(Boone) Day three in our series evaluating the classification system of the Iowa High School Athletic Association is here and it centers around the growing gap between schools in Class 4A.
According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, in June of 2019 Des Moines Public Schools sent a resolution to the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union seeking a system based on more than enrollment. The IHSAA had initially planned some changes for the upcoming football season in Class 4A, but the recent shift from a nine week regular season to a seven weeks nixed those plans. Here’s Executive Director of the IHSAA Tom Keating:
Iowa City High football coach Dan Sabers is a leader of the movement, according to the Gazette. The paper reports over a ten year span Des Moines East, North, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Hoover were a combined 0-92 against Valley, Dowling, Johnston, Waukee, Urbandale, Ankeny, and Ankeny Centennial. Meanwhile, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, and Davenport Assumption have had overwhelming success against Davenport North, West, and Central.
Free and reduced lunch is among the major differences in those programs. Glidden-Ralston coach Cole Corson has studied the disparities. He points out 78% of students Des Moines Public Schools were on free and reduced lunch. Corson says, “A vast difference when it comes to the upbringing of kids and maybe the advantages or disadvantages that some of those schools go through. Kids maybe don’t start sports from a young age because there is no financial means to do so.”
Keating acknowledges the free and reduced lunch argument, but notes it’s much more complex than that.
Coming up in Part Four tomorrow we’ll get a sense of how much traction some of these issues are gaining.
