A History of AHS Sports: 59 Years of History and Tradition

For 59 years, Arrowhead Union High School has been serving as an educational institution in Hartland, Wisconsin. As years have passed, the school and its extracurriculars have modified and advanced. The sports department, in particular, has gone through many developments.

The sports offered during the 2015-2016 school year are baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swim and dive, tennis, track and field, volleyball, cheerleading, football, dance team, gymnastics, softball, and wrestling. Lacrosse was recently added to the list.

However, in the history of AHS, several sports have been removed from the athletic roster.

Boys gymnastics existed from 1980 to 1981. Girls archery and girls baseball existed from 1972 to 1973; girls water ballet existed from 1974 to 1975; and boys sailing existed from 1990 to 1991. All have been since removed from Arrowhead’s sports selection.

Liz Arsnow, an assistant in the activities office and 1975 graduate of Arrowhead says, “Back in 74-75, we would have had everything in Physical Education classes. We did traditional things like tennis, running, and dancing. But a lot of these things were just that: gym classes.”

When Arrowhead was first established in 1956, sports were offered mainly to males. Though females participated, it was not as common, nor was it as widely accepted.

Preceding 1972, Arrowhead offered the traditional boys’ sports program and the Girls Athletic Association (GAA). This was before the Title IX Act of 1972 which prohibited and discrimination based off gender in federally funded activities.

“When I first came in [as the principal of Arrowhead], were girls offered sports? Yes, but not to the level they are now. You would never, ever see girls in the weight room–that was the boys area. The amount of girls involved in athletics has gone up pretty significantly,” says Gregg Wieczorek, the current Arrowhead principal.

Sports facilities at Arrowhead have experienced renovations in recent years. In the 2014-2015 school year, $662,602 was spent on upgrades for the boys and girls basketball locker rooms at North Campus, $361,224 of which came from a private donor.

Another large remodel included the press boxes and new bleachers added to Taraska Stadium, completed in 2010.

“[Students attending the school in 1975] didn’t have the softball diamonds that the girls have out here. There was always a baseball field, of course, but you didn’t have the Mullet, you didn’t have the field hockey fields either. Those were just big, wide open fields,” says Arsnow.

In 1998, the Mullett Ice Center was built by Don Mullett. Prior to this, Arrowhead hockey teams travelled to the Pettit Center, located in Milwaukee, for practices.

In 1974, a pool was added to North Campus.

Other additions in the past 23 years include a turf field added on September 23rd, 2004, the West gym at North Campus, and Taraska Stadium.

“When I first came here, there were about 1,600 students, and now there are about 2,200 students. So there’s been a big increase in enrollment, which prompted us to have to add various spaces to the building,” says Wieczorek.

Since 1956, the Arrowhead Union sports program developed and changed.

“It was people’s dreams to be able to do something better for kids here as a whole, and things like the field have become way beyond football, they have affected the entire school,” says Arsnow.