The School District of Tomorrow River, being prudent and mindful of taxpayers' funds has chosen not to fight the WIAA ruling. A group of local community members have rallied together to help fund the initial costs of an injunction to allow our student-athletes the opportunity to play. Through no fault of the student-athletes, they are being penalized for a situation that they did not create. We are hopeful that we can be successful in at least delaying the decision until after the play-offs are complete. There is no guarantee of success. We are asking for donations to offset the costs of attorney fees to take this to the next level. Any unused donations will be donated directly to the Falcon Pride project. No individual or business will benefit from the funds, only to offset any costs incurred by the district to file for the injunction to delay the final decision until a later date.

Please join us in contributing what you can to this cause. These kids have worked hard all season, off-season, and all of their careers. We hate to see these students season cut short for something that they had no knowledge of. Whether it is $5 or $500, please help us in this mission.

From the TRSD:

October 13, 2022

For Immediate Release

Media Inquiries: Gregg Gutschow, [email redacted].wi.us; [phone redacted]

AMHERST, WI—Following a formal appeal to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) Board of

Control by Tomorrow River School District (TRSD) officials on Thursday, the WIAA has ruled in a 9-0 vote to uphold

its decision that the Amherst High School football program must forfeit all six of its 2022 season victories leaving

the team 0-8 and ineligible for the playoffs. The ruling handed down by WIAA is that an Amherst Falcons football

player had previously exhausted his athletic eligibility because he participated in football at a different school

district in 2018. TRSD officials argued that this eligibility issue was not known to the school and could not have

been discovered by the school nor its Athletic Director Shawn Groshek via WIAA procedures in place at the time.

“We are extremely disappointed by this unreasonable ruling from the WIAA,” said District Administrator Mike

Richie. “The facts in this case make it clear that none of the WIAA processes in place at the time would have

allowed us to discover this situation. As a result, the WIAA is unfairly harming our district, our student-athletes

and our entire community. We did everything in our power to attempt to get this unfair decision reversed.”

Despite this, and on advice from legal counsel, the district has decided against seeking a temporary restraining

order in the case.

AD Groshek was advised on Monday, October 10 by the WIAA that the association had received an allegation

from an outside, unidentified person of an ineligible player participating on the Amherst varsity football team.

Groshek and TRSD administrators immediately began investigating this allegation and responded with an appeal

document to WIAA on October 11. On Wednesday, October 12 the WIAA informed TRSD of its decision and

offered the district the opportunity to appeal to the Board of Control on Thursday. Ultimately, these efforts by the

district failed to change the ruling.

The information currently available to TRSD and shared by TRSD to WIAA in its appeal documents verifies that the

student-athlete in question home-schooled in the fall of 2018 and played (freshman/jayvee) football for Manawa.

He was not enrolled in any classes in the Manawa School District. WIAA regulations state that a student-athlete

may not compete in WIAA sports for more than four consecutive years. As such, this would have meant that the

2021-2022 school year would have been the final year of eligibility for this student.

Neither Groshek, nor school administration were aware of the home-schooled student’s Manawa football

participation until informed by the WIAA on October 10. For the 2019-2020 school year, the student in question

enrolled at Stevens Point Christian Academy (SPCA) as a freshman, according to his Cumulative File records at

TRSD. Further, his Cumulative File paperwork from SPCA states the following: “came to SPCA in the fall of 2019

from home schooling. No other records available.” In 2020 he open-enrolled at the TRSD as a sophomore.

District officials state that the information that they have on file from SPCA shows that the student-athlete did not

play any sports as a freshman there. It appears that the school, which is not WIAA affiliated, only offers basketball

as a boys’ sport. He also did not compete in football during his sophomore school year (2020-21) in Amherst.

Instead he played soccer for Amherst in fall of 2020. In 2021-22 he joined the Amherst football team for his first

season of football competition at the school as a junior.

Amherst football plays Stratford in Marshfield on Friday, October 14 in what will be the Falcons’ final game of the

season. Prior to the ruling, both teams were undefeated in conference play.