Charles City School to join North Central Conference

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Charles City School District sports and other activities will have a new conference home beginning with the 2025-26 school year, it was announced this week.

Charles City Superintendent Dr. Brian Burnight announced that a mediation effort requested by the Charles City Community School District resulted in a decision to allow Charles City to join the North Central Conference (NCC) beginning in the 2025-26 school year.

The Comets will be a non-voting member for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years, participating in as many conference athletic and other activities as possible those two years, then as a full conference member after that.

The current eight members of the NCC are Algona, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Clear Lake, Fort Dodge St. Edmond, Hampton-Dumont/CAL, Humboldt, Iowa Falls-Alden and Webster City.

Charles City had requested to join the NCC after it became apparent that its current conference, the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC), would have too few members to continue. The NCC member schools voted 6-2 to accept Charles City, however the NCC bylaws say that no more than one school can vote against admitting a new school for it to pass.

Charles City requested state mediation of the decision, which was held with with the Iowa Board of Education, Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union on Wednesday, July 7. The group’s decision was announced Tuesday, July 23.

After the mediation, a transition plan was developed by the executive board of the NCC to integrate Charles City into the conference, Burnight said.

“The North Central Conference, known for its rich history and competitive spirit, includes schools across our region,” Burnight said. “By becoming a non-voting member, Charles City CSD will be able to slowly integrate into the NCC. This will help strengthen our collective activity and athletic programs and provide enhanced opportunities for our student-athletes.

“This move reflects our commitment to fostering excellence in both academics and athletics within our districts,” he said.

There will be no change in conference alignments for the upcoming 2024-25 school year, Burnight said.

“During the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years, Charles City CSD will participate in conference events and activities to the greatest extent possible,” he said. “Starting with the 2027-28 school year, Charles City will be a full member of the NCC and play a full conference schedule in all conference sports.”

According to the transition plan, Charles City will participate in the conference during the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years in all sports except volleyball, girls basketball, boys basketball, softball, and baseball. During these two school years, Charles City will be eligible for conference championships for activities and sports in which they are full participants.

Burnight said Charles City wanted to enter the conference immediately as a full member, but there was some concern from the two smallest schools in the conference, Fort Dodge St. Edmond and Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, about competing against the larger Charles City.

He said they agreed to admit the Comets under the plan to start off as a non-voting member.

During those two years, the five Charles City teams – volleyball, girls basketball, boys basketball, softball, and baseball – will likely play the NCC’s six larger schools and some of the other schools Charles City has traditionally played against. Although those Charles City teams wouldn’t be eligible to win a conference title during those two years, it would have no impact on post-season play, Burnight said.

“The hope is to continue to grow the conference,” he said. If that is possible the NCC could eventually be split into a large school division and a smaller school division.

The move to change conferences was prompted by developments in the NEIC over the past several years.

The NEIC was formed in 1920 and was one of the oldest high school conferences in the state. It has had seven members since the 1960s – Charles City, New Hampton, Crestwood, Decorah, Waukon, Waverly-Shell Rock and Oelwein.

Oelwein left in 2021 to join the North Cedar League, leaving six schools in the NEIC.

Five of the schools in the conference voted to have Waverly-Shell Rock leave because it had grown much larger than the other conference members, and under mediation it was agreed Waverly-Shell Rock would voluntarily leave the NEIC after last school year, dropping the number of schools in the conference to five – the minimum allowed to form a conference in Iowa.

Crestwood announced that it is leaving the NEIC to join the Upper Iowa Conference in the 2025-26 school year, then New Hampton and Waukon announced they were also joining the UIC.

“The NCC and Charles City are excited that we have come to an agreement that provides the best outcomes for all school districts involved in this process,”  Burnight said. “With the NCC celebrating 100 years as a conference this year, we are proud to bring more stability to one of Iowa’s oldest conferences.”