Brookfield/Elm Grove Monthly

May, 2016

Brookfield/Elm Grove Monthly

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Page 4B • Freeman Brookfield & Elm Grove MAY 2016 2 4 9 2 5 2 0 0 1 Fur Cleaning Spring Special Capitol Drive at Eighty-Fourth St. In Milwaukee 414-463-7777 1-800-544-3877 www.ugentfurs.com $ 79. oo Plus Tax Includes Cleaning, Glazing and Storage. • ARTS AND CRAFTS 3rd Sat. of Each Month • Free Frequent Shopper Rewards Program • Gift Tokens & Market Totes for sale • WIC Approved • SNAP/Foodshare EBT • Debit & PayPal Welcome! EVERY SATURDAY FROM MAY 7 TH TO OCTOBER 29 TH OUR 26 TH SEASON! Fresh Flowers Bakery Produce Assorted Meats Fish Cheese 2000 N. Calhoun Road • 7:30am-Noon • 262-784-7804 info@brookfieldfarmersmarket.com • www.brookfieldfarmersmarket.com 249797001 Bring in this ad and receive 10% OFF YOUR ENTIRE PURCHASE Consignment Hours: Mon. 10am-6pm; Wed. thru Sat. 10am-2pm Store Hours: Mon. thru Fri. 10am-7pm; Sat. 10am-5pm Expires 5-31-16 EliteRepeatClothing.com GIF T CARDS AVAILABLE PLEASE CALL AHEAD FOR CONSIGNMENT CLOTHING / PURSES / SHOES / JEWELRY Ruby Isle Shopping Center 2205 N. Calhoun Rd., Brookfield 262-789-9359 247356008 FRESH LOOKS... THINK SUMMER! Looking for this season's hottest trend? We've got that. By Chris Bucher Freeman Staff WAUKESHA — While some may think the long road through confer- ence realignment came to an end April 20, many area coaches say an even longer trek lies ahead. With the WIAA Board of Control approving a measure to realign ath- letic conferences in southeastern Wisconsin with a 7-4 vote at a meet- ing in Stevens Point, athletic pro- grams around Waukesha County will look to shift strategies to accommodate the changes. Most notably, the final approval means Oconomowoc High School will move from the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference to the Classic 8 Con- ference beginning in the 2017-18 school year. The decision to add another high- enrollment school to the Classic 8 without moving schools that initial- ly requested conference relief — Waukesha North, Waukesha South and Catholic Memorial — comes as a big concern for Northstars foot- ball coach Matt Harris. Harris, who wrote an op-ed piece in the Jan. 6 edition of The Free- man, was outspoken about the con- trasting demographics within the Classic 8. He feels that adding another school to the conference only furthers North's athletic hard- ships. "(The vote) adds another team that has a different demographic and socioeconomical background," Harris said. "Everything that I stat- ed in my article, we're basically adding another one of those schools, that's all it is. It doesn't make things better. It is what it is. It's frustrating, it's frustrating for South and for North and I guess I just don't get it. "The more I look at it, the more I'm starting to believe (the WIAA) doesn't fully understand. They seem to be blaming some of the downfalls on us and on the school district and that's so far from the truth. I don't understand what they don't understand." Harris added that there's not much North can do from this point except keep competing to the best of its ability. "This is the hand we've been dealt and we've got to work a little bit harder and I think over the last two years we've been doing that," Har- ris said. "If you look at the athletics at North, we're starting on some positive things. (North Athletic Director) Brian Schlei's done an amazing job with the program and that's why you see the basketball and track teams being successful. We're a lot more competitive in foot- ball than we were in the last five years. So we're going to keep bat- tling and that's all we can do." On the other side, Raccoons foot- ball coach Ryan McMillen said he's embracing the challenges of play- ing in one of Wisconsin's most com- petitive conferences. But for now, he said he's focused on only the things he can control in his position. "It's a good conference and it's definitely competitive," McMillen said of the Classic 8. "We don't get too concerned with who we're play- ing. We're more concerned about developing our kids and being as successful as we can be. We respect all of our opponents regardless of if they're in the Little Ten or the Clas- sic 8. More often than not, we're going to focus on ourselves, whether it's Level 3 of the playoffs or Week 2 of the season. It's out of our control and we can only focus on control- ling the controllables and that's worrying about our work in-house." Oconomowoc joining the Classic 8 creates a nine-team conference, meaning eight out of nine regular- season games in football are confer- ence matchups. The other game will be a mandated crossover against a team in the Greater Metro Confer- ence, meaning — aside from the crossover game — there won't be any nonconference opponents. "I think some of the old-school rivalries — with these new confer- ences — will be gone," McMillen said. "A lot of coaches will lobby to play nonconference games. I think the solution is putting everyone into nine-team districts with everyone having Week 1 open." At Catholic Memorial, with the smallest enrollment of the nine Classic 8 schools, the challenge is unique among its athletic pro- grams. In football, adding Oconomowoc could have disparag- ing results on the small-enrollment school, as teams become playoff eli- gible if