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CIty Public Schools

VerbumDei

Freshman
Jan 15, 2003
308
14
18
Congratulations to CR Washington for being the only public school from one of the five largest Iowa school districts to make it to the finals in 30 years. From 1972 until 1984, large city public schools won 8 of 13 state championships (1972 CR Jeff; 1973 Dav Cent, 1974 Dav West; 1976 Dav Cent; 1977 Dav. West; 1979 Hempstead, and 1984 SC East). But since that time, Wash is the ONLY large city public school to even make it to the finals (2003 and 2014). The suburban public schools have taken their place. I would love to know how Washington succeeds where the five Des Moines public schools fail.

Verbum Dei

AMDG
 
i think this is false attribution. What, objectively, defines city school? Is it population density, race/ethnic composition?
 
Washington (and Kennedy, City High, IC West, probably SC East) and some others are much more diverse schools with at least close to as much parent support as the big suburban schools. Iowa has maybe 5-6 really low income, "disadvantaged" schools. Schools like Ottumwa, Burlington, Fort Dodge and Mason City probably have more competitive issues than do several of the "city" schools.
 
I think the key attribution is the largest public school districts. Within the group, definitions limit consideration of other "City" schools.

Districts, not schools, I guess.
 
It should be more of a congratulations to the Cedar Rapids public schools in general... Davenport, Sioux City, Waterloo, Council Bluffs, Dubuque, and Des Moines struggle to get any competitive public schools in football some/most years.

Iowa City is a football town and thus are successful. Cedar Rapids has 5 public schools and most of the time at least 3 of those 5 compete well with anyone in the state.

I recall a mention of regular redistricting in Cedar Rapids that helps keep the school sizes balanced. I think that could be part of the success of the programs. I also think the Cedar Rapids schools have a much better public school support from the people of the city.

Having grown up in Waterloo I know East and West have always been big rivals, but neither school has past players that have come to take the coaching job in football and tried building the program. The main entertainment is the fights that used to occur at the games until they put a stop to that.

Being in Davenport now I see a fair amount of support for Davenport Central, but here again they can't get a coach to come in that is willing to spend the time and effort to build a program. Davenport West literally has no support. Davenport North has people who wear gear or have window stickers, but the school support isn't there either.
 
I thought the Cedar Rapids school district had only 3 schools (Kennedy, Jeff and Wash). What are the other two?
 
That'd be leaving Marion out, then. I guess you could say the Cedar Rapids metro area has five 4A public high schools (Jefferson, Kennedy, Washington, Linn-Mar and Prairie) plus 3A Marion.

Although, if we are discussing large-city schools, as opposed to suburban schools as the OP mentions, I think there's a case for Linn-Mar and Prairie to be considered "suburban" - at least as much as Southeast Polk, or WDM Valley, or Urbandale, or the like.

This post was edited on 11/18 12:14 PM by KidSilverhair

This post was edited on 11/18 12:20 PM by KidSilverhair
 
If Prairie, Linn-Mar or Marion are "city" schools then so are Bettendorf, Cedar Falls, Urbandale and Valley. I think you have to limit it to city school districts or it means nothing.
 
Prairie and Linn-Mar serve a fairly large portion of CR, though. Essentially, south if Highway 30 is Prairie and a lot of the city north of Collins Road a that isn't in Hiawatha is served by Linn-Mar. Those are the high growth areas of CR and aren't part of one of the suburban towns.
 
First, you are presuming that all "city schools" are the same. Cedar Rapids is not the same town and does not face the same difficulties as Des Moines. I believe Hoover had 15 kids on their freshman roster. North had 11. East had trouble during their first week of camp because kids had to work the Iowa State Fair.

Secondly (I plead ignorance on this) but I don't know of too many young men having amazing sophomore/junior campaigns, only to get the call from Cedar Rapids Xavier to come play ball for them their junior/senior year. This is a problem the DMPS programs have to face. (example: Rico Gafford, Elijah Swehla, Dante Campero, Nick Motsinger, etc).

Thirdly, the five Des Moines Public Schools severely lack in football facilities. I don't know what the conditions are like up in Cedar Rapids, but Des Moines Lincoln's football field is a dump. Roosevelt does not have their own stadium and has incredibly tiny practice facilities. Hoover' facilities aren't spectacular and North's field is usually covered in goose $h!t (this is not a joke). The football programs have pleaded for upgraded facilities, but the only thing the district has brought to the table is a big Valley-like stadium for the five of them to use. (To my knowledge, none of the five programs want this stadium anyway). Offseason facilities are subpar as well, comparative to weight rooms in the suburbs.


