Their USSSA baseball parents fit that mold too.
Reclassifying 4A football
- Thread starter bear24
- Start date
I miss the old conferences. Maybe one idea would be to bring those back, but smaller. Put all of the DMPS schools in one 5-team same conference and then they will have something to play for. Since Xavier is apparently a topic of discussion you could also get all of the schools with a Cedar Rapids address in their own conference too (the CRCSD schools plus Prairie and Xavier).
Do eight 5-team conferences and put all of the conference winners in the playoffs plus the next 8 best teams by RPI or whatever they are doing now. The suburban 5-team conferences will probably get 3 playoff teams every year anyway because the DMPS/Davenport ones are only going to get 1.
I just realized this has nothing to do with conferences and you can do this just as easily with 5-team districts. I just miss the old CIML and MVC anyway.
Do eight 5-team conferences and put all of the conference winners in the playoffs plus the next 8 best teams by RPI or whatever they are doing now. The suburban 5-team conferences will probably get 3 playoff teams every year anyway because the DMPS/Davenport ones are only going to get 1.
I just realized this has nothing to do with conferences and you can do this just as easily with 5-team districts. I just miss the old CIML and MVC anyway.
The old CIML was almost perfect other than marshalltown and ottumwa being far away. Games were competetive and mostly within a 30 minute drive. Districts are bad for 4A football. If they had never switched there would be no discussion here.
The districts are definitely worse. The CIML was easy and convenient. You also had the MVC as essentially an I-380 conference from Iowa City through Cedar Rapids and up to Waterloo/Cedar Falls, plus Dubuque. Then you had conferences along the Missouri River and further south on the Mississippi. Easy.
Now you have the Cedar Rapids schools split between a northern district (with Dubuque) and a southeastern one (with Davenport). The five public Des Moines schools are split between four different districts. Ankeny and Dowling aren't with Centennial and Valley, but they are with Sioux City schools. It seems like a totally random hodgepodge to fit a square peg - the geography of Iowa's 4A schools - into the round hole of districts of exactly 6 teams. The old MVC had 14 schools and I think the CIML had more. Just go back to guaranteeing the division champions playoff spots and use the new RPI system to fill out the bracket. Let the schools play who is natural for them to play.
I knew a kid that was 6'6" tall as a freshman basketball player in high school for a 1A school in a small town not far from CR, and he indeed was being "talked to" by Xavier to go there. He declined, but they did stay on him for another year or so, but he kept telling them no.
Another kid I knew at a CR high school was recruited by Xavier, but him and his father kept telling them no, but they kept on him and eventually the kid's father had to tell their AD to contact Xavier's AD to tell them to leave them alone.
Xavier was successful in getting James Moses' (ex Iowa player) son to leave CR Prairie and go to Xavier. That one really hurt Prairie I know.
Another kid I knew at a CR high school was recruited by Xavier, but him and his father kept telling them no, but they kept on him and eventually the kid's father had to tell their AD to contact Xavier's AD to tell them to leave them alone.
Xavier was successful in getting James Moses' (ex Iowa player) son to leave CR Prairie and go to Xavier. That one really hurt Prairie I know.
I've heard Dowling doesn't recruit in this conversation...
So how did the state's #1 running back flip from SEP to Dowling for his senior season?
So how did the state's #1 running back flip from SEP to Dowling for his senior season?
Can’t be sure this is recruiting. If I were in the same position it wouldn’t take any recruiting for me to make that switch.
Pretty sure the coaches and other influential people in schools get the parents the benefit or their parents are all of the sudden part of the coaching staff.
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Dowling costs like $12K a year vs a "free" education at SEP
They offer a tuition assistance program which is how they recruit
Any idea what is driving growth to Lenox , and the schools in very far NW Iowa? The rest of the map seems to be predictable
Only $8,200 if you are a practicing Catholic according to their web site.
It just seems funny how a group of private schools with small enrollments can continue to dominate the sports scene in almost every class and sport.
Their backers and alumni would have you believe its because of great coaching, families involved in their child's education, and other factors.
The rest of us, say, "Ya, right" but you are also recruiting the hell out of kids. Public schools do it some, but the kings of it are the private schools. These district have the money, generally donated by wealthy boosters, to fund sports programs at a younger age, getting the kids involved not helps their programs but allows them to see what other schools will have in the future, and then try to convince those athletes to play for them. The DM catholic youth football league is a perfect example. Who doesn't want to play on the best team, and they want you to play for them.
Move them all up a class, if they are at 4A, there is nothing you can do, but it would greatly help the smaller classes.
Making private schools play up a class would do literally nothing to help the 4A schools that can’t win right now. If anything, it would hurt them if your fix to this problem was to add Xavier and Heelan to their class and do nothing else.
If you had a socioeconomic multiplier for enrollment, that would be different. Private schools would likely be very high on that metric along with places like Waukee. A school like Des Moines East or Davenport Central would have a very low multiplier. It just depends on the numbers you plug in.
If you had a socioeconomic multiplier for enrollment, that would be different. Private schools would likely be very high on that metric along with places like Waukee. A school like Des Moines East or Davenport Central would have a very low multiplier. It just depends on the numbers you plug in.
Percentages are deceiving with small schools....
it would have only taken 11 kids 9-12 to gain 10% growth in the HS. But they are trending up!
and yes...access to SF
I said boosters, not the parents themselves, but they also help.
How do explain the amount of success that private schools are having over the public schools? Its cannot be just coaching, because the coaches have turned over and the success is still occurring. And not here in just the state of Iowa but all over the country.
I have no problem with parents that send their kids to private schools, but you really have to wonder when you see kids in the public school in elementary and then they send them off to private schools in MS and HS when the sports programs start at the school level.
This is literally how things use to be, before they shook things up. Ottumwa was in the CIML metro league with all of the DSM schools and newton I believe. Splitting these up by rich and poor doesnt make much sense to me.
The problem with the private schools is they can control their enrollment numbers. Obviously this doesn't play into 4A but it is a large factor in 3A, 2A, and 1A. Dubuque Wahlert has the ability to keep themselves at 3A, so does Xavier. Beckman holds the ability at 2A. Clear Creek Amana? Nope they have no choice but to go from the largest 3A to the smallest 4A just because a new subdivision bounced them up. Do the lower class private schools recruit? I'm not naive enough to say no, but can they accept a good athlete wanting in and reject an average student wanting in all to keep themselves in their Class. One also can be niave to say no to that as well.
Newton was in the division with Valley, Ames, marshalltown, MC and FD before waukee replaced then
You really think these schools are turning down students and their tuition money and potential future donations to remain in lower sports classifications? I find this hard to believe. Particularly with the smaller private schools that your theory would apply to. I attended a small private high school and we would take about any student or donation we could get. Keeping the doors open, maintaining quality facilities, and offering strong academic opportunities trumps a full trophy case.
