Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25
- Thread starter qwerty
- Start date
They left top of Iowa conference this year so we won’t see them most likely for other sports.
A coach told me that Centerville girls BB has seven out for BB. He agreed that club volleyball is one major reason.
Centerville has struggled the past few years getting girls out for BB, Seymour beat the hell out of them a couple of years ago when the two schools played. Not sure what the reason is for the low numbers, its not like Centerville is a power in VB. Could be the kids just are not going to play for the coach or something else. I will say kids for the most part are not playing sports like they did 20 years ago, its hard to get them interested if you have not had a lot of success in the past at many schools.
Less farm kids. We always went out for sports or it meant we would just work those hours at home if we didn’t.
Promotion and relegation:
Make it to the UNI-Dome = move up a class
Finish in the bottom 4 = drop down a class
Make it to the UNI-Dome = move up a class
Finish in the bottom 4 = drop down a class
Our County has 2 HS’s which compete at the 8-man level. Both have over 40 on the roster. At least half the starters go both ways which means about a dozen get majority of the minutes. The coaches liberally substitute on kick off, kick receive, punt coverage, punt receive & extra points to keep the roster engaged. Organized teams play out of town starting in the 4th grade & the HS coaches are involved while local former players lead the 4th, 5th & 6th grade teams. When those kids reach 7th grade & enter the school program, they & the coaches know what to expect. Bottom line is that the HS coach has to buy in that he is committed to build a program along with the community committed to support the program. Obviously, it helps to win.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
I've been preaching that for a while now at least for football. That first few years would be pretty messy but by the time you're 3-4 relegations into it I think it would be settled out. I don't think you want to do that every year but they're already redoing districts every two years, why not do the relegations then?
There's always going to be a few teams that dominate that biggest class and some doormats on the bottom of the smallest class, no system is going to fix that. What promotion and relegation does is give those schools that are uncompetitive in their current class a way to move down a class or two and get competitive. Let a school like DSM East or Davenport West drop down to 3A and maybe win 3-4 games a year rather than going years between wins.
I would agree with what you are saying, but most programs have little kids football now and have for over a decade. If they do not have a program of their own, the kids go to a neighboring town to play. If you have 40 out for football, you should not be allowed to play 8 man.
Quality coaching and kids out brings success, its the chicken and the egg, you cannot win without one or the other.
8-man schools have rapidly grown into the largest classification. I agree, teams with 40 playing teams in the teens is not good. Which happens regularly. 8-man needs to be broken into 8A & 8B divisions or require Schools to combine with other schools for football to avoid injuries. Make a minimum number. Btw, both schools in our County are under the cut off easily, they just get a high per cent of boys participating.
I would say 8A or 8B or just bumping them up to 1A or something. There are 5A schools that don't get 40 out, if you can do that you have no business playing 8 man.
Question - If a school has 40 boys out for football, why is the school playing 8 vs 11 man football? Is it that the 40 includes Fr, Soph, Jr and Sr's and you might only have 16 Jr and Sr's and 24 Fr and Soph? Would the school then also field a JV or a Fr/Soph team? Or does the school only field one football team?
Not sure I'm wild about penalizing success. It's not the better programs' fault that others can't get kids out....
They get that many out because they are successful, and kids want to be part of a team that is going to the playoffs and gets to the dome. Schools like this are under the BEDS number to be in 8 man football so they play 8 man instead of trying to play 11 man. Programs like this are running a full varsity and a JV program, most would play their JV games on Monday night.
The 40 players are from all four grades, I have seen schools like this on a Friday night playing teams that have 12/15 out, 9-12 and generally just crush them.
I don't think it would be penalizing them for success as much as fitting them better where they are able to compete. Now if we need to have a travel discussion that is a different topic.
(personally I think the travel in the playoffs thing is a bit overblown but that is a different thread.
Agree, any relegation system where you have significant roster rotation on an annual basis is ill advised whether it be at the HS or college level. I roll my eyes when I see it suggested for CFB.
Last edited:
