HOIC RESHUFFLES

Conference splits ties with Gilbert, N. Polk and adds W. Marshall

By BRANDON HURLEY

Sports Editor
sports@beeherald.com

@BrandonJHurley

The magic number sits at seven, at least for the time being.
The Heart of Iowa Conference is in a state of transition, yet again.
The mid-sized league will welcome a new addition this fall while saying goodbye to a pair of others, the fourth such shake up in the last 10 years.
Both Gilbert and North Polk left the Heart of Iowa Conference to join the Raccoon River Conference, which Greene County activities director Todd Gordon said is a better fit for their districts. The RRC is jam-packed with 3A schools, which includes ADM, Ballard, Bondurant-Farrar, Boone, Carlisle, Carroll, Perry, and Winterset.
The HOIC is now home to seven schools after adding West Marshall and bidding farewell to the out-sized duo mentioned above. The current conference schools include Greene County, Nevada, PCM, Roland-Story, Saydel, South Hamilton and West Marshall.
North Polk has quietly driven its enrollment numbers up over the years and is now currently the 72nd largest school in Iowa, grades 9-11 with 397 students. That places them just behind Carroll (397) and ADM (398) and ahead of Winterset (389) and Perry (388). Gilbert becomes the second-smallest school in the RRC with a 9-11 grade enrollment of 379, just a hair ahead of Ballard and 83rd largest population in the state.
Those rising enrollment concerns and a desire to produce full schedules for their freshman and middle school squads is why Gordon believes both North Polk and Gilbert fled to the Raccoon River Conference.
“It just comes down to the size of the school and being a competitive fit,” the Greene County AD said. “When a school leaves a conference, it comes down to the ability to fill their lower level schedules. We couldn’t always offer that, like with freshmen girls’ basketball.”
Greene County’s ninth through 11th enrollment of 272 kids entering the 2020-21 academic year places them as the 124th largest high school in the state while West Marshall sits tied at 137 with Des Moines Christian, toting 239 kids. West Marshall’s enrollment numbers place them only ahead of South Hamilton in the HOIC, who comes in at 179th with just 182 students.
West Marshall, located in State Center, arrives by way of the North Iowa Cedar League west division. They sport a checkered athletic background and will be a welcomed addition to the HOIC, Gordon said.
“I think they are a great fit size wise and they are competitive. (West Marshall) is going to be a very competitive school coming in” the local administrator said. “They’ve got a fantastic AD (David Shipley). I don’t know about the rest of their administrative team, but, by all accounts, they’re going to be great to work with. (They’ll) fit right in and I think it’s going to be a good fit all the way around.”
West Marshall sports a fairly successful wrestling past. The Trojans secured back-to-back individual titles in 2014 and 2016 thanks to Dale Hilleman. Kyle Blocker also won a state title in 2013, producing an undefeated senior campaign at 126 pounds.
West Marshall was a boys’ basketball power early in the 2010s. For a three year span from 2009-2012, the Trojans were a magnificent 65-9, reaching the substate final all three years. West Marshall last qualified for the state tournament in 2014 while they finished runner-up back in 1990.
The Trojans girls’ basketball team won 71 total games across a four-year span from 2014-18 which culminated with a state tournament trip in 2019. The West Marshall baseball team was nearly unstoppable during the summer of 2019, compiling a 27-6 record, including an undefeated 12-0 run through the NICL west division, which later led to an appearance in the Class 2A substate semifinals. The Trojans last qualified for the state tournament in 1999 while they finished runner-up back in 1992.
West Marshall holds the boys’ Class 1A state record in the 1,600-meter medley relay, finishing in a time of 3:32.4 back in 1994 while the Trojans won the team state title in 2012.
The HOIC’s shrinking membership has been a slight concern for several years now. The Heart of Iowa Conference was a 10-member league as recently as the 2014-15 academic year when Colfax-Mingo, Collins-Maxwell-Baxter joined Gilbert, North Polk and six others.
Grandview Park Baptist, which is now Grandview Christian, was a member of the HOIC back in 2011-2012.
C-M-B was a pivotal member in the HOIC until the 2017-18 academic year when the towns decided to end their sharing agreement, splitting into Collins-Maxwell High School and Baxter High School, thus, causing the pair to depart from Greene County’s conference.
Prior to the 2011-2012, the Heart of Iowa Conference was actually split into two divisions, large and small. Greene County (Jefferson-Scranton) was a member of the large HOIC division which included six teams in all: PCM, North Polk, Gilbert, Bondurant-Farrar and Nevada. The small division was comprised of schools from Grandview Park Baptist, Ogden, Roland-Story, South Hamilton, Colfax-Mingo and Baxter.
Though the HOIC stands as a seven-member league, Gordon said he and the other schools in place would like to see the pool jump up to at least eight. Van Meter, a member of the West Central Activities Conference, was at one point rumored as a possible get as was Des Moines Christian out of Urbandale, though that was a little more of a stretch. Conference re-structuring relies on a number of factors, with geography and feasibility as the top priority. The conference is essentially governed by the member schools and their activities directors. Either they will approach a potential candidate as a group, or a new school inquires about joining them. There’s no real, perfect process in place. While Gordon admits the HOIC would welcome a new school into the mix and push membership to eight, the timing has to be correct.
“I think you have to be proactive. The short answer would be yes (we’d like another school). We’re always going to be looking and seeing how we can get off of seven (teams),” Gordon said. “Seven is not a bad number, but eight may be a better number to have. We’ll continue to look for an eighth, but it has to be a good fit geography wise. Right now, we’re pretty spread out.”
West Marshall is the furthest team to the east of Greene County, just a few miles shy of Marshalltown, a little over an hour drive along Highway 30 though PCM, located in Monroe, is quite the trek of an one hour and 40 minutes, one way. South Hamilton is a bit northeast of everyone in Jewell while Saydel is down south in Des Moines. Roland-Story, located in Story City, and South Hamilton are the two closet schools, separated by less than 20 miles. Gordon said it makes little sense to add another team out east. The conference wants to centralize the league a little more, but it may take a bit.  
For now, the HOIC will operate as a seven-member conference and enjoy the fruits of a competitive district.

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