WIC Conference makes overtures to two POI members
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The landscape for high school athletics is changing as small school conferences in Southwest Iowa are looking at their futures in their present conference membership. Recently, the Western Iowa Conference extended invitations to ten schools about the possibility of joining their conference. Pride of Iowa Conference schools Nodaway Valley and Southwest Valley are on the list of ten schools.
Current members in the Western Iowa Conference are Missouri Valley, Riverside, Audubon, Treynor, Logan-Magnolia, IKM-Manning, Underwood, Tri-Center, and AHSTW. Current members Audubon and IKM-Manning have an offer to leave the WIC and join the Rolling Valley Conference.
The ten schools were identified by The Western Iowa Conference to extend invitations to on June 11. The schools were, Nodaway Valley and SW Valley out of the Pride of Iowa Conference, AC/GC, Panorama, West Central Valley, and Earlham out of the West Central Conference, Red Oak and Shenandoah out of the Hawkeye-10, and MVAOCOU and Westwood out of the Western Valley Conference.
The WIC came up with criteria for those invitations based on geographic location, school enrollment, activity offerings, district stability, football classification, and facilities availability.
Movement in regional conferences with Ames and Des Moines Christian joining the Little Hawkeye Conference in Central Iowa, leaving the Alliance Conference and West Central Conference respectively, seemingly has set off a flurry of potential moves.
In a press release dated June 16, the Nodaway Valley school district sent out a press release stating that an invitation to the WIC was received.
“The district has until August 1, 2025 to make an official decision regarding interest in this opportunity,” said Honnold. Honnold will lead the coordination of meetings with Nodaway Valley coaches to gather feedback, assess levels of interest, and evaluate the potential advantages and challenges of a conference change.
Shortly after receiving the invitation, Honnold sent out a survey to everyone in the activities department from athletics, band, speech, FCS, academic and music bowls, ag activities among others, and to coaches and sponsors of those programs. On the chart were questions regarding staying or going, ranking things like travel and strength of schedule, and how important is it for programs to have the flexibility to schedule competitions outside of the Pride of Iowa Conference.
“The point of getting input from the programs was that we don’t want to go to a different conference because of this or that reason. Right now, we are not deciding about leaving the conference, but we want to know if we (Nodaway Valley) are willing to have the conversation and let the WIC know we are interested in taking the next steps,” said Honnold.
“I was happy with the coverage and the response of the survey. It gave me the data I needed,” she said.
The survey did not mention the Western Iowa Conference or possible rumors of an incoming invitation from the West Central Activities Conference.
The next step will be calling a meeting with everyone that got the survey to voice support and concerns to form a consensus so that Honnold and Nodaway Valley can respond to the WIC invitation in a timely manner.
Honnold said that the Wolverines and school district to her knowledge are not unhappy as a whole with the Pride of Iowa Conference, in fact pointing to the fact that the communication between member schools and athletic directors has been tremendous in her short time as the Wolverines athletic director.
Honnold said that high school athletics is moving into a new era where school districts have to be alert to the changing times.
“If schools don’t take charge of it on their own, then people will tell them where they will go. Ames moving to the LHC might have gotten things going. The WIC offer to ten schools shocked me,” she said.
In recent days, the Hawkeye-10 Conference has called a meeting for this week to discuss its membership as two members are on the list of 10 by the WIC. Reports late last week suggested that four Northern Hawkeye-10 schools – Harlan, Denison-Schleswig, Council Bluffs Lewis Central, and Glenwood have been sent invitations to join the Missouri River Conference which has its members along the Iowa-Nebraska border. Even more recently, a pair of WIC schools, Audubon and IKM-Manning, had unanimous school board votes to lead the WIC and accept invitations to the Rolling Valley Conference.
Honnold said that she will present data at the next school board meeting and then ultimately, send a letter to the WIC conference with the school district’s response to the invitation. The next Nodaway Valley school board meeting is less than three weeks away.
To her knowledge, Honnold did not know of any other of the ten schools that have officially responded to the WIC on their invitation. In the coming weeks that will change as schools gauge their interest to stay or go.
“It seems that the WIC is holding things up in a way with movement you hear about from other conferences, but it’s like everyone is waiting for the WIC ball to drop. Anything is possible, there are so many moving pieces,” said Honnold.
One benefit of having the survey completed by the activities programs is that if another offer from neighboring conferences comes, Nodaway Valley would be able to get feedback again and possibly sooner than what the WIC invitational has had.
Honnold did say that outgoing superintendent Paul Groghan has been helpful since incoming superintendent Dr. Pam Stangeland’s first day is July 1. Honnold did say that Stangland has been in the loop with everything too, so her first week is not even busier.
“We may not find a move to the WIC is a better option, but if we don’t check to see if a move to the WIC is a better option, then we (Nodaway Valley) won’t know and we may come to regret that,” said Honnold.
The Pride of Iowa Conference was formed in 1987 with six schools: Interstate-35, Wayne, Central Decatur, Mount Ayr, SE Warren, and East Union. That membership was in fact for 13 years. The conference added Nodaway Valley and Martensdale-St. Mary’s in 1997. In 2000 and 2001, the conference underwent a two-year, four-team expansion plan that brought in Corning, now southwest Valley and Bedford in 2000 and Lenox and Pleasantville in 2001. Prior to Bedford leaving for the Corner Conference after the 2023-24 school year, there has only been two schools leave in 2018 and that was Interstate-35 and Pleasantville.
The Western Iowa Conference formed in 1972 and was a merger of two conferences the Tri-County and Southwest Iowa Conferences. It began as a 12-team conference with the following schools: Carson–Macedonia, Elk Horn–Kimballton, Iowa School for the Deaf, Shelby-Tennant, Treynor, Tri-Center (Neola), Underwood, and Walnut out of the Tri-County Conference and AvoHa (Avoca), Griswold, Missouri Valley, and Oakland out of the Southwest Iowa Conference. After the 1981-82 school year Elk Horn-Kimballton and Walnut left for the Rolling Hills Conference. A year later the Iowa Deaf school dropped out making it a nine-school league. Carson-Macedonia joined Oakland to form the Riverside school district and Shelby-Tennant joined with AvoHa to form AHST, later Walnut would join to form AHSTW. In the 1990-91 school year Audubon joined. The stability was set until the 2013-14 school year within Logan-Magnolia and IKM-Manning joined.
The last movement before the recent Audubon move was Griswold exiting the league in 2018-19.
