BROOKFIELD, Wis. — The boys soccer team at Living Word Lutheran High School beat Brookfield Academy on Thursday. Their team includes four international students who won an injunction in court to play after transferring schools.
Watch: Living Word Lutheran's soccer team advances to semifinals after court win
Living Word Lutheran is now in the Division 4 playoffs, trying to make it to the state tournament after a judge granted an injunction against the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association in October, which allowed the international students from Tanzania to play in varsity matches.
LWL beat Brookfield 3-1 in a close match. Next, they’ll play in the semifinals.
"We're just happy to be here and grateful," Heather Ochsner said. "They want to play soccer, so we just want to see them play the game, not sit on their hands on the bench and have to watch in agony. That was hard for them the first seven or eight games."
Ochsner's son plays soccer at Living Word with the four boys from Tanzania at the private school in Jackson. Her husband is the head coach.
The Ripon High School varsity boys team previously lost to Living Word and spoke out against the judge's injunction. One parent filed a letter in Washington County court asking the judge to rescind the injunction before Thursday night's game.
Your decision to overrule the long standing WIAA rules regarding transfer students not being allowed to play on varsity teams may be benefiting these players, and is absolutely benefiting their team, but at the cost of doing irreparable harm to many more student athletes.
"A lawyer by no means should be able to overturn WIAA's say and should be able to interfere with the kids' play," Malachy Wisneski said. "You've got to let the kids play. Everyone has to follow the same rules, and if we all can't agree on the same rules, it was never soccer then."
Wisneski is a senior at Ripon High School who played his last season with the team, which lost to Living Word.
"We've heard the term sore loser a lot from many people, and that's not why we're here," he said. "We find it unfair that teams can go behind the WIAA's back, go the legal route, and overrule the WIAA and play by the rules they want."
Living Word Lutheran fans also said it's not about winning or losing.
"I have nothing but good things to say about Ripon, the team, and the coach," Ochsner said. "It meant more to them that the boys could all play together than how many wins there were, all-conference or how far they made it."
Living Word Lutheran's assistant coach is also the four Tanzanian boys' guardian, and he declined to comment.
TMJ4 previously spoke to the international students and their guardian in August and October. They said they transferred schools due to safety concerns, but said they could not elaborate more on the record.
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