Waukesha North's Season Opener Set For Aug. 21; Nedventuresout Plans Sideline Coverage

WAUKESHA — Waukesha North will play its first football game since rejoining the Parkland Conference on Aug. 21 against Milwaukee Lutheran, a matchup that Athletic Director Patricia Gensemer confirmed falls exactly one day after the WIAA's Aug. 20 deadline to finalize realignment paperwork for all seven conference member schools.

"We are, technically, playing our first game as a Parkland Conference program before the ink on the Parkland Conference is even fully dry," Gensemer said. "I've been told that's not a problem. I've also been told to stop bringing it up in meetings."

A Non-League Opener, Under A New League Banner

Milwaukee Lutheran is not among the seven schools in the revived conference, meaning the Aug. 21 game is a non-conference tune-up rather than North's first official Parkland Conference contest. North head coach Rick Domagalski, 41, said the scheduling was set months before realignment was finalized and the staff saw no reason to change it. "It's a good measuring-stick opponent, conference or no conference," Domagalski said. "The kids don't care what letterhead is on the schedule. They care about Friday."

Domagalski said practices this month have focused less on Milwaukee Lutheran's tendencies and more on making sure all 52 players on the roster can correctly name the six other Parkland Conference schools without looking at the whiteboard in the fieldhouse, a drill he instituted after two seniors referred to Kettle Moraine as "the one with the lake" during a team meeting.

"The kids don't care what letterhead is on the schedule. They care about Friday."

— Rick Domagalski, head football coach, Waukesha North

Sideline Coverage, Confirmed

Ned England, 70, of Backslide Way, said he plans to attend the Aug. 21 game and livestream portions of it on his YouTube channel, Nedventuresout (420 subscribers), which normally covers neighborhood grievances from a lawn chair rather than high school athletics. England said he became aware of the realignment through a Facebook post shared by a neighbor and has since referred to the Northstars' new league as "the Woodland Conference, the new one" in three separate posts, despite North having left the Woodland Conference years before the current split even existed.

"I don't need to get the name exactly right to point a camera at a football game," England said. "I've filmed a Honda parked eleven inches over a property line for forty minutes. This is the same skill set."

England said he intends to set up his lawn chair and tripod along the visiting sideline fence line, a placement he has not yet cleared with either athletic department. Gensemer said she was unaware of England's plans as of Monday but did not rule out accommodating him. "We'll figure out where Mr. England goes," she said. "We figured out a seven-team conference in four months. A lawn chair is not going to be the hard part."

Trevor England, 19, who lives with his father on Backslide Way, said he would be attending the game but had no plans to appear on camera. "I'll be in the stands," he said. "He's bringing extra batteries. That's really all I know about it."

North's opener kicks off at 7 p.m. Aug. 21. Gensemer said the school does not currently have a rain contingency plan specific to the game, calling that "a September problem."