The Iowa Alliance Conference is a high school athletic conference whose members are mostly located in the metropolitan areas of central

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, with five of the schools being from the Des Moines Independent Community School District. The conference includes 11 schools and is divided into 2 divisions: North and South. 10 of the 11 schools are formerly of the Central Iowa Metro League.

Member schools

History

On March 1, 2021, ten high schools made the announcement to leave the Central Iowa Metro League (CIML) and form a new conference. These schools include Ames, Fort Dodge, Marshalltown, Mason City, and Ottumwa, as well as the five public Des Moines schools (East, Hoover, Lincoln, North, and Roosevelt). The schools left the CIML in the spring of 2021 to create a new conference. The withdrawal is due to a low percentage in wins from the non-suburban schools in the conference. The new conference was announced on November 19, 2021, and included

Waterloo East High School Waterloo East High School in Waterloo, Iowa, United States is a state school, public high school consisting of approximately 1000 students in grades 9–12. It is a part of the Waterloo Community School District. History The school was foun ...

, joining from the

Mississippi Valley Conference (Iowa) The Mississippi Valley Conference (also called MVC) is a high-school athletic conference whose members are located in the metropolitan areas of eastern region of the U.S. state of Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Iowa, ...

. Due to the size of the schools and proximity, games will still be routinely scheduled with the members whom remained in the CIML, while allowing scheduling with other schools they did not have space in their schedule for. Mason City dropped the mascot "Mohawks" in November 2021, citing an effort to rid the district of a symbol that exploited Native American tribal imagery. The

Meskwaki The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...

and

Akwesasne The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne ( ; ; ) is a Mohawk Nation (''Kanienʼkehá:ka'') territory that straddles the intersection of international (United States and Canada) borders and provincial (Ontario and Quebec) boundaries on both banks of the St ...

Nations had voiced objections to the mascot. On March 22, 2022, it was revealed the new mascot for Mason City would be the "River Hawks". The name was chosen by vote over "Majors" and "Monarchs", which were narrowed down from over 300 submissions.

Sports

The conference offers the following sports: * Fall —

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, boys' cross-country, girls' cross-country, boys'

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

and girls'

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

. * Winter — Boys'

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, girls' basketball,

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

and boys' swimming. * Spring — Boys'

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, girls' track and field, boys'

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, girls' soccer, boys'

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, girls' tennis and girls' golf. * Summer —

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

. All the member schools field a varsity

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team, however it is not sponsored by any conference in Iowa. Football is played in a separate classification system, and competition is organized by districts. Although the member schools field freshman — and in some cases, junior varsity — teams in many of the above-mentioned sports, conference championships are determined at sophomore and varsity levels only.

References

{{Iowa High School Athletic Conferences High school sports in Iowa High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States Sports leagues established in 2021 2021 establishments in Iowa