Also while boys have 4 classes, girls have 5 in some sports so that would make scheduling tougher for some.
Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25
- Thread starter qwerty
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I think in the 60s, Ottumwa had two high schools, back when Morrell was in its heyday. It might have been a private school named Ottumwa Walsh.
It doesn’t matter what the LHC wants. The conference realignment committee controls conference membership now (for the most part).
Marshalltown probably just needs to stick with the DM metros. They seem to be similar competitively and are close enough. FD is probably stuck there too, unless they could get in with a conference of smaller schools (Humboldt, Webster City, Algonas league). Mason City is really stuck.
They are bigger than Burlington, who is already double most of the other schools in that league. I think Ottumwa also needs to stick with the DM metros and Marshalltown. 1.5 hour travel but not many alternatives for them.
Those guys just expanded with garner, Forest city, Charles city, and eagle grove. So it doesn’t look like they want bigger schools in there.
Mason city’s best shot was to try to have hooked up with Waterloo, Waverly and maybe see if the Dubuque schools wanted a grouping. Still an outlier but a few schools that wouldn’t be an awful distance. Decorah thought Waverly was too big (now look at Decorah in their conference) so hard to imagine they wouldn’t believe MC isn’t too big. Honestly, MC struggles in a lot of sports do they could fit in a lot of conferences athletically.
It did have a catholic school, but that is long gone. Ottumwa is in a bad spot geography wise, with no large schools close to it nor any that will grow into one. So they either have to go to DM or IC/CR to play schools their size. In football they have been playing Osky and other larger schools in the area, but those are non district games. Heck in the past they have sent them up to Sioux City which has to be a 5 hour trip one way.
I’ve heard Ottumwa is going to petition to join the LHC. The won’t be voted in but will ask the conference realignment committee to place them there.
The conference realignment committee just needs to actually stand up for itself and place teams. Just grow a pair and quit leaving schools in limbo.
No matter how much the WaMaC doesn't want Waverly, they have to take them. It's the only real fit. Same with Decorah and the Upper Iowa.
I hadn't heard of this realignment committee. Is this a state boys and girls association thing? Much needed, as long as they actually do a job with students in mind.
Based on a new state law passed last session. Appointed by boys and girls union. I don’t think appointments have been made yet.
Basically you can get into a conference if the committee sees it as the best fit regardless of what the conference members want.
There will be a huge wave of conference changes coming soon.
They were, last I heard Cardinal had over 200 students open enrolled in the district, most from Ottumwa. They get few if any to the north from Pekin or to the east from Fairfield. A few that live in Davis CO, but are closer to Eldon, so they send their kids to Cardinal. Last I talked to someone over there they were running out of space in the MS/HS, converted the HS library into classroom space. They was talk of passing a bond issue but the district was told very forcefully that they had overspent on their athletic building they put up, funneling money away from the elementary part of the project, which pissed off a lot of people.
My talk with some Pekin people, is that Pekin is starting to go through harder times now than let’s say 10 years ago. That the support of Pekin by the residents there is not as much as it was then. Have you heard anything?
I spoke with Davis Eidahl a couple track seasons ago, he told me then that they were running out of athletic talent over what they had for years. Their beds numbers are down from what they were a couple of decades ago, truthfully they and Cardinal should merge into one district. Originally that was the plan, the two districts were talking merging in the 60s, but they could not decide where to place the high school. Both schools are not in any town, but out in the country, and Pekin wanted the new school to be build north of highway 34, while Cardinal would not agree to it. So they never merged, I would say it time.
Let me add a little more about Pekin, for years their sports programs were built around farm kids that had played for Coach Stone, and they wanted to have their kids play for him like they had. The program was beginning to slip in the early to mid 90s, but then merged with Hedrick school district. Hedrick did not have much for numbers but they had very good athletes, you add 3 or 4 good athletes into each class into an already successful program, you are going to continue to win.
Like most of Iowa, where there were a lot of small family farms, many have been bought out and the kids have moved on to better jobs and opportunities that are just not available in rural areas. They are winning this year in football, but they have struggle the past 3 or 4 years. I was also told that they are now getting fewer "good" kids from farm families and more kids that just do not have as good as work ethic as those before them had.
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There was nothing quite like 90's 1A football growing up as a kid. I can just see the playoff teams that always made it Pekin, West Branch, Pleasantville, Madrid, Pocahontas, Bedford etc.
