Muskego makes a classic move

Muskego - Now it's now official.

Muskego-Norway School District will move from the Southeast WIAA athletic conference to the Classic 8 conference.

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association Board of Control approved the realignment and a number of other changes at its meeting Friday .

The conference realignment that will take effect in the 2012-13 school year has Muskego-Norway taking the place of Pius XI in the Classic 8. Pius will go to the Woodland Conference. Taking Muskego's place in the Southeast Conference will be a new high school, Indian Trails Academy in Kenosha.

While sports experts view the Classic 8 as being about as tough a conference as the SEC, Muskego-Norway school officials see being in it as a huge advantage.

No more will Muskego-Norway teams have long bus rides to games in Kenosha and Racine counties. That's hard on the players and hard on taxpayers' pocketbooks, they said.

Besides, all Classic 8 teams were located in Waukesha County except Pius, they said. Now, it will be entirely Waukesha County.

Because Muskego measures itself against those same Waukesha County schools in academics, putting itself against them in athletics makes sense, Superintendent of Schools Joe Schroeder said in August when the WIAA Board of Control gave preliminary approval to Muskego's request to switch conferences.

Starting the next school year, Muskego will compete against Mukwonago, Kettle Moraine, Arrowhead, Catholic Memorial and West, South and North high schools in Waukesha. The Southeast Conference will contain Bradford, Tremper, Indian Trails, Case, Park, Horlick, Oak Creek and Franklin.