2024 Wisconsin Boys High School

[goat12]

Can someone confirm the KIT score? Game one was 25-0?

[muredshark]

Yes. That is correct. Racine St. Cat's had only five players present at 7 p.m. By rule according to the WIAA Tournament manual, they were forced to forfeit set one 25-0. They were 2 minutes away from forfeiting set two, but the rest of their team showed up at 7:18 p.m. We (Indian Trail) did not want to have them forfeit any sets, we just wanted to give the kids an opportunity to play. But that is not what the officials decided.

Good luck to everyone playing sectional semifinals tonight!

[vball123]

Anyone have early thoughts on All-State?

[jmpy5]

Oct 31, 2024 10:01:41 GMT -5 vball123 said:

Anyone have early thoughts on All-State?

1. It should be the heaviest representation of Juniors, particularly on the 1st Team, in some time:

Mikhailenko
Van Buren
Bayer
Myers
Dal Fava
Puro
Kelley
Newman

2. There will be kids on the GMC Honorable Mention, who will be excluded from All-State consideration by the requirement that you be 2nd team All-Conference, who will be better than a lot of kids who get All-State recognition. 

[bradk]

All State process will begin upon the completion of all conference meetings (probably next week). As mentioned you must receive 1st or 2nd team all conference in order to be nominated to be on the ballot for all state. Your coach must also nominate you for that award as well, as not everyone who makes 1st or 2nd team is automatically placed on the ballots.

The results of all state will come out the week of the state tournament but also respect the state tournament as well so most likely upon the completion of the tournament. Voting could be completed by that time so the recency factor of seeing kids play in Green Bay may or may not affect some of the votes.

[gonethenback]

Congratulations to all sectional champions for advancing to next week’s State Tournament! State is always a fun time.

[vbboysfan]

The #2, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, and 2 of the 3 teams tied for #13 are all out (many lost in regionals or sectionals to other ranked teams as previously discussed.
Not any of the teams' faults for where they are placed, but as we said before, not truly the best teams in the state at state again this year.
The 2024 State Tournament (Guess for seeding, current coaches' poll rank, and team name)
#1 Hamilton (#1 coaches' poll)
#2 Middleton (#5) - recently beat Marquette
#3 Marquette (#3)
#4 Germantown (#4)
#5 Appleton North (T-13th)
#6 New Berlin United (#16) - seemingly played a tougher schedule than Westosha
#7 Westosha Central (#12) - great record, but outside of beating Homestead, looks like weaker competition
#8 Indian Trail (NR) - walked through the weakest sectional

I would put Hamilton as the favorite to win as long as the stage isn't too bright. Played well all around vs CMH, and most of them played well against Arrowhead (Cole struggled a bit, but as a sophomore one of his biggest pressure games so far). Henry Mrotek is playing at an extremely high level, and Ben Bayer and Tyler Breier have been great offensively lately. Seems to maybe be their year.

[goat12]

I'm kind of glad the sectionals worked out this way for the southern schools. Now you get a small taste of what sectional 1, AKA the FVA, goes through every single year. This year is a perfect example of it. Kimberly played well all year but Appleton North can never be counted out. Every single year two or three FVA schools are in the top 10 yet only one gets to go to state. Maybe now that some of the SE schools see what Kimberly, A North, and Kaukauna deal with every year there will be some more voices behind changing seeding.

[letsgo22]

When do the seeds get announced for the boys state tournament

[vbboysfan]

Nov 3, 2024 12:23:29 GMT -5 goat12 said:

I'm kind of glad the sectionals worked out this way for the southern schools. Now you get a small taste of what sectional 1, AKA the FVA, goes through every single year. This year is a perfect example of it. Kimberly played well all year but Appleton North can never be counted out. Every single year two or three FVA schools are in the top 10 yet only one gets to go to state. Maybe now that some of the SE schools see what Kimberly, A North, and Kaukauna deal with every year there will be some more voices behind changing seeding.

The Southern Sectionals have also complained for years--some schools have cake walks to state, while others have been a bloodbath.  With some newer programs the past couple of years, the WIAA moved some of the top teams from 1 sectional to another that was already stacked.  Marquette almost always has had no competition, while other Sectionals (including 1) had 3 or more ranked teams. While my guess is the WIAA is celebrating the "diversity" of smaller/newer programs going to state, having teams that would be the #1 seed in 2 or 3 of the Sectionals being knocked out in the first round instead of a Sectional final is just sad. Some of the best teams get to go, while others essentially play a state tournament level game in the Sectional semis or finals.

[zachbarnes]

Here you go

www.wiaawi.org/Sports/Fall/Boys-Volleyball/Tournament

Best of luck to all the teams on their way to Green Bay.

[coy]

Just looking at MUHS as an example, they’re a good example of why complaining about sectionals is useless. Programs by and large go up and down. The WIAA does their tournaments similarly across all sports. Girls volleyball has sectionals. Football pairs teams up geographically early on. Basketball has sectionals based largely on geography. Etc. etc. It’s not like boys volleyball is the outlier.

