Iowa High School Football

[Auger]

I have been living outside the state of Iowa and the midwest for almost 15 years now. I was in Iowa about a week ago and was able to catch up with a bunch of family and friends. With HS football in full swing and many of my cousins and friends either having kids now playing HS football or are themselves coaching we talked a lot of Iowa HS Football. Needless to say a lot has changed since my playing days. A lot of them are involved with teams in the current 5A or 4A classes with a few in smaller classes.

The ones in 4A have raved about the split between 5A and 4A. It has allowed many of those smaller 4A schools to thrive and has brought new energy and more $$ to their programs now that the bigger schools bumped up to 5A. The general thought being HS football in Iowa is at its best right now with better competition and more schools with deeper pockets while producing more talent. There has been tremendous growth in the 4A and 3A schools now that the competition is a little more evened out. It has brought more fans to the stands and has ignited more passion across the state.

I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on Iowa HS Football and how it's changed in your home town. On a sad note for me my former team has lost between 35%-40% of its enrollment from my playing days 20+ years ago. Now a once proud football school has dropped a couple classes and is around a .500 football team. Really hard for me to fathom. About half of our former conference foes have had a similar fate while some have actually grown. Today my former schools schedule is littered with teams I never played against and former rivals are distant memories for the school.

It was fun chatting with a bunch of my cousins and friends on everything that has changed. It was even more fun chatting with the their kids who now suit up every week on those HS fields that have changed so much over the years. We had 35 years of Iowa HS Football stories. The kids loved hearing about the way things were, the old rivalries, the muddy grass fields and how the sport has changed. Damn those days were fun!

 

[Gonzo Bloor]

The 5A/4A split was a good thing. But I live in central Iowa just outside Des Moines and the suburban schools out here are still widening the gap between them and the bigger eastern Iowa schools. Have to wonder if CR/IC/CF/QC 5A schools are going to be able to do anything to reverse that. They've had some regular season success in the past few years but not much. I grew up in CR area and would like to see the level of competition even out, right now it's still not very close.

 

[Auger]

The 5A/4A split was a good thing. But I live in central Iowa just outside Des Moines and the suburban schools out here are still widening the gap between them and the bigger eastern Iowa schools. Have to wonder if CR/IC/CF/QC 5A schools are going to be able to do anything to reverse that. They've had some regular season success in the past few years but not much. I grew up in CR area and would like to see the level of competition even out, right now it's still not very close.

That's one thing that has surprised me. Back in my day it was pretty even between the eastern and DSM suburb schools. Everyone else was a few steps behind. Today it's clearly the DSM suburb schools have the edge in 5A. In 4A and 3A however its much more even throughout the state which was a nice tradeoff for those schools.

 

[General Tso]

Bettendorf sucks now and private schools can still cheat

 

[bluffshawk73]

Lewis Central has definitely benefitted. Their enrollment had them bouncing between the old 4a and 3a levels every 2-4 years. They have improved over that time as well, so now that they are in the new 4a, they are a yearly force.

I do think the years of playing as the smallest 4a helped their program development by having to go toe to toe with the likes of Dowling, etc.

 

[Bro D]

PV will be a force in all sports for the considerable future

 

[ISUBryceC]

I live in Ankeny and I grew up in Boone, graduated in 2000. Let me tell you I can't believe how big the kids are at the 5A schools. They are effing monsters. My kids aren't old enough to play high school football but they are old enough to want to go to the games now so I've been to a lot of them.

What is crazy to me is I'm going to this Ankeny High vs. Dowling game tonight, and you have two QB's in this game, one going to ISU and one going to PSU. Seems almost inconceivable to me. Probably going to go to the SE Polk/Ankeny High game in a few weeks and I'm going to see more high major players, and not just like single offer guys too.

 

[BustingNarratives]

PV will be a force in all sports for the considerable future

Pleasant Valley has a heck of a football team this year and is excelling in other sports as well. Back-to-back State Champs in Boys Soccer.

 

[Bro D]

Pleasant Valley has a heck of a football team this year and is excelling in other sports as well. Back-to-back State Champs in Boys Soccer.

I think they won baseball last year too

 

[poophawk]

I think they won baseball last year too

two years ago they won it all, made it back to state this year. i went to pv in the early 90's when bdorf was the big dog in all sports. it's crazy to me how that has switched.

 

[Bro D]

two years ago they won it all, made it back to state this year. i went to pv in the early 90's when bdorf was the big dog in all sports. it's crazy to me how that has switched.

