Mississippi Valley Conference (Iowa)
Conference | IHSAA / IGHSAU |
---|---|
Founded | 1927 |
Sports fielded |
|
No. of teams | 15 |
Region | Eastern Iowa |
Official website | https://www.mississippivalleyiowa.org/ |
The Mississippi Valley Conference (also called MVC) is a high-school athletic conference whose members are located in the metropolitan areas of eastern region of the U.S. state of Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Iowa City and Waterloo-Cedar Falls.
The conference is divided into two divisions: the Mississippi division and the Valley division. Division assignments rotate every two years, and are not geographically-based.
At present the MVC comprises all 4A schools with the exception of Dubuque Wahlert, which is categorized as 3A school. Cedar Rapids Xavier, when admitted to the MVC, was a 3A school, but became a 4A school beginning with the 2008-09 school year. As of 2014-2015, Xavier switched back to 3A and Western Dubuque high school, also a 3A school, beginning in 2019.
Member schools
There are 15 member schools of the Mississippi Valley Conference:
Mississippi Division
School | Location | Affiliation | Mascot | Colors | Year Founded | 2022-2023 BEDS[1] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cedar Falls | Cedar Falls | Public | Tigers | 1954 (orig. 1900) | 1,311 | |
City | Iowa City | Public | Little Hawks | 1937 | 1,154 | |
Liberty | North Liberty | Public | Lightning | 2017 | 861 | |
Linn-Mar | Marion | Public | Lions | 1959 | 1,733 | |
Prairie | Cedar Rapids | Public | Hawks | 1956 | 1,334 | |
Wahlert Catholic
|
Dubuque | Private | Golden Eagles | 1959 | 330 | |
Washington | Cedar Rapids | Public | Warriors | 1957 (orig. 1857) | 978 | |
Epworth, Western Dubuque | Epworth | Public | Bobcats | 1962 | 721 |
Valley Division
School | Location | Affiliation | Mascot | Colors | Year Founded | 2022-2023 BEDS[2] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dubuque | Dubuque | Public | Rams | 1923 (orig. 1858) | 1,078 | |
Hempstead
|
Dubuque | Public | Mustangs | 1970 | 1,237 | |
Jefferson | Cedar Rapids | Public | J-Hawks | 1958 | 1,189 | |
Kennedy | Cedar Rapids | Public | Cougars | 1967 | 1,296 | |
West | Iowa City | Public | Trojans/Women of Troy | 1968 | 1,096 | |
West
|
Waterloo | Public | Wahawks | 1955 (orig. 1922) | 1,384 | |
Xavier Catholic | Cedar Rapids | Private | Saints | 1998 | 441 |
History
Since its founding, the Mississippi Valley Conference was a league composed of metropolitan schools in eastern Iowa. Until 1969, the MVC (as it is known to some locals) also included
The league was reorganized in 1969, with the five Quad-City area schools leaving to form a new league (the Quad-City Metro Conference, along with Catholic schools
One member - Muscatine - gained infamy during the 1970s when it lost 44 consecutive football games, including 40 straight league games between 1973 and 1977.1
The league reorganized again in 1978 when Bettendorf, Clinton and Muscatine left to join the newly formed
Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Prairie leave the disbanded East Iowa Conference and join the Mississippi Valley conference for 1986-87 school year
Waterloo East, Waterloo West, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids Regis joined the conference in 1992. Regis was later merged with Cedar Rapids LaSalle High School to form Cedar Rapids Xavier High School. Periodically conference membership is reviewed based on school population trends.2
In 2016,
In the spring of 2021, Waterloo East's request to depart the conference after the 2021-2022 school year was approved by the Waterloo School District, to join the new Iowa Alliance Conference[4] that also includes 10 former Central Iowa Metro League schools. East's move came after a trend where the Trojans ranked near or at the bottom of the conference's all-sports rankings as well as decreasing sports participation.[5] Waterloo West did not pursue a change at this time, and no other MVC school has made an indication of plans to switch to any new conference.
Sports
The conference offers the following sports:
- Fall — .
- Winter — Boys' basketball, girls' basketball, bowling, wrestling and boys' swimming.
- Spring — Boys' soccer, girls' soccer, boys' tennis, girls' tennis and girls' golf.
- Summer — Baseball and softball.
Although the member schools field freshman — and in some cases, junior varsity — teams in many of the above-mentioned sports, conference championships are determined at sophomore and varsity levels only.
In other states
Two other states have high-school athletic conferences named Mississippi Valley Conference. In Illinois, the Mississippi Valley Conference is a conference based in the Metro East area, the eastern suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. In Wisconsin, the Mississippi Valley Conference is a conference based in the La Crosse area, commonly known as the Coulee Region.
References
- ^ "IHSAA: Classifications".
- ^ "IHSAA: Classifications".
- Cedar Rapids Gazette, January 10, 2017. Accessed 01-10-2017. [1]
- ^ Mollenbeck, Andrew. "11 schools join new Iowa athletic conference". kcci.com. KCCI. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
- ^ Wind, Andrew, "Waterloo school board approves East High request to join newly formed sports conference," The Courier, June 14, 2021. Accessed 06-15-2021. [2]
- 1"Thank God it's over!" Sports article from the Muscatine Journal, September 10, 1978.
- 2"Xavier grows into a Class 4A school" Sports article from the Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 12, 2008.