Charles City looking to form new conference after racial issues

[BCClone]

I tend to disagree with this.

As is, districting often does some really stupid **** when compared with conference alignments. Often a conference will have teams in 3 or 4 different sectionals or districts, even if they are all (or mostly in) the same class. What better way to seed a district properly than have mostly same-district opponents on the schedule. Do home and aways and supplement with other area teams near district lines). Once teams get to districts/sectionals, they can be seeded based on like schedules which actually improves the fairness of the entire ordeal.

The one sport that probably needs and has always needed the most work is wrestling, especially at the individual level. The smaller classes have the most kids yet their are often sectionals/districts that are insanely easy/tough based on the weights and the year. Case in point, one of my classmates had the 2nd and 3rd ranked kids in his district his sophomore year, and the 1st and 2nd ranked kids his junior year. The sophomore year he lost to both, by 1 point, while his junior year those kids went on to place 1st and 2nd at state. There really should be some at large births reserved and distributed based on year results, and toughness of districts.

The North Iowa conference was pretty solid though. You had the 3 Winnebago county school, two Hancock county schools, one just into wright county, one in Worth county (who was replaced by Mason city newman when Northwood went to the corn bowl) and Osage was kind of the outlier. May have been cleanest if North Iowa gave the CB Osage and took Central Springs. Size wise there was a little disparity but teams seemed to be pretty competitive with each other most times.

 

[Dirtguy4CY]

I'd say yes. A lot of the current parents are from the 80s and early 90s era when they actually had great wrestling teams and competent football teams. IIRC their 8 man squad was pretty good this year (making the playoffs). In the mid to late 90s C-ville produced several 0-fers and a single win season was met with jeers.

Oh yeah Clarksville has been putting in some work regarding improving teams there. Softball good as well. I guess I was thinking North Butler more.

 

[ZRF]

Oh yeah Clarksville has been putting in some work regarding improving teams there. Softball good as well. I guess I was thinking North Butler more.

LOL, NB really hasn't been relevant in football since the merger. They had a good run in basketball and a really good run in girls sports shortly after the merger, but the men's sports have been rough outside of a few individual wrestlers.

 

[Al_4_State]

The North Iowa conference was pretty solid though. You had the 3 Winnebago county school, two Hancock county schools, one just into wright county, one in Worth county (who was replaced by Mason city newman when Northwood went to the corn bowl) and Osage was kind of the outlier. May have been cleanest if North Iowa gave the CB Osage and took Central Springs. Size wise there was a little disparity but teams seemed to be pretty competitive with each other most times.

Osage wasn't that much of an outlier, and they were a lot bigger than the Corn Bowl schools (still are).

North Central was absolutely god awful in the Corn Belt days. In everything. Them and Osage being where they were made sense competitively and geographically, even if NC fit the NIC a little better on a geographical basis.

 

[BCClone]

Osage wasn't that much of an outlier, and they were a lot bigger than the Corn Bowl schools (still are).

North Central was absolutely god awful in the Corn Belt days. In everything. Them and Osage being where they were made sense competitively and geographically, even if NC fit the NIC a little better on a geographical basis.

NC had already become Central Springs when the TIC formed. They were decent sized then. In the top third size wise of the 18.

That is why is made no sense for Osage to push so much for the TIC. They placed themselves on the side with the smaller schools.

 

[ZRF]

The North Iowa conference was pretty solid though. You had the 3 Winnebago county school, two Hancock county schools, one just into wright county, one in Worth county (who was replaced by Mason city newman when Northwood went to the corn bowl) and Osage was kind of the outlier. May have been cleanest if North Iowa gave the CB Osage and took Central Springs. Size wise there was a little disparity but teams seemed to be pretty competitive with each other most times.

So was the Cornbowl for the most part.

Part of my stance on the elimination of conferences is that mergers are far from over. We will keep seeing them, causing a persistent imbalance of conference size and balance. With those dynamics it's just easier to get rid of them and leave it mostly to districting as those are automatically redone every few years anyway. Why put in the work of forming and maintaining conferences when there is the constant threat of mergers and instability? It just doesn't make sense.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Future of NEIC on Shaky Ground - KCHA News

The future of Iowa’s oldest high school athletic conference appears to be on its shakiest ground eve

kchanews.com

Sounds like Charles City will apply to the North Central Conference (Clear Lake, Hampton, Algona) and Waukon and New Hampton will follow Cresco to the UIC. Makes sense for all, still sucks for Decorah.

