H10 pursues large/small school divisions

The Hawkeye Ten Conference announced Wednesday that administrators are pursuing a plan that would create large and small school divisions within the conference.

Also, activities directors in the league are reaching out to other schools that could align with the large school and small school divisions within the conference. It is believed Creston would be placed in the large school division.

There will be another Hawkeye Ten Conference meeting on July 7 to officially vote on the schools that will receive invitations in the new divisional structure.

The H10 release states,

“As part of our ongoing mission to provide meaningful, equitable and competitive opportunities for student-athletes, the Hawkeye 10 Athletic Conference is actively exploring a new structural model for certain activities. Specifically, we are pursuing a plan to implement large and small school divisions within the conference for select sports and activities.

“This potential change reflects the evolving needs of our member schools and aims to enhance the experience for all participants by ensuring fair competition and promoting growth in our programs.

“To assess the feasibility and interest in this model, our activities directors have been tasked with reaching out to schools—both within and beyond the current membership—that may align with either the large or small school division. These conversations are preliminary and focused solely on gauging interest at this time. We are not releasing the names of schools involved in these discussions at this point to preserve the integrity of the process.

“The Hawkeye 10 Athletic Conference will reconvene on July 7 to officially vote on which schools will receive invitations to join under the new divisional structure.

“Please note that this release serves as the official communication from the Hawkeye 10 regarding this matter. Any other commentary or speculation should be considered unofficial and hearsay. We encourage all members of our community to rely on this and future formal communications for accurate information.”

The realignment discussions began with a June 19 report by KMA Radio in Shenandoah that Red Oak and Shenandoah were invited to join the Western Iowa Conference, which has since lost members Audubon and IKM-Manning to the Rolling Valley Conference. Others invited to the WIC were Earlham, MVAOCOU, Panorama, West Central Valley and Westwood.

Subsequent to that news, WIC schools Treynor and Underwood were approached by Hawkeye Ten officials to join the Hawkeye Ten.

In the meantime, the Missouri River Conference was reported to be considering invitations to Hawkeye Ten members Lewis Central, Glenwood, Harlan and Denison-Schleswig to join the MRC, which could take that conference to 12 schools in a north-south divisional format. Other MRC members are Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln, Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, Bishop Heelan Catholic, Sioux City East, Sioux City North, Sioux City West, Sergeant Bluff-Luton and Le Mars.

The Hawkeye Ten currently has 11 schools — Creston, Clarinda, Kuemper Catholic, Lewis Central, Harlan, Red Oak, Glenwood, Shenandoah, Denison-Schleswig, St. Albert Catholic and Atlantic.

Caleb Nelson contributed to this story.