ELMWOOD — The Elmwood School Board approved Liz Hauser as the next Elmwood/Plum City softball coach. While the approval still needs to go through the Plum City board, it is expected to be approved as Hauser is currently a high school math teacher in the Plum City district and representatives from that district were involved in the interview process.

The approval came during the Feb. 18 meeting following the announcement of coach Paige Weiske’s resignation from the position.

“Liz walked in extremely prepared. She came in with a packet of things to do before the season starts, what one of her indoor practice plans would look like, what an outdoor practice plan would look like, what weight training would look like and she nailed it,” Elmwood MS/HS Principal Tom Sauve said.

Amid concerns of low enrollment between the paired schools and the challenge of fielding a full team, Sauve said Hauser spoke to focusing on the youth and keeping students engaged in the sport long before they step foot into high school.

“She gave us all the right responses. She was very impressive,” Sauve said. “I left that interview process feeling really good about the direction [of the program].”

8-player football

At the Plum City School Board February meeting, the board heard information about a potential transition to 8-player football from 11-player football due to student-athlete depth challenges from declining enrollment. The Elmwood board then heard a similar presentation at its February meeting.

The presentation was not to come to a decision or even to sway a vote one way or another, rather to inform the board of the challenges currently facing EPC football, and what a switch to 8-player football would look like.

Of 70 8-player football teams, 44 have a higher projected average enrollment than EPC. Of 51 Division 7 11-player teams, four fall below EPC’s projected average enrollment of 149 at the high school level. EPC is expected to have the lowest enrollment in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference in 2026.

“We’d have to have the paperwork turned into the WIAA by Oct. 1 of 2026 [to be ready to go in 8-player football in 2028],” EPC Athletic Director Mike Birtzer said. “Some of those schools ran it through in two months. I don’t think we want to do that. I think we want to let everybody go through the discussion.”

If EPC does make the transition, the nearest 8-player conference is the North Central West. Currently, the North Central West features Clayton, Frederic, Luck, New Auburn, Prairie Farm and Siren. With many Wisconsin schools in a similar situation as EPC due to declining enrollment, there could be some conference shakeup in the near future.

Other business

• Announced Class of 2026 Valedictorian Hannah Fesenmaier and Salutatorian Blake Bechel. Sauve said Fesenmaier had the first cumulative 4.0 GPA since he arrived at the school and the district switched from a 12-point to 4-point GPA scale.
• Approved a bid from Bear Valley Electric of just shy of $100,000 for planned electrical panel, classroom circuit and transformer upgrades. The bid came in well below the projected $325,000-375,000 that was previously estimated by an outside source.
• Approved requests from students to take classes for college credit through CVTC.