JANUARY NEWSLETTER

Hello to all from the Wisconsin Sports Services! Instead of writing e-mails that approach the

length of a novel, we’ve decided to collect and publish all the developments of the WSS in a

periodic Newsletter. The main objective of this newsletter is to keep all the Area Directors in

the loop as far as what’s happening in all the Hub Cities and in the front office. Because this is

the first of many, it will be the longest but we expect to release a monthly newsletter to

ensure everybody has the most up-to-date information.

WSS UPDATE WSS Hires Full-Time Marketing Director

We are pleased to introduce our new WSS Marketing Director, Brian Meeter. We met Brian

at our initial meeting with the La Crosse group in October. We were impressed at how well-

attended that first meeting was and it was all thanks to Brian and his hard work to ensure

that the relevant associations were represented. Brian was also instrumental in placing the

first official WSS event, the Badgerland Wrestling Nationals, at UW-La Crosse in March 2013.

Originally from Iowa, Meeter received his BA in Sports Management from Loras College in

Dubuque, IA. Two years later he earned his Master’s from the University of South Dakota

and is currently working on his doctorate in Sports Management from North Central

University in Prescott, AZ. Prior to being hired as the WSS Marketing Director, Brian held the

position of Executive Director of the La Crosse Sports Commission where he was responsible

for attracting events to the La Crosse area. Brian Meeter

Through his work for the La Crosse Sports Commission, Brian is a great resource for all sports in the Hub Cities. However,

his specialization lies within the sport of volleyball and his experience is extensive. Brian has coached sports at almost

every level, from middle school to NCAA Division II. Brian was awarded Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2000 for

his work as Head Volleyball Coach at Iowa Wesleyan College. Brian coach collegiate and club volleyball 9+ years.

Meeter has been an educator at four different universities in Iowa and Wisconsin since 1999. His most recent teaching

experience was as an Adjunct Professor at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he taught several courses in

Sports Management.

In addition to being charged with the duties that are required of a Marketing Director, Brian will also serve as La Crosse

Area Director for the time being. With his knowledge of the environment of youth sports in the area, we feel he will be a

good fit. As Marketing Director, Meeter will be traveling the state and meeting with potential sponsors and other

interested parties. He will be working closely with current MYAS Marketing Director, Dan Craighead, to ensure consistency

within the marketing initiatives of both organizations. We ask all Area Directors for their utmost cooperation with Brian as

he will likely be visiting your Hub City in the near future.

Brian and his wife Leanne reside in Holmen, WI, and spend their time shuttling their children, Maddie (7) and Joe (5) to

various sports and recreational activities across the Coulee Region.

Website Update We are working very closely with TST Media to finalize the website

design. Adam and Lance Klinkhammer have been working

extensively on creating and uploading content to the website for all

sports. The wrestling web page is live right now and we’ve already

received registrations for the Badgerland Nationals wrestling event

scheduled for March 2-3 at UW-La Crosse.

After we have received the dates from all Area Directors for the

Spring Basketball tournaments, we will be going live with the

basketball web page and opening the registration page.

We plan on having the bulk of the site go live by January 31. The

site will be a work in progress and we encourage all the Area

Directors to peruse the site and provide feedback on functionality

and any additions that can be made to continue to development of

the WSS website.

WSS Apparel

Recently, we submitted a sizeable order to our official apparel supplier, Signature Concepts, to be able to

outfit all the Area Directors. The WSS requires that all Area Directors wear official WSS apparel at all

meetings and events. The MYAS has been working with Signature Concepts since 2000. The apparel

company has many large clients such as Holiday Station Stores, Dairy Queen and Hendrick Motorsports

among others. They are also the official apparel supplier of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the

University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Wild and the minor league St. Paul Saints. We work with

Signature Concepts on all MYAS program apparel and intend to work with them for WSS program

merchandise. We plan to order merchandise for the WSS Spring Championships in June, which is the

culmination of the Spring Basketball program. This is another component you can highlight when meeting

with prospective host groups as the Host receives 15% of all apparel sales.

