'It was a painful decision': Inside the 48 hours that led to the WIAA's decision to cancel the state basketball tournaments

The Sheboygan Lutheran boys basketball team's coaches had the film already rolling for Randolph, its scheduled opponent in Saturday's sectional final.

A ways away, the Sussex Hamilton boys team had just pulled into their driveways after making a victorious pit stop to celebrate briefly with fans following their sectional semifinal win.

In the Green Bay area, the Pewaukee girls team had lights-out at 11 p.m as it prepared for a state game the next day.

Even if it seemed unlikely, at best, they all hoped the night would go on without news of their seasons ending.

But behind closed doors, the WIAA executive staff and Board of Control met to discuss the future of the boys and girls state basketball tournaments, specifically in regards to what to do with the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic. They met following the conclusion of the final girls game of the day, which the horn blew to an end that night at 10:03. 

The result, after an hour of deliberation that capped a painstakingly long 48 hours, was to follow suit with the greater majority of other athletic leagues around the country and cancel both the remainder of the boys and girls state tournaments. 

"It hurt them to make that decision, I could hear it," WIAA executive director Dave Anderson said. "I heard, 'I don’t want to have someone fall ill. I don’t want to have someone die and attribute it back to us as being casual or careless.' " 

The beginning of the process

Throughout the process, the WIAA referred to its decision-making as “fluid.” The timeline of events shows just how true that statement was and how quickly things changed. 

Last Thursday, a WIAA spokesperson responded to an inquiry regarding any potential discussions of altering postseason tournaments due to the coronavirus.

“We continue to monitor the situation, but there has been no plans to postpone or cancel events,” he replied.

That status remained unchanged as of Tuesday morning, but the WIAA had already begun actively monitoring the situation. 

The day before, members of the organization’s executive staff had a conference call with health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The closing remarks were, ‘Don’t be scared to be prepared,’ ” Anderson said. 

Around the country, pressure started to build as other sports organizations suspended, postponed or outright canceled events. When the Ivy League called off its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments Tuesday, it sent shockwaves through the sports world. 

All along, WIAA executives were following the news closely. As they set up for the girls state tournament at the Resch Center on Wednesday, a conversation was held with their partners at the University of Wisconsin that there would likely need to be attendance restrictions placed on the boys tournament, which was scheduled to be held at the Kohl Center next weekend.

“As a result of that, we knew what we needed to do,” Anderson said. “Either hold the boys tournament with either no spectators or limited. We opted to try to hold these events in good faith while being good citizens.” 

The WIAA feared it would be unfair to have nearly-empty gyms for the boys games while the girls played in front of packed crowds in Ashwaubenon, so it came to the decision Thursday to limit spectators to 88 people for each team — four tickets for each of the 22 team personnel. The announcement came just hours before tip-off of the girls tournament, with many fans already having driven to Green Bay and with hotels booked. Signs outside parking lots near the Resch Center announced the decision to fans upon arrival. 

“Admittedly, it was short notice,” Anderson said. 

A very long Thursday 

The next few hours felt more like a few months. The NBA had made the big splash that caused a ripple effect around sports by suspending its regular season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. The Big Ten canceled its men’s basketball tournament, as did every other conference. The NCAA Tournament was called off. Spring training was ended and Opening Day was tentatively pushed back to April. Even Disneyland shut its gates.

"You had that feeling there was no way we were going to finish the tournament all the way through," said Brookfield Central boys head coach Dan Wandrey. 

The writing was starting to appear on the wall for the WIAA. 

“Ignorant or arrogant was not a label I wanted on the WIAA,” Anderson said. 

UW called Anderson that afternoon and informed him it could not host the boys tournament. That was the nail in the coffin, a different WIAA staffer said. 

Anderson and the WIAA were still on the phone with health officials and member schools seeking advice. 

“We heard from medical professionals, some telling us we’re doing the right things, we’re right on,” Anderson said. “The other end of the spectrum is hollering at you to cancel.” 

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The advice that shifted the WIAA’s thought for good toward canceling was that of a doctor at a senior living home. 

“He was quite passionate that those kids from a town, even though they’re not sick, could be carriers,” Anderson said. “Then they go hug grandpa and grandma. Some of it is dramatized, but the reality is that it’s not an impossible image to consider that leading to losing someone. The elderly are most vulnerable.” 

