Lakes Conference (Iowa)

The Lakes Conference is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in mid-sized cities in northwest Iowa. Most of the schools are located in their respective county seats.

Member schools

The conference's current lineup consists of eight schools from eight different counties in northwestern Iowa. Since Iowa is the only state in the nation that maintains separate governing bodies for boys' and girls' athletics, the classifications are different for each gender. The Iowa High School Athletic Association is divided into classes 1A (smallest schools) to 4A (largest schools) for boys while the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union is divided into classes 1A (smallest schools) to 5A (largest schools).

Institution Location Population Colors Affiliation 2012-2013 Enrollement [1] Mascot IHSAA Class IGHSAU Class
Emmetsburg Emmetsburg 3,903           Public 229 E-Hawks 2A* 2A
Estherville-Lincoln Central Estherville 6,239                Public 351 Midgets 3A 3A
Le Mars Le Mars 9,830           Public 656 Bulldogs 3A 4A
Spencer Spencer 11,181           Public 606 Tigers 3A 4A
Spirit Lake Spirit Lake 4,907           Public 410 Indians 2A 3A
Storm Lake Storm Lake 10,674           Public 653 Tornadoes 3A 4A
Washington Cherokee 5,252           Public 287 Braves 2A 3A
Western Christian Hull 2,189           Private 298 Wolfpack 2A* 2A

Sports

The conference offers the following sports:

History

The Lakes Conference dates back to the mid-1940s when Storm Lake, Cherokee, Spirit Lake, Sibley, Sheldon, Emmetsburg, Estherville, and Spencer formed the league.[2] For over four decades, the conference had no membership changes. In the 1980s, Sibley merged with nearby Ocheyedan High School and left the conference in 1990 to join the Siouxland Conference.[3][4] Estherville also merged with Lincoln Central High School in the mid-1990s.[3][5] For the 1993-94 academic year, LeMars was added to the conference lineup.[2]

Hull Western Christian joined the Lakes in 1997-98.[2] Since joining the Lakes, Western Christian has participated in 8 state basketball tournaments and won the 2A championship in 2006-07, becoming the first league school to win the state title since Estherville in 1986-87. They followed this up by repeating as state champs in 2007-08, and winning another title in 2009-10.

In 2009-10, Sheldon left the Lakes to join longtime rival Sibley-Ocheyedan in the Siouxland Conference.[6]

The Lakes Conference sponsored football for over 50 years before the Iowa High School Athletic Association realigned all levels of football into a two-year evolving districts format. Because of this change, many of the schools do not compete against each other in football anymore.

Though all the schools currently compete in either classes 2A or 3A, most were once in the highest level of classification for the Iowa High School Athletic Association. With the addition of a fourth class in the 1980s, however, none of the conference schools met the enrollment requirement to be in this largest class. In addition, most of the schools are currently seeing a slight decline in their enrollment. As recently as 5 years ago seven of the league's eight schools were in class 3A, the second highest class in Iowa. Today LeMars, Storm Lake, and Spencer consistently fall in the top fifteen biggest schools in class 3A while Estherville-Lincoln Central and Spirit Lake often flip between class 2A and class 3A depending on their enrollment for the school year. Hull Western Christian, Cherokee, and Emmetsburg are solidly in class 2A and are not expected to change classes any time soon.

State Tournament Success

The Lakes Conference has a very successful history in the state tournament.

Football [7]

Dome Qualifiers:

Emmetsburg:

Semifinalist: 2001, 2011, 2012.

State Runner-up: 1975, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988,

State Champion: 1977, 1979, 1989, 1990, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2008.

LeMars:

Semifinalist: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006

State Champion: 1973

Spencer:

Semifinalist: 1990, 1991

State Champion: 1994

Spirit Lake:

State Runner Up: 2011

State Champion: 2012

State Champion: 2015

Volleyball [8]

Western Christian

State Semifinalist: 2009

State Runners-up: 1999, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013

State Champions: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010

LeMars:

State Qualifier: 1996, 2013

Spencer:

State Qualifier: 2006

Boys Basketball [9]

Western Christian is coached by 600+ win Jim Eekhoff.[10]

State Qualifier: 2001

Third Place Finish: 2009

State Runners-up: 2011

State Championships: 1985, 1991, 1996, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014

Cherokee:

State Qualifier: 1952, 1975, 1984

Emmetsburg:

State Qualifier: 2005

Third Place Finish: 1978

Estherville:

State Qualifiers: 1986, 1991

State Champion: 1987

LeMars:

State Qualifier: 1930, 1983

Third Place Finish: 1957, 2000

State Runner Up: 1942

Storm Lake:

State Qualifier: 1945, 1956, 1963, 1965, 1969, 1979, 1994

State Runners-up: 1970

State Champion: 1968, 1980

Spencer:

State Qualifier: 1995, 1998, 2003, 2004

State Runner Up: 1976,

Spirit Lake:

State Qualifier: 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1942

State Runner Up: 1920, 1928

Girls Basketball [11]

Five on five state tournament qualifiers:

Cherokee:

State Qualifier: 2003

State Semifinalist: 2005

Emmetsburg:

State Qualifier: 1999

Estherville Lincoln Central:

State Qualifier: 2012

State Runner Up: 1999, 2011

LeMars:

State Qualifier: 2002

Storm Lake:

State Qualifier: 1999, 2010

Spencer:

State Qualifier: 2003, 2004, 2009

Spirit Lake:

State Qualifier: 2006

State Runner Up: 2007

Western Christian:

State Qualifier: 1998, 2000, 2002

State Champion: 2012, 2013, 2014

Boys Soccer [12]

Spencer:

3rd place: 2008

State Champion: 2009

Girls Soccer [13]

Spencer

State Qualifier: 2015

Baseball[14]

Cherokee:

State Qualifier: 2006, 2010

State Semifinalist: 2005, 2009

State Runner Up: 2008

State Champion: 2007

Estherville Lincoln Central:

State Qualifier: 2008

Storm Lake:

State Qualifier: 2010, 2011

State Runner Up: 2009

References

  1. ↑ http://educateiowa.gov/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=513
  2. 1 2 3 Mitchell, Russ (21 March 2007). "Sergeant Bluff-Luton makes Lakes Conference bid". Specncer Daily Reporter. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  3. 1 2 "School district changes in Iowa". 1 November 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Weber, Tim (7 February 1990). "Okoboji Joins Siouxland". Google News. The Daily Reporter. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "State Valen v. Estherville Lincoln Central Community School District". FindLaw.com. Supreme Court of Iowa. 17 November 1999. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  6. ↑ Kroeze, Bethany (15 January 2009). "Sheldon says goodbye to Lakes Conference". Le Mars Daily Sentinel. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  7. ↑ http://www.iahsaa.org/football/ARCHIVES/archives.html
  8. ↑ http://www.ighsau.org/IGHSAUwebsite/vbarchives.htm
  9. ↑ http://www.iahsaa.org/basketball/Archives/archives.html
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ http://www.ighsau.org/IGHSAUwebsite/bbhistory.htm
  12. ↑
  13. ↑
  14. ↑

External links

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