West Central Conference (Iowa)

The West Central Activities Conference is a high school athletic conference made up of 1A and 2A schools in West Central Iowa. Currently there are ten schools in the league.

Members

Institution Location Mascot Colors Affiliation 2018-2019
9-11 Enrollment[1]
AC/GC Guthrie Center Chargers           Public 176
Des Moines Christian Des Moines Lions           Private 223
Earlham Earlham Cardinals           Public 143
Interstate 35 (joining in 2018) Truro Roadrunners           Public 179
Madrid Madrid Tigers           Public 168
Ogden Ogden Bulldogs           Public 171
Panorama Panora Panthers           Public 188
Pleasantville (joining in 2018) Pleasantville Trojans           Public 183
Van Meter Van Meter Bulldogs           Public 184
West Central Valley Stuart Wildcats           Public 179
Woodward Academy Woodward Knights           Male Residential Facility 175
Woodward-Granger Woodward Hawks           Public 174

History

The current West Central Conference was formed in 1981 with eight members: Van Meter, Guthrie Center, Panora-Linden, Earlham, Martensdale-St. Mary's, Stuart-Menlo, Adair-Casey and Dexfield (Redfield). Prior to this time a different league known as the West Central Conference existed, but none of its members were founders of the new West Central Conference.

Throughout the 1980s, the league added Coon Rapids-Bayard and Nodaway Valley, and Panora-Linden began sharing with Y-J-B under the name Panorama. Dexfield and Stuart-Menlo also consolidated and left the league. In 1996, the league split in half as the four southernmost schools-along or south of Interstate 80-departed to conferences south and west: Martensdale-St. Mary's and Nodaway Valley to the Pride of Iowa and Earlham and Adair-Casey to the Rolling Hills. The four remaining members brought in four new schools further north as replacements: Glidden-Ralston in Carroll County; East Greene (Grand Junction) and Paton-Churdan in Greene County; and Des Moines Christian in Urbandale in Polk County. In an interesting twist, two of the newcomers (East Greene and Paton-Churdan) and a forerunner school to Panorama (YJB) were members of the original West Central.

In 2000, West Central Valley (the consolidated district of former members Dexfield and Stuart-Menlo) joined the league from the Raccoon River Conference, a conference with much larger schools. In 2004, Earlham rejoined the league as its tenth team. By 2007, many of the schools in the conference were starting to grow close to 2A in size, leading to Paton-Churdan leaving the conference for the smaller Rolling Hills Conference. Madrid joined the league at this time from the Heart of Iowa Conference. In 2009, Glidden-Ralston left for the Rolling Hills, being replaced by Woodward-Granger, another Heart of Iowa Conference team. East Greene then opted to also leave the conference and join the Rolling Hills, for 2011 with Ogden, yet another former Heart of Iowa Conference member (and a member of the original West Central Conference) replacing them. Woodward Academy also joined that year for boys' sports only from the rank of the Independents of Iowa High Schools.

Coon Rapids-Bayard left West Central for the new Rolling Valley Conference in the 2013-14 school year.

In the 2018-2019 school year, Interstate 35 & Pleasantville will be joining the West Central Conference. They make the move from the Pride of Iowa Conference, where I-35 was a founding member back in 1987.

References

  1. ↑ "Iowa High School Athletic Association BEDS Document". Retrieved December 22, 2016.

Website http://www.wcaconference.org/

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