New guy here...long time reader, just never registered until now, but find this thread fascinating, as my son plays football for Ankeny Centennial, and we just got whipped by Dowling Friday night
I got into a Twitter disagreement last year with some Dowling fans about their "recruiting", which they denied. Shortly after, Gavin Williams enrolled to Dowling from SE Polk
A few things to point out from a DM Metro perspective and seeing things firsthand. Not all Iowa Schools/Districts have open enrollment. In Ankeny's case, the district decides what school you attend if you choose open enrollment, based on the fullness of each school. Our current high school policy is that all open enrolls would attend Ankeny High School, as they are slightly smaller in enrollment than Centennial. Therefore, if you wanted to attend Centennial, you would actually need to live within the Centennial boundary lines, as defined by the district.
To me, that is the biggest difference for Dowling; you can live anywhere, yet still attend Dowling, assuming you can get a ride/have a car to and from school every day. Where I see Dowling's biggest advantage is when they are able to get some kids from the city schools that don't have very good teams, but they have some very good individual players. If those players are given the choice, what player wouldn't want to go play for a winning team? Same is probably true for Xavier, as well as any other private school option where the team has the potential to be better than the metro public team.
Anyway, just think it's interesting to hear from different parts of the state about this stuff...