If you happened to read the recent Korner story, "Boone Man "Saves" the IHSAA", you may have noticed that some 80 years ago, at the organization's beginning, mention is made of 1300 or so schools in Iowa that claimed earliest membership in the Iowa High School Athletic Association.
My, my, times do change and a look at current IHSAA membership, in comparison, shows, in graphic detail, how much Iowa's educational platform has changed through the years.
The very latest membership figures show that today there are not 1300 members, not close at all. These days, there are just 363 total members, thanks or no thanks to school consolidation. However, only 286 of the 363 have 100 students or more in their senior grades.
Those last 100 include the final two, Diagonal and North Iowa Christian of Mason City, with just 20 students each.
Its that wide disparity in numbers, 1 to 363, that result in the IHSAA dividing its membership into classes,......5A, 4A etc...... in various state tournament offerings, an effort to "even out the field"....making the competition more fair, more realistic.
Yes, admittedly, the excitement of the "little guy" upsetting his much bigger opponent was thrilling..... Dunkerton stopped Des Moines Roosevelt, 22-20, to win the state basketball championship in 1933 and in '37, it was Melrose topping Marshalltown, 35-17. However, those instances were few and far between and today, such outrageous results would be even more limited, if not completely impossible.
We'll dazzle you a bit now with some current figures you may find interesting.
Here are the enrollment figures of the "top ten" largest schools in Iowa .......and, perhaps, surprisingly, nine of the ten are in the Des Moines metro area.
Number one has made that claim for many years.....and it isn't close......West Des Moines Valley with 2,236 students. Johnston is second at 1,796, 440 fewer students, and that brings up some "talk" that is always mentioned but never seems to completely end.
The skeptics say, "with that much of an advantage, that many more potential athletes to choose from, they (Valley) should win every championship, every year. Or, why doesn't the Valley district split into two or more schools, like Waukee or Ankeny have?" That, of course, is a local decision.
Here's the remainder of the Top Ten. Southeast Polk, 1,757; Linn-Mar, Marion, 1,692; Des Moines Lincoln, 1,692; Waukee Northwest, 1,599; Ankeny Centennial, 1,511; Des Moines Roosevelt, 1,494; Waukee, 1,432 and Des Moines East, 1,425.
Its with pride and yet, great sadness, oldtimers like me lament the fact that the old six team Central Iowa Conference, which began in 1927, had a very successful run until the late 60's before things started falling apart.
In its prime, that old CIC held its head high with fierce competition within, numerous sparks of domination outside and a widely circulated reputation as one of the best leagues in Iowa.
Today, those proud six members are, oftentimes, disparaged more than cheered, simply unable to match their larger competitors and their current enrollment figures show the discrepancy.
Marshalltown was and is the biggest of the six but just 17th largest in the state with 1,242 students. Ames is 26th with 1,076; Newton 53rd with 654; Boone 63rd with 515; Oskaloosa 65th with 490 and Grinnell 73rd with 408.
At random, here are a few schools, not previously mentioned, and their current standing. Ankeny, 11th with 1,385; Dowling Catholic 27th with 1,071; Urbandale 33rd with 980; Indianola 37th with 900, Dallas Center Grimes 42nd with 817 and Norwalk 44th with 801.
Ogden is the 184th largest with 179 while Madrid is 227th at 149.
After an earlier run in the Little Hawkeye Conference, in 2024, the Boone School Board rejected an invitation to join the Heart of Iowa Conference and their current league affiliation is the Raccoon River Conference. Those members are, from largest to smallest, Bondurant-Farrar 54th with 653; Carlisle 59th with 573; Boone 63rd with 515; Adel, ADM 64th with 499; North Polk 67th with 467; Ballard 69th with 438; Winterset 78th with 399; Gilbert 80th with 391 and Carroll 90th with 359.
Through the years, the enrollment numbers do change......some schools bigger, some smaller. The result, oftentimes, is the change of conference affiliation in an effort, along with the IHSAA Class system, to pair, when possible, member schools in a more fair, more balanced chance for success.
K-----K
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