You should be receiving your WSS apparel within the next month, and it should be worn when performing

the duties of an Area Director. No corduroy here! We’ve ordered some slick threads, people. We want

our ADs looking good!

Screenshot of the WSS Design Mockup

WSS UPDATE

On the Road in God’s Country Since October 2011, the WSS crew has been back and forth across the state of Wisconsin more than a

dozen times. We’ve met with individuals in all of our Hub Cities and then some. The feedback we’ve

received regarding our plans in Wisconsin has been

overwhelmingly positive and led to the formal creation

of the WSS. Our most recent adventure brought us first

to the Chula Vista Resort in the Dells for the Wisconsin

Park and Rec Expo, where the WSS may have had the

most frequented booth out of all. The WSS is currently

a second-year member of the Wisconsin Park and Rec

Association. We were the Name Badge Sponsor at this

event which meant that everybody in attendance had

the WSS logo and web address highlighted on their red

name badges.

We even won an award! (See picture at right.)

From Chula Vista, we then drove to Sheboygan for the

Wisconsin CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau) State Convention. WSS Executive Director Dan

Klinkhammer was invited by Wisconsin CVB State President Julia Hertel to be a Special Guest Speaker to

introduce the WSS and its initiatives. The state was well-represented in the room and there was a very

encouraging Q&A session after the formal introduction speeches.

Going Forward

Originally, the plan was to have a WSS office in Wisconsin by January 2014 but things have changed a bit.

We are now planning on securing an office in Wisconsin by April 1, 2013. The location has not been

determined yet as we are still weighing the options and considering a couple different communities.

Madison is the current front-runner as we feel that having an office centrally located would allow us to

service the entire state and have reasonable access to all the Hub Cities. We will be making a trip or two to

Madison in the next few weeks to scout office location possibilities and living accommodations.

The WSS accepting a Special Recognition Award

from the WRPA at the WRPA Expo at Chula Vista

Bios and Photos for Website

Please send a bio and updated photo to adam@wisportservices.org. We would like to publish the staff

information on the website.

WSS UPDATE

Area Director Packets We have been organizing a collection of documents and materials that we believe will allow all Area

Directors (ADs) to perform their duties. These materials include but are not limited to:

Business Cards - We are currently printing temporary business cards for all ADs. Official business cards will be

printing and distributed once an office location has been selected.

WSS Brochures - Some of you may have seen the bi-fold color brochure that we’ve been handing out to anybody

and everybody but even if you have not, we will be supplying you with 100 of these brochures. The brochure is

also available in digital form as a PDF file on the Home Page of the WSS website.

Spring Basketball Handbooks and Host Contracts - The Spring Basketball Handbooks will spell out all the

competition details and should be distributed to all area basketball associations/teams/coaches. The Host

Contracts are necessary when negotiating with a potential host group for the Spring Invites. All of the details

such as what is expected of host groups and how the money split between the Host and WSS will be included in

the Host Contract. Both these documents will be available on the website as well.

List of Frequently Asked Questions - This is a good resource for those who are interested in learning how the

WSS works. Available online.

National Background Check Application - Because we practice what we preach , we are requiring all

Area Directors to complete the Background Check form and return to the WSS office. Background checks are

good for five years and the WSS will be absorbing all expenses. Please complete the form and return as soon as

possible.

Mileage Log - Through the creation of a statewide network of WSS Hub Cities, our intention was to limit the

amount of travel for ADs but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any travel. Fear not, we will be reimbursing you

for any mileage you’ve accumulated as long as you properly keep track of mileage spent on WSS initiatives. The

mileage rate is $0.50/mile and will be paid on a monthly basis provided you submit your reimbursement form.

Event Work Form - This form is designated to compensate ADs for their event work as a Tournament Director.

Event work checks will be processed after we receive the Event Work form.

Tournament Director Manual - This manual has been created to assist ADs working in the capacity of a

Tournament Director.

