Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25

[Cyowa 14]

The SCC has had a weird history. In the 1970s it was Pella, Oskaloosa and most of the current teams except EBF and Cardinal. Then didn’t it disband? And then reformed? You are exactly right, Albia, Centerville and Bloomfield always formed the core. I’ve heard Cardinal joined because of travel in the SEISC, but I don’t think the SCC solved that for them. SCC always seemed to me a place for county seat schools in southern Iowa coal mining country. Pella Christian is kinda the orphan in the area schools looking for conferences.

Pella Christian, PCM and Pleasantville are all within 20 minutes of each other, the same size, joined at the hip when it comes to state postseason pairings in most sports and all in different conferences. I feel like I'm talking about college conferences because make it make sense

 

[Three4Cy]

The SCC has had a weird history. In the 1970s it was Pella, Oskaloosa and most of the current teams except EBF and Cardinal. Then didn’t it disband? And then reformed? You are exactly right, Albia, Centerville and Bloomfield always formed the core. I’ve heard Cardinal joined because of travel in the SEISC, but I don’t think the SCC solved that for them. SCC always seemed to me a place for county seat schools in southern Iowa coal mining country. Pella Christian is kinda the orphan in the area schools looking for conferences.

As someone who grew up and competed in the SCC in the early 80s, it was Knoxville, Pella, Chariton, Davis County, Albia, Centerville, Clarke, and Winterset. Clarke and Winterset left for the Little Hawkeye in 1983 and were replaced by Oskaloosa (who left the SE 7) and Grinnell (who left the CIC).

Then, Grinnell, Knoxville, Oskaloosa, and Pella left (95-96 school year), Clarke came back, and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont was added. In 98, PCM joined; they left in 2006. In 2014, Knoxville came back, and in 2022-2023, they added Cardinal.

The conference has been in existence since 1930 and originally included Valley, Indianola, Winterset, Knoxville, and Pella.

Pella Christian would be the third smallest if they joined the SCC, only Cardinal and EBF are smaller. Even though Knoxville is considerably larger, they do not dominate the conference.

 

[Pope]

To show how old I am, when I played sports at Ankeny High School, our CIC conference included:

Ankeny
Urbandale
Indianola
Boone
Saydel
South Tama
Grinnell
Southeast Polk

 

[cyfanatic]

To show how old I am, when I played sports at Ankeny High School, our CIC conference included:

Ankeny
Urbandale
Indianola
Boone
Saydel
South Tama
Grinnell
Southeast Polk

When I was in elementary Linn-Mar was in a league with Iowa City Regina, Cedar Rapids Regis, Cedar Rapids LaSalle and Dyersville Beckman among a few others...2 of those don't exist and the other 2 are small while Linn-Mar is top 5 largest enrollment.

 

[Kinch]

As someone who grew up and competed in the SCC in the early 80s, it was Knoxville, Pella, Chariton, Davis County, Albia, Centerville, Clarke, and Winterset. Clarke and Winterset left for the Little Hawkeye in 1983 and were replaced by Oskaloosa (who left the SE 7) and Grinnell (who left the CIC).

Then, Grinnell, Knoxville, Oskaloosa, and Pella left (95-95 school year), Clarke came back, and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont was added. In 98, PCM joined; they left in 2006. In 2014, Knoxville came back, and in 2022-2023, they added Cardinal.

The conference has been in existence since 1930 and originally included Valley, Indianola, Winterset, Knoxville, and Pella.

Pella Christian would be the third smallest if they joined the SCC, only Cardinal and EBF are smaller. Even though Knoxville is considerably larger, they do not dominate the conference.

I competed in the SCC in the late 1970s.

 

[mramseyISU]

When I was in elementary Linn-Mar was in a league with Iowa City Regina, Cedar Rapids Regis, Cedar Rapids LaSalle and Dyersville Beckman among a few others...2 of those don't exist and the other 2 are small while Linn-Mar is top 5 largest enrollment.

