GOODMAN, Wis. — The Goodman-Pembine Patriots girls basketball team has dealt with a lack of players since the beginning of the season, which in Wisconsin was Nov. 11 for the first practices.

As of early last week, the official decision was made to cancel the rest of the season, after only playing three games of the 20 on the Patriots’ schedule.

The team is a co-operative effort with both the Goodman-Armstrong Creek and Beecher-Dunbar-Pembine schools providing players.

“We had nine girls come out to start the season, grades 9-12, so that meant no JV team right from the start. By the time Thanksgiving break ended, for varying reasons we were down to six players,” said head coach Stacy Stepien.

Stepien noted that currently, with injuries to two players and academic sanctions to two others, the two schools administrations made the decision to cancel the rest of the season.

Unfortunately, the decision didn’t only affect the rest of this season for the Patriots and the rest of the members of the Northern Lakes Conference, of which G-P is a member.

According to NLC by-laws, any team faced with what the Patriots chose to do is subject to sanctions enforced for the following two seasons. Plus, this year’s seniors will see their season end after a handful of games.

In 2020-2021, the Patriots will be forced to play a JV only schedule for the entire season, regardless of the age or grade of the players on their squad. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association has recently changed some of its participation rules and by-laws for basketball, both boys and girls, that will allow for this.

The 2021-2022 season will see G-P being able to play the second half of their conference schedule and select non-conference games, as varsity games. The first half of their schedule will once again be limited to the Patriots playing JV games.

“The girls that I did have since the season began, have worked hard. They knew what they were going to be up against, had we continued to play games, towards finishing the season,” Stepien said. “I feel badly for the girls, especially the seniors.”

Noting that the girls had to practice before school each day, beginning at 6:15 a.m., Stepien wanted to express her thanks.

“The girls didn’t complain, they showed up and practiced before school, and did what I asked of them. All in an attempt to keep girls basketball going at G-P,” she said.

With the team being down to three or four girls for some upcoming games, Stepien said the decision was made for obvious reasons, “We were left with no choice,” she said.

The Patriots lost all three games they did play, versus Niagara on Nov. 21, at Suring on Dec. 3 and at NLC conference foe Elcho on Dec. 5.

With being required to take at least five more forfeit losses due to conference and WIAA regulations, the Patriots will officially finish at approximately 0-10.