Agreed.. I think its as simple as Bettendorf district has no room to grow while the PV district is exploding out by Bett Plex and into LeClaire. I always assumed a new high school would be built but seems as if PV just keeps adding on

 

[Gonzo Bloor]

I live in Ankeny and I grew up in Boone, graduated in 2000. Let me tell you I can't believe how big the kids are at the 5A schools. They are effing monsters. My kids aren't old enough to play high school football but they are old enough to want to go to the games now so I've been to a lot of them.

What is crazy to me is I'm going to this Ankeny High vs. Dowling game tonight, and you have two QB's in this game, one going to ISU and one going to PSU. Seems almost inconceivable to me. Probably going to go to the SE Polk/Ankeny High game in a few weeks and I'm going to see more high major players, and not just like single offer guys too.

Very true. Was at a game probably 4-5 years ago and the Urbandale O-line went something like 270, 260, 260, 250... unreal.

 

[QChawks]

Bettendorf sucks now and private schools can still cheat

They’ve certainly taken a step back but they won’t be down for long

 

[ISUBryceC]

Very true. Was at a game probably 4-5 years ago and the Urbandale O-line went something like 270, 260, 260, 250... unreal.

Ankeny has 8 kids over 275 pounds on their roster and several over 300.

 

[Bulldogs1974]

Having coached hs in iowa for 27 years, here's what I'd say:
1. Numbers are down year after year.
2. quality of play (on the whole is down). I'd still say Iowa is underrated nationally because our boys are playing a bunch of other sports and don't specialize on football alone. Per capita we put out quality college players because they have a higher ceiling. In college I was shocked that most of my football team mates from texas/florida were horrific basketball players. Like on par/worse than the wrestlers.
3. Private schools need a multiplier

 

[cidhawkeye]

Having coached hs in iowa for 27 years, here's what I'd say:
1. Numbers are down year after year.
2. quality of play (on the whole is down). I'd still say Iowa is underrated nationally because our boys are playing a bunch of other sports and don't specialize on football alone. Per capita we put out quality college players because they have a higher ceiling. In college I was shocked that most of my football team mates from texas/florida were horrific basketball players. Like on par/worse than the wrestlers.
3. Private schools need a multiplier

You were fairly solid until #3. Shut down OE and a multiplier may make sense. There aren’t many states where a multiplier achieves the desired result.

 

[obfuscating]

I have been living outside the state of Iowa and the midwest for almost 15 years now. I was in Iowa about a week ago and was able to catch up with a bunch of family and friends. With HS football in full swing and many of my cousins and friends either having kids now playing HS football or are themselves coaching we talked a lot of Iowa HS Football. Needless to say a lot has changed since my playing days. A lot of them are involved with teams in the current 5A or 4A classes with a few in smaller classes.

The ones in 4A have raved about the split between 5A and 4A. It has allowed many of those smaller 4A schools to thrive and has brought new energy and more $$ to their programs now that the bigger schools bumped up to 5A. The general thought being HS football in Iowa is at its best right now with better competition and more schools with deeper pockets while producing more talent. There has been tremendous growth in the 4A and 3A schools now that the competition is a little more evened out. It has brought more fans to the stands and has ignited more passion across the state.

I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on Iowa HS Football and how it's changed in your home town. On a sad note for me my former team has lost between 35%-40% of its enrollment from my playing days 20+ years ago. Now a once proud football school has dropped a couple classes and is around a .500 football team. Really hard for me to fathom. About half of our former conference foes have had a similar fate while some have actually grown. Today my former schools schedule is littered with teams I never played against and former rivals are distant memories for the school.

It was fun chatting with a bunch of my cousins and friends on everything that has changed. It was even more fun chatting with the their kids who now suit up every week on those HS fields that have changed so much over the years. We had 35 years of Iowa HS Football stories. The kids loved hearing about the way things were, the old rivalries, the muddy grass fields and how the sport has changed. Damn those days were fun!

I was posting about a 5a class for 2yrs and then they finally did it. Happy as heck with the outcome.

 

[HawkMachine]

Where’s Xavier? Hopefully higher.

CR population playing against small towns = BS.

 

[hawksense]

two years ago they won it all, made it back to state this year. i went to pv in the early 90's when bdorf was the big dog in all sports. it's crazy to me how that has switched.