Crazy to think Charles City and New Hampton, separated by 20 something miles down Hwy 18, won't play each other anymore. Without looking it up though, I would assume New Hampton school district has reduced to enrollment totals quite a bit lower than Charles City, Waverly, or Decorah etc. The town population is about half of Charles City, even less than Waverly and Decorah.

 

[Al_4_State]

NC had already become Central Springs when the TIC formed. They were decent sized then. In the top third size wise of the 18.

That is why is made no sense for Osage to push so much for the TIC. They placed themselves on the side with the smaller schools.

I think we agree. I'm saying that there was no reason to merge the NIC and CB in any fashion. They should have just stayed as they were, with some minor tweaks (like Northwood joining the CB due to school size).

 

[BCClone]

I think we agree. I'm saying that there was no reason to merge the NIC and CB in any fashion. They should have just stayed as they were, with some minor tweaks (like Northwood joining the CB due to school size).

Definitely agree. At this point, I'd be happy with anything that rids us of garrigan (biggest douchers around) and Eagle grove, the biggest sheetshow around.

 

[Al_4_State]

Crazy to think Charles City and New Hampton, separated by 20 something miles down Hwy 18, won't play each other anymore. Without looking it up though, I would assume New Hampton school district has reduced to enrollment totals quite a bit lower than Charles City, Waverly, or Decorah etc. The town population is about half of Charles City, even less than Waverly and Decorah.

Yeah. The NEIC has the 3 schools in the 3A/4A size range with CC, Waverly, and Decorah and the 3 schools in the 2A/3A range (Cresco, NH, Waukon).

I think New Hampton has been the smallest school in the NEIC ever since Oelwein left. I think they're a bit smaller than Cresco and Waukon even. I just looked up some demographic numbers, and apparently New Hampton (the town) was the same size as Cresco and Waukon in the 80's, but is about 500 people smaller today. Cresco is within 1% of it's historical peak, and Waukon is about 7% smaller than it's historic peak. New Hampton is 12% smaller than it's historical peak. That makes a difference in enrollment for sure.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Yeah. The NEIC has the 3 schools in the 3A/4A size range with CC, Waverly, and Decorah and the 3 schools in the 2A/3A range (Cresco, NH, Waukon).

I think New Hampton has been the smallest school in the NEIC ever since Oelwein left. I think they're a bit smaller than Cresco and Waukon even. I just looked up some demographic numbers, and apparently New Hampton (the town) was the same size as Cresco and Waukon in the 80's, but is about 500 people smaller today. Cresco is within 1% of it's historical peak, and Waukon is about 7% smaller than it's historic peak. New Hampton is 12% smaller than it's historical peak. That makes a difference in enrollment for sure.

New Hampton never recovered from losing the Sara Lee plant 20 years ago. Just haven't been able to get anyone in there to replace the jobs.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Yeah. The NEIC has the 3 schools in the 3A/4A size range with CC, Waverly, and Decorah and the 3 schools in the 2A/3A range (Cresco, NH, Waukon).

I think New Hampton has been the smallest school in the NEIC ever since Oelwein left. I think they're a bit smaller than Cresco and Waukon even. I just looked up some demographic numbers, and apparently New Hampton (the town) was the same size as Cresco and Waukon in the 80's, but is about 500 people smaller today. Cresco is within 1% of it's historical peak, and Waukon is about 7% smaller than it's historic peak. New Hampton is 12% smaller than it's historical peak. That makes a difference in enrollment for sure.

I grew up in the area (Charles City/rural Floyd County) and while Charles City is certainly not the town it once was, I drive through New Hampton these days and can barely recognize it anymore. As a kid, and perhaps it was just naivety, New Hampton had the 'feel' of being about the same size as Charles City. It had restaurants and places to shop etc. Seems like a lot of the town has dried up. It still has some things I enjoyed growing up. Took my then 2-year old last summer to Poor Richard's for the same pizza I grew up eating (still as good as I remembered) and to the wooden playground at Mikkelsen Park.

 

[2speedy1]

I think we agree. I'm saying that there was no reason to merge the NIC and CB in any fashion. They should have just stayed as they were, with some minor tweaks (like Northwood joining the CB due to school size).