Reimbursement Forms - The WSS does not expect ADs to pay out of pocket for anything related to WSS

activities. Please keep track of any personal expenses you’ve incurred.

Progress Reports - Please submit Progress Reports and all other monthly forms (expenses, mileage logs)

to the WSS office by the 10th of each month. Checks will be cut within 48 hours of receipt.

WSS UPDATE

WRESTLING UPDATE 2013 Badgerland Nationals

We are less than two months away from the first official WSS event in La Crosse! The Badgerland

Nationals is an extension of the Gopher State Nationals held annually in Monticello, MN in early February.

The Gopher State Nationals averages about 1,200 wrestlers each year and has earned the reputation of

being one of the most competitive and well-organized wrestling events in the region. The WSS will be

utilizing the bracketing software used at the Minnesota tournament in an effort to duplicate the level of

organization and professionalism that has come to be expected from this event.

PROGRAM NOTES & INFO Badgerland Nationals will be held at Mitchell Hall on the UW-La Crosse Campus

Grade based event held March 2-3, 2013 (Weigh-Ins start at 7am - Wrestling begins at 9am both days)

March 2 - Grades 3 & 4, 5 & 6

March 3 - Grades Pre-K & K, 1 & 2, 7 & 8

Entry Fee is $30 per wrestler—Entry Deadline is February 20

Wrestlers from all states are eligible - we are advertising this event on every wrestling website from

here to Colorado.

Dick’s Sporting Goods has been secured as the Title Sponsor

UW-La Crosse Wrestling and the Holmen Viking Wrestling Club are the Host Groups

Registration is currently OPEN. Wrestlers can register online or through the mail. Entry Packets are

available on the website.

Officials will be High School Certified

1st-6th place will be awarded custom medals

A full concession stand will be available

Medical Trainer will be on-site for the duration of the event

Area Director Responsibility We ask for assistance in spreading the word in your area about this event. We are expecting 400-500

wrestlers this first year and we need your help getting to that number. We’ve created a list of youth

wrestling tournaments in your area and we ask that you distribute our flyers at these events along with

any other communication you can utilize (e-mail blasts, meetings, sending links to the website).

BASKETBALL UPDATE

PROGRAM NOTES & INFO

Area Director Responsibility

BASKETBALL UPDATE

PROGRAM NOTES & INFO

Area Director Responsibility

2013 Badgerland Spring Championship Series

We now have dates (listed below) for all five weekends in the Eau Claire, Wausau, & Green Bay Hubs. La

Crosse shouldn’t be too far behind as Brian has been speaking with potential host groups in his area and

we’re encouraged by the progress that we have made up to this point. We are still trying to identify Area

Directors in Madison and Milwaukee. However, Lance and Adam may be handling the responsibilities of

those two Hubs for 2013. If you know someone with interest in being an AD in these areas pass them along

to us or the Wisconsin Park and Rec website, wpraweb.org, as we have the job posted for the Area Director.

We are currently building up the Basketball portion of the WSS website; our ADs will be the first to know

when we go live but our internal deadline is January 31.

Eau Claire Wausau Green Bay

April 20-21 Boys Girls Boys

April 27-28 Girls Boys Girls

May 4-5 Boys Girls Boys

May 11-12 Girls

May 18-19 Girls Boys

June 8-9 TBD TBD TBD

Spring Invitationals (April-May)

4-Game Guarantee; Open Registration

3rd-12th Grade; Combined divisions if numbers

are too low at respective grade level

Divisions I, II & III - Not based on WIAA definition

3rd-4th Grade $260 Entry Fee

5th-12th Grade $275 Entry Fee

Spring Championships (June)

4-Game Guarantee

Open Registration

Seeded by Coaches

3rd-12th Grade; Divs. I, II, III

3rd-4th Grade $310 Entry Fee

5th-12th Grade $325 Entry Fee

Spread the word about the Badgerland Spring Basketball Program throughout Wisconsin at local

tournaments/leagues in your area. Educate local youth basketball administrators about the WSS and

disperse WSS materials as they are provided to you by the state office. Educate local population about the

WSS website and opportunities to post tryout information and independent tournament listings on our

website.