Follow the money. I have watched it happen firsthand. Didn’t think Bettendorf‘s fall would be so precipitous, but it has. PV is the top dog.

 

[KuwaitHawk]

Where’s Xavier? Hopefully higher.

CR population playing against small towns = BS.

Almost ‘recruited’ talent at the private schools.

 

[mthawkeyes]

I live in Ankeny and I grew up in Boone, graduated in 2000. Let me tell you I can't believe how big the kids are at the 5A schools. They are effing monsters. My kids aren't old enough to play high school football but they are old enough to want to go to the games now so I've been to a lot of them.

What is crazy to me is I'm going to this Ankeny High vs. Dowling game tonight, and you have two QB's in this game, one going to ISU and one going to PSU. Seems almost inconceivable to me. Probably going to go to the SE Polk/Ankeny High game in a few weeks and I'm going to see more high major players, and not just like single offer guys too.

And even with two P5 QBs, there are enough athletes at both schools that the defenses are good enough to play a 17-10 game.

 

[DodgerHawki]

Follow the money. I have watched it happen firsthand. Didn’t think Bettendorf‘s fall would be so precipitous, but it has. PV is the top dog.

Yeah it's bad to make generalizations, but the same sort of thing is happening in other states. The growing suburban areas are seeing a large amount of growth, with new schools and drawing from a tax base of people that have money and the tax dollars to pour into facilities and programs. The smaller towns and older school districts that are aging and/or not going to be growing due to district boundaries are seeing smaller numbers in football, due to flat or decreasing enrollment, flat or declining tax base, and populations that are trending older.

I get why consolidations happen with school districts due to declining numbers. It doesn't make fiscal sense to not consolidate. But the end result can be lowered amount of kids who have opportunities to play.

I'm not offering a solution, or even that there should be a solution. To an extent, things have to change due to the way economies and communities change over time. The high school football at the highest level in Iowa is probably overall better than it ever has been. You have to be really good just to get on the field at some of these schools from an athletic and development standpoint. Long term, I just think it's not great that fewer kids get to experience playing high school sports. Lots of lessons to be learned from teamwork, hard work, improving, etc., even if none of the participants are going to end up playing Division I in that sport.

 

[Bulldogs1974]

You were fairly solid until #3. Shut down OE and a multiplier may make sense. There aren’t many states where a multiplier achieves the desired result.

Really open enrollment is an equalizer. Now I nlkjow you don’t know jack.
explain to me how a private schoolin in Des Moines with at least a couple hundred thousand in a 15 mile radius is the same in terms of open enrollment to a school that has 10k? You can’t. There is no reason a grand view Christian is a power other than geography

 

[grayhair81]

Follow the money. I have watched it happen firsthand. Didn’t think Bettendorf‘s fall would be so precipitous, but it has. PV is the top dog.

Bettendorf is pretty much on the same level of the Davenport public schools now.

 

[backinblack23]

Where’s Xavier? Hopefully higher.

CR population playing against small towns = BS.

My kid is coming up through the Xavier school system and I laugh every time some accuses Xavier of recruiting all this talent. Has it happened and does it happen? Probably but not to the extent that everyone thinks they do. This years Seniors and Juniors have been playing together since 3rd and 4th grade and outside of 1-2 kids they've always been Xavier kids. My boys class has had 2 kids join the football team and that was at 2nd grade and they joined because Linn-Mar was not what they wanted.

The big factor in Xaviers and other privates schools success is the commitment of the parents in giving their kids the best chance to succeed and helping them get better at a young age when it comes to school and sports.

Xavier is a 4A school playing other 4A schools like West Dubuque, North Scott, West Delaware, Lewis Central, Wahlert, etc...

 

[cidhawkeye]

Really open enrollment is an equalizer. Now I nlkjow you don’t know jack.
explain to me how a private schoolin in Des Moines with at least a couple hundred thousand in a 15 mile radius is the same in terms of open enrollment to a school that has 10k? You can’t. There is no reason a grand view Christian is a power other than geography

So open enrollment is the equalizer….. hmmm… so that means you feel it has been equalized in the current set up.
Hold on to that thought.
The op said that a multiplier should be added thereby changing the current ‘equalized’ set up. My post said that if a multiplier is added then OE should be closed…. Equalizing the set up again.
I was unaware that GV Christian was a football power. Being a private school in a large metro area guarantees that they are. Have I missed them when they play in the Dome? Can you share their football dominance?