Back in the early 2000s MUHS was in a sectional with Tosa East, Shorewood, and Nicolet while all 4 of those teams were awesome. Now if you had that sectional you’d say MUHS always gets a cakewalk to some degree. Then MUHS got put on a sectional with Pius and West Allis Hale while those two programs were much better than they are now. If that sectional stayed the same you’d say MUHS always gets a cakewalk now. Then they were in a sectional that truly was a cakewalk. Now they’re with Pius, Tosa East, and Brookfield East. Those have all been top 5 teams at some point over the past 15 or so years, but are way down now.

Having regionals based on geography is a good thing. It’s hard to balance them because programs by and large go up and down, with some teams (MUHS as an example) being the exception and being consistent (whether consistently good or consistently bad).

The important change made was seeding the State Tournament. It sucked having a MUHS vs CMH match in a semifinal when they were 2 of the best teams in many years to come around. That was the important change.

[coy]

Also in my opinion, the much bigger issue is State semifinal matches being played at 2 PM on a Thursday in Green Bay. Absolutely nuts if you ask me.

Not to mention having these kids miss up to 3 school days if they are going to win State. I get that kids from the North always had to travel to Milwaukee. But they’d miss 1 day of school as it was a Friday afternoon or evening quarterfinal and then a Saturday semifinal and final.

[bradk]

Completely agree with you on this one. Players missing at minimum 3 days of school is tough. However if you allow your student sections to go a vast majority of your school is shut down for 3 days as well. This does not seem very educational based and is questionable at best.

The WIAA cares about the money they are saving and that is what it will always come down too. They dont have to pay for another facility, they dont have to pay for more hotel rooms for officials and state reps. They can tout record numbers because more travel occurs during the school day. If you are a high school kid and you have the choice of sitting in Biology or going to a school sporting event what are you going to do?

I take nothing away from Appleton North, I have much respect for Mike and know his teams always bring it every time you play them. However with that being said I feel awful for the Kimberly kids. The missed backrow attack at 13-11 changed that entire match. It was not really even a tough call it was very blatant. Kimberly would have been up 14-11 in the 3rd in their rotation with Jansen and Krause front row whenever the side out occurred after that. Again they had other chances to pull it off but had put themselves in a great position. Ref's are not perfect in any way, but there are some calls that should be easier than others and that one was a pretty easy one to make.

Best of luck to all schools who made it. Seeding was a little interesting but most of the match ups that were expected.

[khsghosts]

Nov 4, 2024 9:51:10 GMT -5 bradk said:

Completely agree with you on this one. Players missing at minimum 3 days of school is tough. However if you allow your student sections to go a vast majority of your school is shut down for 3 days as well. This does not seem very educational based and is questionable at best.

The WIAA cares about the money they are saving and that is what it will always come down too. They dont have to pay for another facility, they dont have to pay for more hotel rooms for officials and state reps. They can tout record numbers because more travel occurs during the school day. If you are a high school kid and you have the choice of sitting in Biology or going to a school sporting event what are you going to do?

I take nothing away from Appleton North, I have much respect for Mike and know his teams always bring it every time you play them. However with that being said I feel awful for the Kimberly kids. The missed backrow attack at 13-11 changed that entire match. It was not really even a tough call it was very blatant. Kimberly would have been up 14-11 in the 3rd in their rotation with Jansen and Krause front row whenever the side out occurred after that. Again they had other chances to pull it off but had put themselves in a great position. Ref's are not perfect in any way, but there are some calls that should be easier than others and that one was a pretty easy one to make.

Best of luck to all schools who made it. Seeding was a little interesting but most of the match ups that were expected.

I agree with Brad here. Players missing 3 days of school is ridiculous. The other options wouldn't have been any better; Wednesday-Friday-Saturday or Wednesday-Thursday-Saturday. Those would still take them out of school for 3 days because no one would be driving back home just for a day only to come back up. Reason for the move was because of girls adding a 5th division to their tournament and I will never understand why we would not keep Thursday-Friday-Saturday and have the new girls division move to a less ideal schedule.

It will take a lot to get the WIAA to move the tournament away from a combined event with the girls. I could possibly see a change in venue if the money was right somewhere else, but that's the only way it moves out of Green Bay. Having coached teams to state at WLC and the Resch, as well as hosting state during covid, there can be a case made for just about any venue to have it. SE WI has a great volleyball culture and many fair weather fans would attend, but WLC is too small for how large the event is becoming. The Resch is a great venue and experience for the boys, but it causes 7 of the 8 teams to travel a far distance to get there. They did not have enough locker rooms to allow us to leave our stuff in there during the match so we have to bring everything out to the court. We were also rushed out pretty quick after the match, and there was no good place for the parents or fans to meet up with the team after the game. 

I was able to attend the Kimberly-Appleton North match and will say it was a great one to see in person. Can never count a Mike Maas team out. That being said, there were more net calls than I have ever seen in a match, and that missed back row setter was a momentum killer. Ramus from North never stopped swinging aggressively which I think was the difference between the teams at the end of the match and pushed North ahead.  

Good luck to the 8 teams that will be playing in Green Bay.