Mason City applies to join NEIC, Oelwein considers leaving

By Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com

And James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Northeast Iowa Conference for high school athletics hasn’t changed a bit in more than 50 years, but that may soon change for two reasons.

First, Mason City has formally applied to become a member, and second, Oelwein, one of the NEIC’s founding members, is considering leaving the conference for the North Iowa Cedar League.

Add the two together, and in a couple of years, the NEIC could be a vastly different animal than it is today.

Charles City Superintendent Mike Fisher said at a school board work session earlier in December that Mason City’s application would be discussed at a future meeting. Fisher did not say whether he had decided to recommend the addition to the NEIC.

“As a school district that has a core value of being invitational, we always welcome the conversation for new opportunities,” Fisher told the Press Monday. “We realize there will be quite a bit of discussion and deliberation that will be part of any future decisions. We are looking forward to the dialogue with the rest of the conference and Mason City.”

Charles City was one of the founding member schools of the NEIC in 1920, along with Decorah, New Hampton, Oelwein, Cresco and Waverly. Charles City left the conference in 1939, then rejoined during the 1946-47 school year, and has been a member since then.

Among NEIC schools, Charles City is currently the district located the closest to Mason City. A handful of Charles City varsity swimmers have participated with Mason City’s swim team since 2016, when the pool at the old Charles City Middle School was shut down.

“Charles City Community Schools is invitational to all students, schools and teams,” the school district announced in a statement Monday. “We wish the Mason City Community School District the best in determining which conference is the best fit for them.”

New Hampton Superintendent Jay Jurrens said, “We’re going to have some decisions to make. I’ve said all along the perfect conference size is eight. Seven’s not great, but six makes it really tough.”

Jurrens admits that while he hasn’t made a decision on how he’ll recommend New Hampton should vote on Mason City’s applications, he has qualms about inviting the Mohawks to join the league.

The current NEIC schools have BEDS (Basic Educational Data Survey) enrollment — which the state associations use to “class” each postseason support — ranging from New Hampton’s 231 to Waverly-Shell Rock’s 521. Mason City’s BEDS enrollment, the previous year’s number of students in grades 9-11, is 810. Charles City’s enrollment number is 394, less than half the size of Mason City.

Mason City, meanwhile, is looking to make a move because it currently is “isolated” in the Central Iowa Metropolitan League (CIML) and its activities director, Barry Anderson, said the district would like to cut down on both travel time and expenses.

“Four schools are within an hour and 25 minutes of Mason City,” Anderson told KGLO-AM radio, “and three are under an hour. When you look at what we’re currently driving, two hours, two hours-plus every time we go down to Des Moines, that wears on kids and it lends itself to a much larger travel budget. By reducing that cost, it could be close to a 50 percent reduction in transportation costs, would definitely help out our budgets.”

In that interview, Anderson said Mason City already plays a number of the current NEIC schools in multiple sports; in fact, a review of league schedules show only Waukon and Oelwein do not have the Mohawks on any of their 2019-20 sports schedules.

“I think the sheer size is a concern,” Jurrens said, “but again, we are a long way from making a decision. My guess is that we’ll discuss it as superintendents in January and bring it to our boards in February.”

The one sport that would not come into play is football because the state uses “classed” districts which, as of now, are based purely on enrollment. And Mason City officials also like the fact that while the NEIC is most known for athletics, it also sponsors a music festival and a leadership conference each year.

NEIC bylaws state that new members must be approved by a “majority plus one,” which means five of the current seven member schools need to say yes for Mason City to become a conference member.

One issue conference members may have to consider is what happens if the Oelwein departure rumors become a reality.

“For some sports, that’s going to be tough,” Jurrens said, “just because of the number of non-conference games you have to try to find.”

A six-team league in sports like basketball provides only 10 conference games, which means more than half the schedule has to be filled by non-conference games.

And with the number of so-called “super conferences” that have cropped up in recent years, that could be tricky.

In the Top of Iowa Conference, for example, schools play 16 division games and three “crossover” games, leaving just two non-conference dates to fill. The NICL could be an 18-team conference when all is said and done.

“Whatever happens, there are going to be some changes coming down the road with conferences in the state,” Jurrens said, “and I don’t think we’re going to be immune from them. You have schools moving up in size [in the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor] areas, and so I certainly understand where Mason City is coming from. They’re out on an island in northern Iowa, but are they too big for us? That’s the question we have to answer.”

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Northeast Iowa Conference Enrollment

Here is the number of students in grades 9-11 who were enrolled at Northeast Iowa Conference schools in 2018-19, which is what the state’s two athletic associations use to determine how schools are placed in “classes” for postseason tournaments.
Charles City 394
Crestwood 279
Decorah 454
New Hampton 231
Oelwein 261
Waukon 276
Waverly-Shell Rock 521
Mason City 810
SOURCE: Iowa High School Athletic Association

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Northeast Iowa Conference History

During the 1920-21 school year, Charles City, Decorah, New Hampton, Oelwein, Cresco and Waverly formed the Northeast Iowa Conference, making it one of the oldest active conferences in the state. Here’s a brief history of the conference:
Early 1920s: Waukon, Nashua and West Union join; Oelwein and Waverly leave.
1931-32: Oelwein rejoins.
1933-34: Waverly rejoins.
1939-40: Charles City, Waukon, Nashua and West Union leave.
1946-47: Charles City rejoins.
1949-50: Cedar Falls joins.
1958-59: Osage leaves for the North Iowa Conference.
1961-62: Cedar Falls departs for the Big Eight Conference.
1968-69: Waukon leaves the Upper Iowa Conference and rejoins.
New Hampton, Decorah and what is now Crestwood are the only three current members who have remained in the NEIC for its entire history.
SOURCE: Iowa High School Athletic Association