GLENDALE, Wis. — The WIAA headquarters are based in Stevens Point, but a satellite office in Glendale aims to help the large contingent of schools in southeast Wisconsin.
And a common theme comes up for the reasons why.
TMJ4 News' Lance Allan asked what it is like to have a Milwaukee satellite office of the WIAA.
"I think it's great. I think it speaks to the leadership of our executive director Stephanie Hauser and her vision for being more of a service organization," LeVar Ridgeway says. "And being more connected to Stevens Point for schools in this area and I'm looking to be that liaison between the two."
Hauser says the office will serve as an outreach in Southeast Wisconsin.
"Southeast Wisconsin has a very, very densely populated, it's a populated area of so many member schools," Stephanie Hauser says. "What better way to serve our membership is to put a satellite office for purposes of outreach right here in Southeast Wisconsin."
Ridgeway has a strong connection to this area and wants change.
"As an athletic director at Shorewood, I did feel the connective piece missing," Ridgeway says. "That's something that I voiced in the past,and now again with our new team assembled in Stevens Point, we felt that it was a very important thing to do. Not only to Milwaukee, but to Kenosha and Racine and Madison as well."
"We have just begun to scratch the ideas of how we want to use that satellite office in order to make sure that member schools and member leaders know that those doors are open for them to come to us," Hauser says. "To share ideas with us, and also for us to listen to them."
Allan asked what they hope to change or help with the new office.
"I'm hoping this office can be a point of better communication," Ridgeway says. "And then just a sounding board when there are issues that come up, or things that need to be addressed. And they feel like they have someone on their side that can help them be a liaison between us and Stevens Point."
Ridgeway and assistant Molly O'Brien currently staff the local office. It is small, but effective.