 
CR publics, of course, all play at Kingston and as far as practice facilities go, I believe each school has their own which probably aren't anything special but not dumps, either.

I went through some census data and pulled the median household income for the state have listed it below: (using my phone so grammar, etc may be sketchy)

Ten Largest Cities:
Des Moines: 44862
Cedar Rapids: 52242
Davenport: 42537
Sioux City: 42845
Waterloo: 41275
Iowa City: 42220
Dubuque: 44309
Ames: 41561
Council Bluffs: 43388
W. Des Moines: 68283

Select Suburbs:
Cedar Falls: 48727
Ankeny: 73622
Bettendorf: 69083
Marion: 59120
Coralville: 56635
Robins (outside CR) is the wealthiest at around $103,000

Counties:
Polk: 58096
Linn: 56790
Scott: 53002
Woodbury: 45289
Black Hawk: 45610
Johnson: 53993
Dubuque: 50885
Story: 49683
Pottawatamie: 49991
 
Originally posted by zmac328:
Secondly (I plead ignorance on this) but I don't know of too many young men having amazing sophomore/junior campaigns, only to get the call from Cedar Rapids Xavier to come play ball for them their junior/senior year. This is a problem the DMPS programs have to face. (example: Rico Gafford, Elijah Swehla, Dante Campero, Nick Motsinger, etc).





It's funny you would say that. I just had a conversation with someone whose husband coaches at Kennedy, and said they couldn't decide who they were cheering for tonight, as Wash has 5 kids on the team from the Kennedy district, including one that lives a block from their house. Recruiting happens, not just at the private schools.
 
Here's an example of his kids can live in one district and attend another: My family lives in the Jefferson district now because it's closer to my wife's employer, but when we moved to CR in 2009, we started in the Kennedy district. Even though we moved, we decided that the kids could keep going with their friends through Harding MS and ultimately Kennedy. We've also told them that if they want to go to another high school that fits them better, for whatever reason, we're open to it.
I'm not saying that's what happened with these five kids but with some of the issues on the SE side, it's feasible that the family moved to a better area but still wanted the kids to go to school with their friends.
There's a million scenarios for each kid and family ranging from the truly legitimate to the downright wrong.
 
I know several of those Wash kids went to elementary and middle school in the Kennedy district. When they were in middle school, they played for Lombardi's all-star team and suddenly they were going to another middle school that feeds into Wash...Of course Wash lost a sophomore this year to Xavier, although I am convinced that he was not recruited to Xavier.
 
zmac328, you know as well as I do, a coach has to build something positive and successful to keep his "in district" players home. There's a reason Swehla/Motsinger left DM Lincoln.
 
I don't doubt that the mere presence of Lombardi could have influenced kids without him even suggesting that the come to Washington. I'm not real familiar with local football since my kids don't play but does anyone at Kennedy or Jeff coach or have high visibility away from their respective school? If a kid plays for Coach A during the off season, has a good experience and sees what Coach A does during the season, he may lot to not play for Coach B even though it's his home school / district.
I had kids signed up with our organization here in Cedar Rapids that lived closer to Des Moines or the Quad Cities but because of our program and our kids' successes at national events, they called us 'home'.
 
Whether we like it or not, the top programs attract the top kids, and a lot of parents direct their kids to a program where their son or daughter will have success, boundaries or no boundaries. And the kids recruit their buddies. That said, there is no doubt in my mind that the best football in the state is played in the Des Moines suburbs. Suburban Valley and Dowling between them have won well over half the championships in the past dozen years, haven't they?
 
Originally posted by dk47:

zmac328, you know as well as I do, a coach has to build something positive and successful to keep his "in district" players home. There's a reason Swehla/Motsinger left DM Lincoln.
I completely agree. There's a reason Lincoln was a no-fly-zone for DCHS recruiting between 2004 and 2012. It also helps liven up the program when schools like Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, and top colleges were visiting the school frequently throughout the winter. I can still remember how jacked everybody in the program was when Nebraska offered Jordy a scholarship. The good ole days.
 
EagleHawk, name a varsity player at Xavier this year that transferred in from a city school?
I bet you cant because their arent any.
 
Absolutely zmac ... And you were a big part of those "good ole days!". Miss that.
 
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