The final decision

The plug was not pulled just yet, though. All girls Division 3 and 4 semifinals were completed, as were 40 boys sectional semifinals. 

“There was kind of that elephant in the room that you try to ignore,” said Pewaukee girls head coach Jim Reuter, whose team was slated to play at state Friday. “Hope and optimism and a little glimmer of light. They played the Thursday games and we headed to bed thinking we were going to play tomorrow.” 

While lights were getting shut off as teams went to bed hoping their seasons would live on, the Board of Control deliberated. All 11 members joined a call as five WIAA executives were also present, including Anderson and girls basketball tournament director Kate Peterson Abiad. Three of the board members were from schools that had teams still alive in competition.

“We got on the call and I’ve never seen a board deliberate any more intensely or as long as they did,” Anderson said. 

The WIAA swallowed the pill and made the suggestion to the board to cancel the remaining winter tournaments, knowing the reaction it would get from some fans and players. There were two primary reasons that they reached that conclusion. 

One was simply the advice from medical professionals, including the senior care doctor whose opinion had a large influence on Anderson. 

The second was based on reputation. 

“The WIAA has a reputation of leading the nation in health regulations, things like minimum wrestling weight and concussions,” Anderson said. “We’re leaders in taking care of those we’re responsible to and for. We want to uphold that. We want to maintain that reputation that we believe we’ve worked hard to develop.”

The board considered multiple options outside of canceling, including playing in front of no fans at all, finishing out the girls tournament and playing the waiting game with the boys tournament.

There was the financial side of the equation, as well. 

Profits from 10 of the WIAA’s state tournament series subsidized the rest in 2018-19 and chief among those was basketball. Last year’s tournaments turned a profit over $1.27 million for the WIAA. Individually, the boys and girls tournaments turned in the highest revenue as well. A majority of that came from ticket sales, which the WIAA announced would refund from both state tournaments.

Of the roughly $3.1 million net the WIAA reported making last school year, $765,000 went toward subsidizing losses from sports like cross-country, golf, track and field, and softball.

Anderson, though, said that the WIAA "had savings built up" and was not worried about the finances. 

Instead, most of the conversation focused on how to weigh the chance for student-athletes to compete versus the growing pandemic. 

Around 11 p.m., a decision came. There would be no gold balls hoisted this year for basketball. The release was sent out at 11:10. 

"It was a painful decision and, at the end, I'll put it this way: they accepted my recommendation," Anderson said. 

The aftermath

Across the state, news spread on Twitter and by phone that the season was over. 

It was an abrupt end.

Just hours before, teams had celebrated victories to advance to the state championship game or reach the doorstep of a state berth. Others hoped to be playing Friday. 

The most common refrain from frustrated student-athletes and fans involved somewhat of a paradox. 

"A lot of them feel like, 'What’s the harm?' " New Berlin Eisenhower boys head coach Scott Witt said. "It’s tough for some to accept that it’s too big of a risk to get together and play with limited fans, but still be at school in a cafeteria all crowded and sharing the same space."

Some argued it was unfair for the WIAA to remove final chances for seniors to hit the hardwood as high school athletes. 

Even if there wasn't anger or frustration, there were mounts of disappointment. 

"It's one year to the day where we had this empty feeling after losing in the sectional final and it all came back," Hamilton boys head coach Andy Cerroni said. "We had no control over this one. We didn’t miss a box or a free throw. We just encountered unfortunate circumstances and those circumstances require us to put health over basketball games." 

Anderson said the reason that they held off before canceling while seemingly everything else shut down around them was the pain they knew the decision would bring.

"We talked about everything," he said. "Do we shoulder down and go forward? Someone asked me for two reasons to go forward with everything and I only had one. It was for the kids, the schools, coaches. It was all I could think of. We’ve all coached at variety of levels. We know what it feels like to be gutted. It’s not lost here." 

On Friday, a growing number of schools around the state began to close. What happened earlier in the week with one sports league after another calling events off trickled down to schools. 

The virus continued to spread, as well, as the number of confirmed cases in Wisconsin grew to 19 as of Friday afternoon.

Had the WIAA not canceled Thursday night, it's almost certain that the latest updates would have led it to put an end to the tournament soon thereafter. 

"We trust and hope there will be tournaments again," Anderson said. 

Tom Dombeck of the USA Today Network contributed to this story.