send all the football players to Heelan - problem solved
^^^ lol ^^^ genuinely laughed at that, clever. If they chose to combine, that would probably happen in bigger numbers than it currently does to be honest.
In reality though, this would make it much worse. It's the same theory as small schools combining for athletics... the mileage is different (not even that different honestly 9mi between West/East and 11mi between North/East), but the time to travel is much worse. It can take 20-30 minutes to get from North or West to East (or vise versa) depending on lights and traffic. Throw in freshmen athletes that can't drive and you'll lose numbers in bunches. You're talking about adding 40-60 minutes of daily drive time for a time-consuming sport that is already suffering from declining numbers statewide, not just in Sioux City. Bad situation.
There are plenty of counter examples of teams "turning it around" or at least beginning to show they are turning it around. Similar demographics to the Sioux City schools too. Sports, for the most part, are cyclical. There are systems installed and inherent advantages at various high schools where their drop off is not as significant between cycles, but there are still down years. Council Bluffs AL had a good run during the Ebertowski years, Council Bluffs TJ has made big strides with their Pulaski Academy approach the last few years. Des Moines Roosevelt was much improved this year. Realistically no team (combined or not) will run down the top 6 4A schools in the west any time soon.
In other sports, in Sioux City, West girls basketball was once THE worst program in 4A/5A not that long ago. One good hire later and they have played to go to state like 4 of the last 5 years after only a year or two of rebuilding. They got demolished a couple of those years in the final, but they also got paired with the #1 team and they had such a HUGE gap to make-up that any team from any part of the state would've gotten thumped just as bad.
Just my thoughts on it. I think West has a chance to be much improved over the long run. Their new coach brought them a long way in just one year. I'm not saying Dome bound anytime soon, but between 3-6 to 5-4 winning a game here and there they wouldn't normally have won in the previous decade(s) is a possibility.
I think East will struggle tremendously for a year or two regardless of who they hire, but they have a few good classes in a row as 7th, 8th & 9th graders this year. The right hire will have them ready to go by the time they are upper classmen. 6-3 to 8-2/9-2 in the right district for the 20-21 rotations could be a possibility.
North is just really in a "down" cycle right now. I have no idea what they have coming up, I just know they didn't play an actual freshman schedule this year, so it could potentially be a while before things come back around for them.
Regardless, a "Metro" team will not fix Sioux City Football. In my opinion, it would make it worse.
