After flirting with the idea of a return to 11-man football, Heights stands pat at 8-man

The Wisconsin Heights School Board took no action on the agenda item Monday night to switch to 11-man football, meaning 8-man remains but “it doesn’t mean it’s here forever,” said President Barb Statz. Melissa Winters, Activities and Athletics Director, introduced the idea to switch to 11-man several weeks ago at a regular board meeting. Since then, the District conducted an online survey whose results Winters said indicated it’s a “conversation we need to keep having.” The board’s sentiment was clear after hearing from the current football coach during public comment and Winters’ discussion of then survey. 8-man was to stay. Connor Herring, the Heights’ Football Coach, spoke during public comment against the switch, saying, among other things, that it’s not the number of kids involved, it’s the different in size. Moving to 11-man would mean far larger opposing football players than what Wisconsin Heights can even handle now. He spoke of the last year the school had an 11-man program, in 2015, when only 17 kids were on the team. After the change to 8-man the next year he recounted the growing success of the program has seen. The board very briefly discussed the program before ultimately deciding to not act and let the matter die for lack of a motion.