USSSA SOFTBALL UPDATE First, a little history…

USSSA was big in Wisconsin adult slow pitch about 10 years ago. The National Tournament was actually

held in Milwaukee for years until the people at the top began fighting over the direction of the program.

There were pockets of USSSA stuff going on for a while but as of today it’s completely non-existent. It

appears that people in Wisconsin are still playing softball and there seems to be a healthy Carnival cash

tournament circuit but not a lot of teams are playing sanctioned ball. The main reason for that is because

the only association present in WI is the ASA. Without going into too much detail, a lot of people are up-

set with the way ASA is being run. The discontent is prevalent on every softball forum we’ve researched

and one of the reasons is that the State Director is literally running this program out of his basement. He

has a full-time job and it sounds like he took the State Director position because no one else wanted it.

There was actually a post by this individual in the forums stating if everybody hates the way he’s doing

things, they are welcome to take over. This is good news for us. The ASA website is also a shell of what

our site will be and it’s just plain cheaper to play USSSA on all accounts.

SANCTION FEES

USSSA - $25/team

ASA - $55/team

REGISTRATIONS

2012 USSSA Class D (MN) - Almost 2,100 teams

26 teams participated in D State

2012 ASA (WI) Class D - Unknown

13 teams participated in D State

2012 USSSA Class E (MN) - 990 teams

32 teams participated in E State

2012 ASA (WI) Class E—Unknown

10 teams participated in E State

(8 were from Sheboygan)

USSSA vs. ASA - By the Numbers

INSURANCE

USSSA - $197 team/year (liability only)

$336 team/year (liability & $250 deduct)

ASA - $247 team/year (liability only)

$478 team/year (liability & $500 deduct)

POSTSEASON COMPETITION

ASA Nationals - Class D

4 teams from 4 states

USSSA - Class D Worlds (True National)

172 teams from 38 state associations

USSSA National Tournament - Nationals are Regional events. There were 15 different National

tournaments in 2012 in Class D alone. Teams must qualify for this event.

USSSA World Tournament - Worlds is a National event. Teams from across the Nation to compete for

a true “National” Championship. Teams must also qualify for this event but do not have to participate

in a National Tournament to compete in the World Tournament.

USSSA STATE TOURNAMENT

Once the Regionals have been run, we’ll get a better idea on which classes/division we will offer in the State

Tournament. Because of lack of facilities in any one area, we’ll probably have to split up some of the classes/

divisions between some of the Hub Cities. The plan is to have the State Tournament hold World Qualifier status for

those interested teams. The USSSA World Tournament is held every year at the Disney complex in Florida.

USSSA SOFTBALL UPDATE Plan for 2013

REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS

We will be offering four regional tournaments in 2013, one

in each region per the map on the right. ———>

The regions are consistent with the regions as they are

defined by the Wisconsin Park and Rec Association. We will

be marketing the event to the Park and Rec directors that

run softball leagues in their communities as they should

have knowledge of these boundaries already.

Teams must compete in a regional tournament to be able to

participate in the State Tournament.

We have yet to determine what classes/divisions we will be

offering but it will be something like this in each region:

Men’s - Open, C, D, E

Women’s - Upper, Lower

Mixed - Open, D, E

The plan is to have the Regionals hold National Qualifier status for teams that have any interest in playing in the

postseason. The USSSA Great Lakes Nationals are being held in Sterling Heights, MI so the travel is reasonable for

WI teams.

AREA DIRECTOR RESPONSIBILITY

We’ll need our ADs to spread the word regarding the Slow Pitch program.

We have created a list of the Park and Rec contacts in your area and be-

cause they do the majority of the adult programming, we feel like they

should be made aware of this new program first. We also would like to

know about any of the tournaments currently being held in the area to

attempt to schedule around them.

