With all the recent talk about school budgets being cut. I would like to know how do you think this will change the landscape of High School athletics, especially football. Will schools with dwindling enrollments be forced into consolidation? That would make for a lot of changes in the football classes. Does anybody know some schools that are hurting. Things could get pretty interesting this year, especially since districts are going to be redrawn.
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- Thread starter stardust twins
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I think there will be a lot of sharing,consolidation what haveu,and a lot of 8-man teams go by the wayside. This year alone in my neck of Iowa, Laurens Marathon is going to share all sports with Poky and Cal isgoing with Clarion-Goldfield. Northeast Hamilton is with Webster city and Corwth Wesly Luverne closed and is going to Algona. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg here and that's to bad!
Yep, it's just getting started. The rural counties and even larger ones like Woodbury and maybe just aren't growing and you cannot field competitive teams, let alone have enough players for a safe game, with persistently declining numbers.
The growth in the state is mostly occurring in metro Des Moines and in the Cedar Rapids - Iowa City areas and that's not going to stop any time soon.
Eventually, things will be so consolidated school-wise, it won't be feasible for kids to be hauled around county-wide for practices, etc and then whadya do? Do we end up like swimming and hockey where a small school Ida County doesn't field a football team but say, a kid from Holstein wants to play, can be pay his own travel expense and play in Storm Lake or even Sioux City?
Again, just the tip of the iceberg as another poster said.
The growth in the state is mostly occurring in metro Des Moines and in the Cedar Rapids - Iowa City areas and that's not going to stop any time soon.
Eventually, things will be so consolidated school-wise, it won't be feasible for kids to be hauled around county-wide for practices, etc and then whadya do? Do we end up like swimming and hockey where a small school Ida County doesn't field a football team but say, a kid from Holstein wants to play, can be pay his own travel expense and play in Storm Lake or even Sioux City?
Again, just the tip of the iceberg as another poster said.
This isn't any thing new as if you'll look historically school consolidation has been pretty steady for the past 50 years. I am pretty sure the actual number of school consolidations in the late 80's/early 90's dwarfs what we are currently seeing.
The biggest difference is that instead of two schools located 7-10 miles apart joining together.....these schools joining now include multiple towns and a longer distance apart.
The biggest difference is that instead of two schools located 7-10 miles apart joining together.....these schools joining now include multiple towns and a longer distance apart.
Dew is right. There were a lot more consolidations then because there were a lot more schools. The numbers are getting whittled down and some of the consolidations of schools which already consolidated 20 years ago are, in some instances, creating near county wide schools.
One big difference is open enrollment. During the consolidations of the 80s/early 90s you didn't have open enrollment. If there was a consolidation you have to deal with it, go private, or physically move. Now today with these near county wide schools it is common to find outlying families physically much closer to a school in another district than their own. Glad open enrollment is an option for those families.
What does this mean to high school sports? There will be increasing disparity between the schools located in or near a metro area that have their kids in a much smaller district vs their rural counterpart which has kids scattered all across the county.
One big difference is open enrollment. During the consolidations of the 80s/early 90s you didn't have open enrollment. If there was a consolidation you have to deal with it, go private, or physically move. Now today with these near county wide schools it is common to find outlying families physically much closer to a school in another district than their own. Glad open enrollment is an option for those families.
What does this mean to high school sports? There will be increasing disparity between the schools located in or near a metro area that have their kids in a much smaller district vs their rural counterpart which has kids scattered all across the county.
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