Like Mason City. When I was in school, everyone wanted to play them, no matter the size, because any decent team would destroy them.
***2021 Iowa HS FB Playoffs Thread***
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
That district SE Valley is in was tough. Not surprised they are winning...maybe by the score a bit.
The free/reduced lunch equalizer would be a game changer. You'd immediately get more kids out because they know they won't get their brains beat in weekly
It works the other way too. Van Meter has no business in 1A football. Grundy Center has no business in A football. Xavier has no business not being in the largest class.
Money makes the world go round in college athletics and that's magnified 10 times in high school.
There are large, high SES public schools outside the metro: the Iowa City schools, Linn-Mar, CR Kennedy, Cedar Falls come to mind.
How is a free lunch going to equalize things, encourage participation and prevent brains from getting beat? And say what you want about the Van Meter's of the world.....they have only so many students.
Right.
Those 16 were:
Dowling
Valley
SE Polk
Ankeny
Centennial
Johnston
Urbandale
Waukee
Northwest
Xavier
Kennedy
City High
City West
Cedar Falls
Pleasant Valley
Bettendorf
Remember how ISU faired in a conference without revenue sharing, and with a higher number of full scholarships allowed? And how they are doing since, especially with the difference in facilities and staffing? Now does it make sense. Money makes a world of difference.
Also, I love private schools, but privates should play each other when it comes to the postseason. Period.
So what do you mean by a socioeconomic equalizer?
Sure economics comes into play. Families with means have the ability for their kids to get extra training and school equipment is newer & better.
But the real issue is youth sports programs and their communities investment in those activities. Not familiar with youth programs outside DSM, but both Valley & Dowling have long standing youth football programs for middle school kids. A lot of communities don't make that effort.
The other advantage that the successful HS programs has is iron sharpens iron. So success becomes automatic because underclassman practice against A LOT of high quality players. Whereas a program like Roosevelt, Lincoln or East might only have a handful of quality players.
I wish there was a solution, but I doubt if the DSM city schools played at a 2A level they would be successful.
And the year before that? It's not like all of a sudden they woke up and said "oh no". DSM public has been bad at football for years.
Looks like @CycloneRulzzz deleted his post but I agree with him. They make it way too hard to watch the game
