thought he was done for the year and then finds out the day before sectionals that he is back in the tournament?  What happens if he is overweight and now has to cut 10 pounds by today?

That is where the decision by the WIAA to reverse itself after the tournament series has started fails.  Again, had the WIAA declared them ineligible before regionals, we could have accepted it.  But the WIAA told them they could compete and then ripped it from them.