I'd have to imagine that when Regis and LaSalle were still a thing that cows outnumbered people in the Linn-Mar district boundary.

 

[mustangcy]

PC at one time wanted in the SCC, but the SCC said no.

PC would DESTROY every school in the SCC in just about everything, including Knoxville. That's why. School size doesn't matter when your private, have money and nearly every kid in every class comes from a good family. That's not the case for most SCC schools.

If Pella leaving the LH destabilizes the conference enough that it dissolves there would be celebration in PC and Osky. They both desperately need the state to step in and place them somewhere.

 

[AltoonaFish]

PC would DESTROY every school in the SCC in just about everything, including Knoxville. That's why. School size doesn't matter when your private, have money and nearly every kid in every class comes from a good family. That's not the case for most SCC schools.

If Pella leaving the LH destabilizes the conference enough that it dissolves there would be celebration in PC and Osky. They both desperately need the state to step in and place them somewhere.

PC hasnt been as dominant as they used to be.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

The SCC has had a weird history. In the 1970s it was Pella, Oskaloosa and most of the current teams except EBF and Cardinal. Then didn’t it disband? And then reformed? You are exactly right, Albia, Centerville and Bloomfield always formed the core. I’ve heard Cardinal joined because of travel in the SEISC, but I don’t think the SCC solved that for them. SCC always seemed to me a place for county seat schools in southern Iowa coal mining country. Pella Christian is kinda the orphan in the area schools looking for conferences.

The SCC has had a strange history as some towns grew while many others have shrank. The Cardinal situation is just strange, and I will never figure it out, I was told by a couple of their coaches the main thing was travel, as the SEISC is quite spread out. Cardinal went through a boom in bringing in kids from Ottumwa about 10 years ago, at one time they had over 200 kids open enrolled in the district, almost all from Ottumwa or the northern part of Davis Co, where it would be closer. But if you look at their BEDS numbers they are 190 in those three grades, by far the smaller school, the closest to them BEDS wise is Eddyville at 232, every other school is much larger. Centerville is at 299 and Knoxville at 365, that is quite a spread to be competing against, and the enrollment boom has stopped because the district no longer has the space to take new students to continue to grow and they will never get a bond issue passed to build on after the last one was, let me say a little "mismanaged".

 

[beentherebefore]

To show how old I am, when I played sports at Ankeny High School, our CIC conference included:

Ankeny
Urbandale
Indianola
Boone
Saydel
South Tama
Grinnell
Southeast Polk

And I believe that these schools were all about the same size as each other back then. Maybe Newton was in there, too.

 

[ISUTex]

Best guess is Norwalk/indianola/dcg/ames now accept the CIML invite from last year to be in CIML ‘small school’ division and state places osky, newton, dmc, pc in new conferences. Goodbye Little Hawkeye.

That sucks for Norwalk, Indianola and DCG. Empty gyms/bleachers when the DSM schools come to town and butt kickings when going up against the suburb schools that are more than 2x their size.

 

[mustangcy]

PC hasnt been as dominant as they used to be.

I can tell you for sure PC would of dominated SCC in basketball last year (outside a once in a gen knoxville boys and EBF girls). Track they would won, tennis...won. Golf...probably won. I don't follow their volleyball but the SCC is bad in volleyball so I'll go with they would of won it. I don't think there is sport for either gender PC wouldn't have won or got 2nd in.

PC would dominate the SCC. The SCC was dumb enough to allow Knoxville in, and still holds PC out. That should tell you something.

 

[AuH2O]

That sucks for Norwalk, Indianola and DCG. Empty gyms/bleachers when the DSM schools come to town and butt kickings when going up against the suburb schools that are more than 2x their size.

Were the DMPS schools part of that invite?