 

[Doodads and Hoohah]

My kid is coming up through the Xavier school system and I laugh every time some accuses Xavier of recruiting all this talent. Has it happened and does it happen? Probably but not to the extent that everyone thinks they do. This years Seniors and Juniors have been playing together since 3rd and 4th grade and outside of 1-2 kids they've always been Xavier kids. My boys class has had 2 kids join the football team and that was at 2nd grade and they joined because Linn-Mar was not what they wanted.

The big factor in Xaviers and other privates schools success is the commitment of the parents in giving their kids the best chance to succeed and helping them get better at a young age when it comes to school and sports.

Xavier is a 4A school playing other 4A schools like West Dubuque, North Scott, West Delaware, Lewis Central, Wahlert, etc...

Spot on. "Recruiting" is happening at public schools as well.

 

[SoonerBeAHawk]

Simple question ... but how come so many sophomores and even freshmen are playing varsity now?

I mean back in the day freshmen never played and only the very rare odd bird played as a soph. Just weren't big enough or developed enough.

Guess I'm just not close enough to the HS game to puzzle this one out.

 

[cidhawkeye]

Simple question ... but how come so many sophomores and even freshmen are playing varsity now?

I mean back in the day freshmen never played and only the very rare odd bird played as a soph. Just weren't big enough or developed enough.

Guess I'm just not close enough to the HS game to puzzle this one out.

Earlier and better weight training, red shirting in elementary/start age, earlier and better youth football.

 

[A21408t]

Pleasant Valley has a heck of a football team this year and is excelling in other sports as well. Back-to-back State Champs in Boys Soccer.

Plus golf and baseball

 

[grayhair81]

Simple question ... but how come so many sophomores and even freshmen are playing varsity now?

I mean back in the day freshmen never played and only the very rare odd bird played as a soph. Just weren't big enough or developed enough.

Guess I'm just not close enough to the HS game to puzzle this one out.

Numbers. More and more schools don't have freshmen or soph teams. A lot of kids move up to the next level out of necessity.

 

[stender72865]

Xavier needs to play 5A. They can play with (and in many cases beat) the other MVC schools. It's kind of a joke that they play 4A - but they can add to their trophy case easier by playing small schools. They only have ONE State Championship vs big schools. Congrats on that one back in early 2000s. The others? Meh.

 

[cidhawkeye]

Xavier needs to play 5A. They can play with (and in many cases beat) the other MVC schools. It's kind of a joke that they play 4A - but they can add to their trophy case easier by playing small schools. They only have ONE State Championship vs big schools. Congrats on that one back in early 2000s. The others? Meh.

sniff...sniff...if you say so.

 

[TS568]

That's one thing that has surprised me. Back in my day it was pretty even between the eastern and DSM suburb schools. Everyone else was a few steps behind. Today it's clearly the DSM suburb schools have the edge in 5A. In 4A and 3A however its much more even throughout the state which was a nice tradeoff for those schools.

Yeah, back in the 90s Iowa City High and Iowa City West were dominating the Des Moines area schools- primarily Dowling in Valley. What’s changed is the eastern Iowa schools are still “city” schools and Des Moines-area schools now are pure “suburb”’schools (Ankeny x 2, Waukee x2, SE Polk, Valley, Johnston, Dowling). The socio-economic advantages those suburb schools have in training facilities, year-round coaching, parental involvement are huge.

 

[EastIowaHawk]

Dubuque hasn't had good football teams for many years. Western Dubuque has a much better football program. I used to have the exact numbers, but CR Xavier is something like 30-0 over Dubuque Senior, Wahlert and Hempstead over the last 30-40 years, especially when they were all in the MVC. .

 

[QChawks]

Davenport West ranked 9th

what year is this???

 

[RVHAWKXX]

This is a great thread! I’m actually moving to Bettendorf in late November when the high school football season is over. I officiate high school football and stuck with my crew here in NW Iowa. So excited to get back to eastern Iowa!

 

[Gonzo Bloor]

Xavier needs to play 5A. They can play with (and in many cases beat) the other MVC schools. It's kind of a joke that they play 4A - but they can add to their trophy case easier by playing small schools. They only have ONE State Championship vs big schools. Congrats on that one back in early 2000s. The others? Meh.

Why?

 

[GhostAppendage]

Why?

Pretty small school to be 5A…

 

[IamHawkeye]

Spot on. "Recruiting" is happening at public schools as well.

Can someone explain how Ankeny got the Roosevelt player?















ca