The WIAA is backpeddling under public pressure after initially ruling a star track athlete at Campbellsport high school would not be able to compete because his parents live thousands of miles away in Africa. Track Coach Derek Toshner tells WFDL news it now appears likely the matter can be resolved so that Josh Onwunili will be able to compete in the upcoming regional and state championship events afterall. The WIAA rule states a student is eligible for interscholastic competition only at the school within whose attendance boundaries his parents reside. But Toshner says Onwunili’s parents are missionaries in Ghana and says the WIAA initial decision was not in the spirit of their rule. “All of the Facebook and media put some heat on the WIAA, and the person in charge of the decision called our athletic director and said wow, what’s going on here?” “Obviously when you’re getting letters from state assemblymen, massive information on Facebook and phone calls, emails going to the WIAA flooding them with the hashtag ‘Let’s Let Josh Run,’ that kind of reopened the case,” Toshner told WFDL news. “If you can get a lawyer to call us on his (Onwulnili’s) behalf and explain these things to us. You have an address here, you pay local and state property taxes, your mom is in fact home, then we will let you run.” Toshner says Onwunili recorded one of the fastest 100 meter sprints in state history.