I think Osage joining the CB is one of the reasons Riceville departed, all about the same time the Merger with the NIC happened. The TIC now has teams at the top that are close to 3 times the size of those on the bottom. Osage has bounced around several conferences over the years.

The Iowa Star has schools now on much more even footing, although there are a few tiny members. Rockford is now joining to even up the North and South divisions.

 

[dafarmer]

Conferences for non sport activities are still useful, but football is districts and other sports are classified by attendance. Maybe other sports should be divided by size, at least most games.

 

[dafarmer]

Monday nights only

 

[BCClone]

I think Osage joining the CB is one of the reasons Riceville departed, all about the same time the Merger with the NIC happened. The TIC now has teams at the top that are close to 3 times the size of those on the bottom. Osage has bounced around several conferences over the years.

The Iowa Star has schools now on much more even footing, although there are a few tiny members. Rockford is now joining to even up the North and South divisions.

Huh??? It was in North Iowa and then the merger to form the TIC happened and they entered that. So they have been in 2 conferences as long as I can remember.

 

[2speedy1]

Huh??? It was in North Iowa and then the merger to form the TIC happened and they entered that. So they have been in 2 conferences as long as I can remember.

Osage was in the NEIC originally. I believe they left in the 60s, then went to North Iowa, I believe. Osage had been trying to get into the CB for many years before the merger, which never made sense to me, as they were/are so much bigger than the rest of the CB schools even after all the consolidation.

Then I believe they had gained entry to the CB at the end. I dont think they ever actually joined as when they were voted in, Riceville left etc and the merger happened, puting Osage in with the former CB teams.

Although I am not sure how the exact timeline of events went and I am just going by memory on some of it.

Personally I always thought Osage belonged in with CC, Cresco, NH, etc.

 

[Al_4_State]

Osage was in the NEIC originally. I believe they left in the 60s, then went to North Iowa, I believe. Osage had been trying to get into the CB for many years before the merger, which never made sense to me, as they were/are so much bigger than the rest of the CB schools even after all the consolidation.

Then I believe they had gained entry to the CB at the end. I dont think they ever actually joined as when they were voted in, Riceville left etc and the merger happened, puting Osage in with the former CB teams.

Although I am not sure how the exact timeline of events went and I am just going by memory on some of it.

Personally I always thought Osage belonged in with CC, Cresco, NH, etc.

I'd disagree myself. Osage (and Mitchell County) are much more north central Iowa than northeast Iowa, IMO. It's a part of the Mason City economic orbit (places to the east are not), it's flat, and it just seemed like growing up around there that everyone went to the west for sports, commerce, etc. Once you get past Highway 63 it's a completely different world geographically and culturally. I'd argue that Charles City belongs to that Mason City orbit as well, as opposed to going east.

Growing up in Mitchell County and now living in Cresco for as an adult, I definitely view Osage and Charles City as being a different part of Iowa than Cresco/Decorah/Waukon.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I grew up in the area (Charles City/rural Floyd County) and while Charles City is certainly not the town it once was, I drive through New Hampton these days and can barely recognize it anymore. As a kid, and perhaps it was just naivety, New Hampton had the 'feel' of being about the same size as Charles City. It had restaurants and places to shop etc. Seems like a lot of the town has dried up. It still has some things I enjoyed growing up. Took my then 2-year old last summer to Poor Richard's for the same pizza I grew up eating (still as good as I remembered) and to the wooden playground at Mikkelsen Park.

Poor Richard's pizza is worth the drive. I'm glad the business made it, I heard it got pretty rough for a while.

 

[JM4CY]

I'd disagree myself. Osage (and Mitchell County) are much more north central Iowa than northeast Iowa, IMO. It's a part of the Mason City economic orbit (places to the east are not), it's flat, and it just seemed like growing up around there that everyone went to the west for sports, commerce, etc. Once you get past Highway 63 it's a completely different world geographically and culturally. I'd argue that Charles City belongs to that Mason City orbit as well, as opposed to going east.

Growing up in Mitchell County and now living in Cresco for as an adult, I definitely view Osage and Charles City as being a different part of Iowa than Cresco/Decorah/Waukon.

As a fellow northerner, this is objectively a fact.