Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25

[mramseyISU]

With the district cycle, they're going to have to combine football for '27 instead of waiting until '28. I've heard from several people that Lonnie thinks he's getting the job which would be a terrible mistake but it would be the most Waterloo thing ever.

They should absolutely combine everything now other than volleyball and basketball.

I've talked to the AD at West about that and apparently they don't need to combine a year early to match up with the football district cycle which surprised me. As far as Lonnie getting that job over somebody else it's pretty hard to argue that he isn't the more successful of the two coaches. Now maybe the guy at East is a better coach but you'd never know it since they've only ever got 30 kids eligible for Varsity.

Generally speaking though I don't know if they're going to make every coach for the non combined programs interview for their jobs or if they're just going to look at some other method for handing those jobs out. Girls basketball could also be interesting if Pappas decides to hang up the whistle finally, if he doesn't then I don't know how he doesn't get the job.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I've talked to the AD at West about that and apparently they don't need to combine a year early to match up with the football district cycle which surprised me. As far as Lonnie getting that job over somebody else it's pretty hard to argue that he isn't the more successful of the two coaches. Now maybe the guy at East is a better coach but you'd never know it since they've only ever got 30 kids eligible for Varsity.

Generally speaking though I don't know if they're going to make every coach for the non combined programs interview for their jobs or if they're just going to look at some other method for handing those jobs out. Girls basketball could also be interesting if Pappas decides to hang up the whistle finally, if he doesn't then I don't know how he doesn't get the job.

I'm shocked. I guess that means there will only be 35 4A teams in 2027 and one district is going to have holes in their schedule.

Not that I have skin in the game but it feels like a place to go out and hire a complete outsider for a new start.

As for Pappas, he'll be near 80 at that point. I think you have to gently push him out the door.

 

[cyfanatic13]

I'm shocked. I guess that means there will only be 35 4A teams in 2027 and one district is going to have holes in their schedule.

Not that I have skin in the game but it feels like a place to go out and hire a complete outsider for a new start.

As for Pappas, he'll be near 80 at that point. I think you have to gently push him out the door.

I thought Pappas was getting ready to hang it up 7 years ago when my previous job involved working with him on some things. Shocks me he's still there

 

[IcSyU]

@BCClone is the Top of Iowa Conference imploding? Saw somewhere that Eagle Grove, Forrest City, and Garner are leaving for the North Central and I think North Butler might be leaving for the Iowa Star.... Lol at that.

I mean it feels like FC and G-H to the NCC makes sense school size wise. I thought at the time they left the NCC EG was the smallest public school and will probably be so again but their travel should improve immensely.

That takes the TOIC down to what...36 schools from 40?

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I thought Pappas was getting ready to hang it up 7 years ago when my previous job involved working with him on some things. Shocks me he's still there

Dude literally died during practice and they resuscitated him. He's not quitting easy.

 

[Dirtguy4CY]

I mean it feels like FC and G-H to the NCC makes sense school size wise. I thought at the time they left the NCC EG was the smallest public school and will probably be so again but their travel should improve immensely.

That takes the TOIC down to what...36 schools from 40?

Agreed. Just found it interesting that 4 schools were leaving at the same time. And yes that it does..... Should just split it back into two conferences.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

The bigger the school, the more competitive those spots are too. We did club baseball from 10U through 14U with a couple seasons of fall ball and a couple seasons of spring ball in high school with my oldest. If you didn't do that you weren't seeing the field. Football, at least for the skill positions you'd better be doing 7v7 in the offseason if you want to play. We also did club swim for a couple years. My sons schedule from the middle of his sophomore year through the end of HS swim season looked like go to in season practice (baseball or football) come home and grab a sandwich then go to a 2-3 hour swim practice then come home, maybe do a little homework and go to bed. Summer time was baseball, club swim and summer football workouts along with a lifeguard job. Then during HS swim season he had off season baseball too. Now that I have the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't trade the fun we had with club for anything but if you want to play more than one sport in HS it's a hell of a grind for those kids. We never forced him to do any of that but he knew how much work it was going to take to see the field, even at a school that isn't exactly a sports powerhouse. I don't think that if we were at a big school that was good at sports he would have sniffed the field in anything but swim and we probably would have pulled the plug on everything else by the time he was a sophomore.