they are .500 or better in con- ference play. That's not the case in any other sport. However, the extra conference game also gives teams an extra chance to obtain a 4-4 conference record, thus making the playoffs. Harris said that factor works somewhat as a silver lining of the whole ordeal. "We have eight chances to win four games," Harris said. "It's the Classic 8, the best conference in the state of Wisconsin when it comes to football. So I guess you're increas- ing the percentage of winning four games." One of the suggestions brought up by WIAA Associate Director Deb Hauser at its Jan. 27 meeting was the possibility of North and South making a co-op football team to make up for the contrast that Harris alluded to. While it hasn't realisti- cally been talked about yet, Harris said he's not doubting that it may come to that. "If (the Wauwatosa schools) decide to (co-op), I wonder if that forces us to do it," Harris said. "It will be interesting, I don't think it's a dead subject. I could see the co-op (football) being a thing." Of course, the conference realign- ment involves all athletic programs in each school. And while many pro- grams have found success in the past, adding a Division 1 school in Oconomowoc could add a few chal- lenges to how other teams approach the conference season. Catholic Memorial girls volleyball coach Ted Schulte said he welcomes the opportunity to play a competi- tive team like the Raccoons. The Crusaders have won two straight WIAA Division 2 State Champi- onships in girls volleyball, and the Raccoons were the runners-up in Division 1 this past season. "From my perspective in volley- ball, the opportunity to play good teams is all we want to do," Schulte said. "The opportunity to play other good teams makes it better. Whether Oconomowoc is in our conference or not, the goal is always to win con- ference and compete for a state title. "The chance to play against those really good D-1 programs that we play against helps prep us for the competition at state. If you look at our tournament schedule — we play arguably the toughest tournament schedule in conference — we're not afraid to play good teams." Greater Metro Conference The realignment also had an impact on the Greater Metro. West Allis Central moves out of the GMC and into the Woodland Conference, while Wauwatosa West does the opposite — moving from the Woodland to the GMC. German- town moves from the North Shore Conference to the GMC to form the new nine-team Greater Metro — with Marquette competing in boys and Divine Savior Holy Angels in girls. With the addition of the two schools to the conference, the Greater Metro forms an even more cutthroat league. Brookfield Central boys basket- ball coach Dan Wandrey said he feels the realignment made sense for the Greater Metro. He added that the addition of Germantown to the conference brings in one of the most successful high school teams in the past decade. "It's a pretty good fit geographi- cally and with school enrollment," Wandrey said. "If I look specifically at basketball, it makes it rough. You essentially look at a program that arguably over the past seven to 10 years could be considered the best in the state, or at least in the top three to five. "I think sometimes our confer- ence gets underappreciated for its depth and competitiveness. (The realignment) makes what's already a good conference even better. In basketball specifically, both of those additions (Germantown and Tosa West) are very strong programs." Wandrey added that the realign- ment accomplished a couple of important tasks in granting schools relief, but other neighboring schools that requested it were left with nothing. "If you look at North and South — I have friends in each of those build- ings — they got nothing," Wandrey said. "The other side of it is you felt like (the WIAA) would do some- thing after years of talk and propos- als. I almost feel like there was a sense of not letting the time, effort and work spent go to waste, so they felt they had to do something. "Everyone has their own self- interests at heart. So when you come out with one plan, you get a certain amount of schools that are unhappy. The alternative is to satis- fy those schools, but that leaves another group unhappy." Woodland Conference In the Woodland, the number of schools increases from 12 to 14. Mil- waukee Lutheran, Wisconsin Lutheran and West Allis Central all join the conference with Wauwatosa West leaving. West Allis Central will be the largest school in the conference (1,431 students), with Milwaukee Lutheran having the lowest enroll- ment (594). In girls basketball, a sport which the Woodland is typically dominant in, the moves change the amount of conference games from 16 to 19, leaving just three games for noncon- ference opponents. "I think that's a bad thing," Pewaukee girls basketball coach Todd Hansen said of the potential conflict. "It's not a final decision, but if we're losing nonconference games, I think it's a bad thing for all teams." Email: cbucher@conleynet.com Coaches react to conference realignment Lancers basketball coach ready for Germantown to join conference Mary Catanese/Special to The Freeman Brookfield Central sophomore Andres Peralta-Werns brings the ball to the hoop in a home game against Wauwatosa East.

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