When Neenah High School opened its new $114.9 million building in the fall of 2023, athletes received an upgraded experience, with the athletic budget remaining mostly stable, though redistributed across sports. 

According to WBAY-TV, the 2020 referendum passed by a vote of 8,817 to 7,456, marking the first major change to the high school in 25 years, with the school opening in 1972. 

The athletes received new fields/courts, better equipment and a highly anticipated workout facility. The high school was built without a pool (would have cost $15-20 million), forcing the swim team to travel to the old high school, now the middle school, for practices/meets.

According to the doc obtained through an open records request, the sports budget changed slightly from 2022-23, the last year at the old high school, to 2024-25, the second year at the new high school. Swim and dive saw the biggest decline in funding, with the girls going from $3,200 to $2,500 and the boys from $2,400 to $1,500. 

Football decreased from $4,200 to $3,500, while basketball increased from $1,500 to $1,700 for boys and from $1,900 to $2,000 for girls. Softball remained unchanged at $1,500, while baseball rose to $1,600.  Lacrosse received the biggest increase after becoming recognized by the WIAA, going from zero funding to $1,600 each for the boys and girls teams in 2024-25.  

Mike Elkin said he broke the budget up in a very specific way to benefit everyone appropriately. 

“I dealt with supply money for each sport, and the district would give me one lump sum, and I had to break it up between sports,” Elkin said. “I looked at two factors: the number of athletes involved and their equipment needs.”

Elkin, athletic director from 2019 to 2025, was in charge throughout the entire moving process. He said the main goal was to create a weight room that could serve all students. 

“Priority No. 1 was size,” Elkin said. “At the old school, the weight room simply couldn’t handle the volume of athletes we needed to get through it. We were constantly juggling schedules, splitting teams, or turning workouts into logistical puzzles.”

The second major goal was elevating the experience for athletes, families, and the community, Elkin said. 

“Atmosphere that made every sport feel big,” Elkin said. “Spaces that showcased school pride and gave athletes a sense of belonging.. This wasn’t just about aesthetics. It was about building a place where athletes felt valued and where the community could rally around them.”

Elkin said he wanted to support lacrosse more after the funding needed to be adjusted. 

“They already had a very established club program, so from our end, we just wanted to make sure they were treated as a WIAA Sport,” Elkin said. 

Besides the transition to the new high school, Elkin said COVID-19 was a challenge of its own. 

“It was crazy…. My main goal was to get students active again ASAP, with proper precautions in place,” Elkin said.

Carrie Raeth, the head coach of the boys and girls swim and dive teams since 2006, was excited for the new high school, but said it was tough knowing there wouldn’t be a pool. 

“It was hard to know that they were not building a pool with a high school environment,” Raeth said. “Kids lose some connection to the high school because we always have to travel to the other building for practice and competitions.”

Parents of the swimmers, administration and the coaching staff met to make sure it made sense to keep the swim and dive team, Raeth said.

“Just to make sure we’re all on the same page and can still make it a really successful program,” Raeth said. “We do practice twice a day sometimes in the morning and then after school… and having to drive ten minutes to the other building, we had to make sure that was something our students could do and still get enough sleep.”

Travel from middle school to high school can be difficult in the winter because it’s colder and more illnesses are spreading around, she said. 

“It can be tough, especially in the winter, going from the pool to a bus ride, we remind kids to cover their wet hair,” Raeth said. “Even early in the season, with August, it gets pretty hot on the bus. So we just try our best to adapt.”

Senior basketball player Roan Koeper said lifting was the hardest part of the old high school because of the small weight room and the juggling of the time slots of the different athletic teams. 

“It was hectic,” Koeper said. “I went to morning lifting my freshman year with the football team because there was no other time for the basketball guys to get in. It was very unmotivated, especially late at night. I really didn’t want to get stuff done after we just practiced, and now we have to lift.”

The bigger weight room has allowed for a larger staff to help take care of the players, Koeper said it helped him recover from an ankle injury in just four days. 

“We’re kind of getting into that low Division II, Division III-level status of what a college would be because our facilities are amazing and our training crews on top of it,” Koeper said. “They’ve been preventing injuries. They were getting people back this season in record time.”

Even allowing for more college students to be a part of the training staff, Koeper said.

“They have a lot of people coming from UWO to shadow them, so they help out a lot. It’s very nice to meet them because they’re around our age, so they’re easier to talk to and they’re very up front with us on what’s wrong, how to fix it, all that.”

The resources for student athletes have improved, so have the equipment and resources for teaching with smart rooms and cameras in each classroom; however, something wasn’t right, Koeper said.

“Classrooms at the new high school are all the same,” Koeper said. “It feels more like a jail or a psych ward than a school. You walk into every wing, and it’s the exact same layout, which is very strange. I still get lost on my first day of classes.”

Elkin said his proudest moment after 24 years of teaching and coaching at Neenah High School and an additional six as activities director was the building of the new high school.

“In education, you can’t always see the final results when working with students,” Elkin said. “I know deep down I made an impact on many students, but my ‘Neenah With Pride’ moment is all the work that went into designing, building, and the move to the new HS.”