If not if it's the current CIML plus Ames, DCG, Norwalk and Indianola I would see two divisions being:

Small School:
Ames
Dowling
DCG
Norwalk
Indianola
Urbandale

Large School:
Ankeny
Centennial
Waukee
Northwest
Johnston
Valley
SEP

For the non-football sports where conferences matter, these would be pretty competitive divisions in sports like boys basketball, girls basketball and baseball. I don't know about the others. Not to mention this would be as good a travel scenario as you can hope for.

I just think the DMPS need to be with Marshalltown, Ottumwa, and Ft. Dodge.

 

[Kinch]

And I believe that these schools were all about the same size as each other back then. Maybe Newton was in there, too.

Newton was in the Big 8 and if I recall correctly moved to the CIC in the 70s and won a state football championship.

 

[CloneJD]

Were the DMPS schools part of that invite?

If not if it's the current CIML plus Ames, DCG, Norwalk and Indianola I would see two divisions being:

Small School:
Ames
Dowling
DCG
Norwalk
Indianola
Urbandale

Large School:
Ankeny
Centennial
Waukee
Northwest
Johnston
Valley
SEP

For the non-football sports where conferences matter, these would be pretty competitive divisions in sports like boys basketball, girls basketball and baseball. I don't know about the others. Not to mention this would be as good a travel scenario as you can hope for.

I just think the DMPS need to be with Marshalltown, Ottumwa, and Ft. Dodge.

Yep, that’s the CIML vision. Seems like it would work.

Ottumwa wants out of the Alliance pretty bad but not sure where they would fit. That’s somewhat the problem for all of the Alliance schools. They don’t fit anywhere so get lumped together in a conference that spans the state.

 

[cyballrulz93]

Were the DMPS schools part of that invite?

If not if it's the current CIML plus Ames, DCG, Norwalk and Indianola I would see two divisions being:

Small School:
Ames
Dowling
DCG
Norwalk
Indianola
Urbandale

Large School:
Ankeny
Centennial
Waukee
Northwest
Johnston
Valley
SEP

For the non-football sports where conferences matter, these would be pretty competitive divisions in sports like boys basketball, girls basketball and baseball. I don't know about the others. Not to mention this would be as good a travel scenario as you can hope for.

I just think the DMPS need to be with Marshalltown, Ottumwa, and Ft. Dodge.

Some of the larger CIML schools pushed back on a big/small split after the invite went out to Ames/DCG/Norwalk/Indy.

 

[AuH2O]

Yep, that’s the CIML vision. Seems like it would work.

Ottumwa wants out of the Alliance pretty bad but not sure where they would fit. That’s somewhat the problem for all of the Alliance schools. They don’t fit anywhere so get lumped together in a conference that spans the state.

There's no easy solution for Ottumwa or Mason City, or Ft. Dodge really. They all either need to have a conference of smaller schools let them in or have terrible travel.

 

[AuH2O]

Some of the larger CIML schools pushed back on a big/small split after the invite went out to Ames/DCG/Norwalk/Indy.

Even if they didn't do the small/large split, I think it would still be a reasonable league in terms of competitive balance.

In most sports there's going to likely be two games (or DH in baseball and softball) in-division and one game out of division vs. each opponent. While the small/large split would optimize competitive balance, it would still be reasonably competitive on a consistent basis.

 

[Kinch]

Orient Macksburg is done as a school at the end of this school year. On top of that you have this. I’m sure she is persona non grata in the community.

Former Orient-Macksburg School Employee Arrested on First-Degree Theft Charge

(Adair Co.) A former Orient-Macksburg Community School District employee has been arrested on a warrant chargi...

westerniowatoday.com

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Some small school realignment news...

AGWSR is leaving the NICL for the Iowa Star citing slightly reduced travel with the NICL going away from divisions after this year. In reality, the travel doesn't change much but they have a chance to be much more competitive playing other 1A schools rather than all 2As and Union who sits on the 2A/3A line.

The Iowa Star has also invited Belle Plaine, East Marshall and Gladbrook-Reinbeck. I would expect East Marshall and G-R to accept. No idea on Belle Plaine.