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Ending the Season the Right Way

By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff, 02/04/16, 9:15AM CST

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The Badgerland Conference Tournament

For the most part, every conference works exactly the same: play each team in your conference twice, assign two points for a win, assign one point for a tie, crown the team with the most points the champion.

The Badgerland Conference however, doesn't work that way.  In the Badgerland you play every team in the conference once. You still assign points for your wins, but then something different happens: You seed an 8-team tournament and fight it out for the championship.

The genesis of the tournament came back in the WIAA's "20 contest dates" era. The Badgerland is an eight-team conference. After 14 conference games, teams in the conference would have only had six dates to play sectional opponents, traditional rivalry games, or in-season tournaments (like holiday tournaments). 

All-in-all it left a pretty packed schedule. So as they do when confronted with a problem, the coaches started tinkering.

"We didn't know if we wanted just seven games to decide a conference champ (playing everyone just once)," said Beaver Dam coach Chris Huebel. "We did a year or two where we divided the eight teams into two divisions and you played everyone in your division twice and then you played everyone in the other division once."

In that split division format, games in your division were worth two-points, and games across divisions were worth four-points. "It wasn't a total flop but I think teams weren't real excited about that format," said Huebel.

Huebel brought the conference a new proposal, an end-of-season tournament, mirroring the way many junior divisions, and college conferences end their seasons before the league-wide tournament. You'd play every team in your conference one time, then use those results to seed an eight-team conference tournament.

"Having eight teams in the conference made the format pretty easy to set up. My only concern was if we could get the facility to host the 2nd and 3rd rounds," said Huebel. "That is where St. Mary's and Fond du Lac teamed up together and stepped in and helped make the tournament a reality by securing ice at the Blue Line."

"He had multiple plans for the conference," said Waupun coach Jason Buchholz. "Many of the coaches liked the idea and within a year, we had the tournament schedule.  When most of the coaches agreed, the process did not take long."

If you're doing the math. Instead of playing 14 conference games. The Badgerland Conference nows plays 10, three of which come right at the end of the season as they get ready for sectionals.

One of the dirty little secrets of conference play is that many of the teams at the top and bottom of a given conference probably don't want to play each other twice every season. 

"With playing teams twice, you might have to play teams far from your competition level at both ends twice," said Buchholz. "This hurts your team in scheduling non conference games versus teams with similar abilities as yours. I have been through this on both ends in Waupun." 

"Seeding the tournament allows for the the top teams in any given year to play the stronger schedule ultimately and not have to play the teams that are struggling," said St Marys Springs coach Tim Ahern, "and on the flip side... who wants to play two extra games against teams that are going to just pound you."

Some teams truly take advantage of the freedom they get from those extra four games.

"We enjoyed doing different things like this year we went to Minnesota for a 3 game tournament," said Fond du Lac coach Ryan Sarazin. "We attend Green Bay Showdown in Title Town which is 3 extra games, and we have gone into Michigan to expose kids to different competition levels and experiences."

"I really think it meets the needs that all teams would like to have with being able to get four more non-conference games," said Neenah/Hortonville/Menasha coach Mike Elkin. "And it creates a great way to end the season with a competitive tournament format."

"There are absolutely no issues getting the other games scheduled and in fact it helps us get teams on the schedule in other areas of the state given we have 'open slots' to fill," said Ahern. "This is a great tournament and one that the coaches and players all enjoy playing in. It has also had some good upsets as well where the lower seeds have advanced which lead to some good excitement."

Last year fifth-seeded Oshkosh ended up in the conference title game. A few years ago fifth-seeded Fond du Lac actually won the tournament before going on to win their section and end up in Madison.

"Last year we went in as the 5th seed and lost in the championship game and I believe that helped us when the WIAA tournament came around as it prepared the kids mentally," said Oshkosh coach Kevin Walsh. "Even though the conference tournament is not one in done, if you want to with the championship you have to play that way."

That sentiment was echoed by several other coaches in the conference. 

Bucholz said, "The tournament is a great way to prepare for the upcoming play-offs.  You do get that play-off atmosphere, especially if you are playing a rival."

Sarazin said, "Exposing players to a competitive 8 team tournament and playing back to back nights against competitive teams in theory should help as well as providing momentum and a spring board for the upcoming WIAA tournament."

Elkin said, "I think it does help us prepare for Play-off hockey by actually playing for something."

"Looking at everything it was a win-win for the teams and players in our conference, plus it was unique because no other conference had a tournament" said Huebel. "We all know how hard it is to make it to Madison in March; this tournament gives the kids something to play for at the end of the year."

This year Neenah/Hortonville/Menasha and Appleton United split the Badgerland Regular Season crown with 6-1 records. If they want to play for the Tournament crown, they'll have to get past Fond du Lac and Waupun first.

In girls hockey, the Eastern Shores Conference (made up of many Badgerland schools) plays the same type of tournament to end the season.