We also need to know about the softball facilities

in your area including:

- Complex name, contact, email, # of fields

- Fence distances (300 feet is ideal)

- Lighted or not

- Proximity to other available fields

BASEBALL UPDATE Dave Wabick, the USSSA State Director for Illinois who has been dabbling in Wisconsin for the last couple

years, has teamed up with the Chula Vista in the Dells in their agenda to build the Woodside Baseball

Complex that was originally slated for Mauston, WI. To keep it short, the Mauston project fell through

with Juneau County and it was dead until Mike Kaminski and Wabick got involved, and now they have

tournaments scheduled at the Woodside Complex that has yet to be built or even break ground. After

speaking with Dave and his group it sounds as if they want to retain the State Directorship for USSSA and

run their tournaments under that banner. It doesn’t really affect us as we run our big tournament, the

Gopher State Tournament of Champions, unaffiliated. The first youth baseball program we plan on

offering is the 2013 Badgerland Tournament of Champions (BLTC) in Wisconsin. We’ve already begun to

create a list of existing baseball tournaments that we will reach out to and become BLTC Qualifiers.

Below is an explanation of how this program works:

We offer this program to traveling baseball teams from ages 9-15 in three different divisions (AAA,

AA, A).

We will be allowing organizations to advertise their invitational tournaments on our website. In

Minnesota, we charge a posting fee of $25 but have yet to determine whether to charge a posting

fee in WI the first year of the program.

Existing invitational tournaments run by those community organizations are identified as BLTC

qualifiers In Minnesota, we charge $40 to become a GSTC qualifier but will not be charging this fee

in Wisconsin in 2013.

At the completion of those tournaments, the tournament director reports their results to us and we

compile a list of teams that have qualified for the BLTC and publish this on our website.

In Minnesota, we had over 450 teams participate in the GSTC and it has earned the reputation as the

true State Tournament for youth baseball teams.

The tournament is usually held on three weekends in July after the 4th.

In Minnesota, we award the Champions of this tournament customized Josten’s rings at about $75/

player. This isn’t a problem in Wisconsin at the younger age groups but because of WIAA rules as

they are currently written, we don’t know if we can offer the rings to the 14 and 15 year olds. We

are currently working through this issue.

I advise you to check out the official GSTC Hub at http://myasbaseball.sportngin.com. Click on GSTC.

This area is still a work in progress. However, eventually we

plan on offering all of these programs.

EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

UPDATE

Dan Klinkhammer

WSS Executive Director E-Mail dan@wisportsservices.org

Work Phone 763-746-1714

Cell Phone 763-719-6762

Adam Klinkhammer

WSS Program Director

USSSA Slow Pitch State Director E-Mail adam@wisportsservices.org

Work Phone 763-746-1735

Cell Phone 763-639-7861

WSS Contact Numbers

and E-Mails

Lance Klinkhammer

WSS Program Director

USSSA Basketball State Director E-Mail lance@wisportsservices.org

Work Phone 763-746-1731 Cell Phone 763-232-0671

Jeremy Innes

WSS Program Director

Wrestling Director E-Mail jeremy@wisportsservices.org

Work Phone 763-746-1731

Cell Phone 763-232-0671

Brian Meeter

WSS Marketing Director

La Crosse Area Director E-Mail brian@wisportsservices.org

Cell Phone 608-780-2054

Lindsey Lewitzke

MYAS Program Director

Wausau Area Director E-Mail lindsey@myas.org

Work Phone 763-746-1733

Cell Phone 715-581-5871

Tony Groff

MYAS/WSS Program Director - Baseball E-Mail tony@myas.org

Work Phone 763-746-1728

Cell Phone 651-983-6803

Jen Johnson

WSS Green Bay Area Director E-Mail jen@wisportsservices.org

Cell Phone 920-309-0387

Dave Hazuga

WSS Eau Claire Area Director E-Mail dave@wisportsservices.org

Cell Phone 952-239-1911

NEED

PHOTO!

NEED

PHOTO!