Kids 8th grade basketball has 45 kids out and they are only going to have 3 teams. Figure they will have 10 each on A and B so 25 kids on the C team? Makes me want to rent gym time and form 3 teams.

 

[mramseyISU]

I'm shocked. I guess that means there will only be 35 4A teams in 2027 and one district is going to have holes in their schedule.

Not that I have skin in the game but it feels like a place to go out and hire a complete outsider for a new start.

As for Pappas, he'll be near 80 at that point. I think you have to gently push him out the door.

Yeah I was really surprised by that too. We were talking about it at a booster club meeting this spring and when they originally announced the consolidation he was think the same thing you were that they'd have to merge a year early for football.

As far as hiring an outsider, while I don't disagree, West has really struggled getting anybody to apply for their coaching vacancies the last few years. I'm not sure how the combined school solves that problem. My guess is they open it up but unless there is some established head coach that wants to apply for it I would be shocked if Lonnie isn't the head coach when it's all said and done. What you're going to have for applicants is Lonnie, the guy at East (his name is escaping me) and a couple of dads who think they should be running the show. Baseball is looking for a coach right now and the 3 guys who applied are all dads who think they should be running the show and none of them should be anywhere near the head coaching position.

Kids 8th grade basketball has 45 kids out and they are only going to have 3 teams. Figure they will have 10 each on A and B so 25 kids on the C team? Makes me want to rent gym time and form 3 teams.

That's how 8th grade basketball was for us too. I wanted my son to go swim for the Y team because he's my son and basketball wasn't going to be his thing. He wound up on the C team playing 5 minutes a night.

 

[AuH2O]

Yeah I was really surprised by that too. We were talking about it at a booster club meeting this spring and when they originally announced the consolidation he was think the same thing you were that they'd have to merge a year early for football.

As far as hiring an outsider, while I don't disagree, West has really struggled getting anybody to apply for their coaching vacancies the last few years. I'm not sure how the combined school solves that problem. My guess is they open it up but unless there is some established head coach that wants to apply for it I would be shocked if Lonnie isn't the head coach when it's all said and done. What you're going to have for applicants is Lonnie, the guy at East (his name is escaping me) and a couple of dads who think they should be running the show. Baseball is looking for a coach right now and the 3 guys who applied are all dads who think they should be running the show and none of them should be anywhere near the head coaching position.

That's how 8th grade basketball was for us too. I wanted my son to go swim for the Y team because he's my son and basketball wasn't going to be his thing. He wound up on the C team playing 5 minutes a night.

Boys hoops at the big schools is pretty insane. My kid even started on the A team, albeit probably the worst of the starters when he was in 8th grade. That upcoming summer he went to summer basketball workouts whenever he didn’t have a baseball conflict and by the time August rolled around he said it was pretty clear he was going to have a hell of a time playing unless he quit everything else and went all in on basketball year round. And even then, not so sure. He didn’t like basketball well enough for that.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Yeah I was really surprised by that too. We were talking about it at a booster club meeting this spring and when they originally announced the consolidation he was think the same thing you were that they'd have to merge a year early for football.

As far as hiring an outsider, while I don't disagree, West has really struggled getting anybody to apply for their coaching vacancies the last few years. I'm not sure how the combined school solves that problem. My guess is they open it up but unless there is some established head coach that wants to apply for it I would be shocked if Lonnie isn't the head coach when it's all said and done. What you're going to have for applicants is Lonnie, the guy at East (his name is escaping me) and a couple of dads who think they should be running the show. Baseball is looking for a coach right now and the 3 guys who applied are all dads who think they should be running the show and none of them should be anywhere near the head coaching position.

That's how 8th grade basketball was for us too. I wanted my son to go swim for the Y team because he's my son and basketball wasn't going to be his thing. He wound up on the C team playing 5 minutes a night.

I'd throw the world at Zajac and tell him he's got complete control all the way down into youth and pay him 6 figures to be the 'strength teacher' but I know that isn't how Waterloo rolls. I'm not sure you'd get more than marginally better anyway. The suburban schools are so far ahead of anyone else in the state that it doesn't really matter.

 

[Kinch]

Yeah I was really surprised by that too. We were talking about it at a booster club meeting this spring and when they originally announced the consolidation he was think the same thing you were that they'd have to merge a year early for football.

As far as hiring an outsider, while I don't disagree, West has really struggled getting anybody to apply for their coaching vacancies the last few years. I'm not sure how the combined school solves that problem. My guess is they open it up but unless there is some established head coach that wants to apply for it I would be shocked if Lonnie isn't the head coach when it's all said and done. What you're going to have for applicants is Lonnie, the guy at East (his name is escaping me) and a couple of dads who think they should be running the show. Baseball is looking for a coach right now and the 3 guys who applied are all dads who think they should be running the show and none of them should be anywhere near the head coaching position.

That's how 8th grade basketball was for us too. I wanted my son to go swim for the Y team because he's my son and basketball wasn't going to be his thing. He wound up on the C team playing 5 minutes a night.

Probably mentioned this before but my cousin said there was an A through I team for basketball while his boy was a middle school student at Johnston.

 

[madguy30]

Another reminder in this thread that I'm glad I grew up in the 80s/90s without the layers of youth sports, at least not to this level.

And that during that time there seemed to be some stability and even bad small school football teams could compete a bit. Now it seems like you're either very good, decent or really bad.

 

[somecyguy]

Probably mentioned this before but my cousin said there was an A through I team for basketball while his boy was a middle school student at Johnston.

I??? As in Insane?

 

[Kinch]

I??? As in Insane?

Nine teams. Crazy.

 

[BCClone]

@BCClone is the Top of Iowa Conference imploding? Saw somewhere that Eagle Grove, Forrest City, and Garner are leaving for the North Central and I think North Butler might be leaving for the Iowa Star.... Lol at that.

Eagle grove has always been the bad apple. Complained since joining. They decided to go back and FC and Garner agreed and are using the excuse they wanted more JJV games. Well, it will be those 3 and St Ed’s, clarion, and Hampton on one side. Eagle grove and clarion struggle even fielding teams quite often so that doesn’t make sense.

North Butler, I’m not sure about. Asked a HS coach they said they are ditching east/west and doing one conference. That’s what I know so far. With my youngest a Senior, it doesn’t affect me.

EDIT: Rockford left to the Iowa star, that may be who you are thinking of.

 

[BCClone]

I mean it feels like FC and G-H to the NCC makes sense school size wise. I thought at the time they left the NCC EG was the smallest public school and will probably be so again but their travel should improve immensely.

That takes the TOIC down to what...36 schools from 40?

Down to 14. Eagle grove is now the largest school in the TIC.

 

[2speedy1]

@BCClone is the Top of Iowa Conference imploding? Saw somewhere that Eagle Grove, Forrest City, and Garner are leaving for the North Central and I think North Butler might be leaving for the Iowa Star.... Lol at that.

I would be surprised that Iowa Star would want North Butler, they are about twice the size of almost everyone in that conference.

And in reality those 3 schools moving to North Central Conf are too big for Top of Iowa really. The move puts them in a conference more in line with their size. And equalizes the size of schools in the Top of Iowa, better.

 

[mramseyISU]

I'd throw the world at Zajac and tell him he's got complete control all the way down into youth and pay him 6 figures to be the 'strength teacher' but I know that isn't how Waterloo rolls. I'm not sure you'd get more than marginally better anyway. The suburban schools are so far ahead of anyone else in the state that it doesn't really matter.

The booster club would need to seriously step their fundraising up too. One of the other football dads was talking with a parent of a SEP JV kid who made it sound like the boosters were providing breakfast and dinner for the football players in season. Maybe he (or I) misheard him but there’s no way many schools can compete with that.

 

[ISUTex]

With the district cycle, they're going to have to combine football for '27 instead of waiting until '28. I've heard from several people that Lonnie thinks he's getting the job which would be a terrible mistake but it would be the most Waterloo thing ever.

They should absolutely combine everything now other than volleyball and basketball.

What's wrong with Coach Moore?

 

[1UNI2ISU]

What's wrong with Coach Moore?

Nothing wrong with Lonnie the person. Great guy.

I just think you need separation. He's so ingrained at West and all the politics that I think it'll be tough for him to get out of that mode. Plus, I think you can do better from an actual coaching standpoint too.