The Lakes Conference is a

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

whose members are located in mid-sized cities in northwest

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 ...

. Most of the schools are located in their respective county seats.

Member schools

The conference's current lineup consists of five schools 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 The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) is the regulating body for male Iowa high school interscholastic athletics and is a full member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. Its female counterpart, the Iowa Gir ...

is divided into classes (from largest to smallest) 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, A, and 8-player for football while the

Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) is the governing body for girls' junior and senior high school sports in the U.S. state of Iowa. The association promotes and regulates interscholastic sports among its member schools. Though it ...

is divided into classes 1A (smallest schools) to 5A (largest schools).

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, 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,

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, 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' 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) ...

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. 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. Estherville also merged with Lincoln Central High School in the mid-1990s to form Estherville–Lincoln Central High School. For the 1993–94 academic year, LeMars was added to the conference lineup. Hull Western Christian joined the Lakes in 1997–98. 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. The Lakes Conference sponsored football for over 50 years before the

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. Though all the schools currently compete in either classes 2A or 3A, most were once in the highest level of classification for the

. 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 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. Cherokee is solidly in class 2A and is not expected to change classes any time soon.

Recent conference membership changes

In 2009–10, Sheldon left the conference to join the

Siouxland Conference The Siouxland Conference is a ten team high school athletic conference in the northwest corner of Iowa. Historically it consisted of schools ranging from the smallest class (1A) to the third largest class (3A), although all member schools curre ...

. Sheldon officials cited travel distances as the reason for making the jump, as five schools from the Siouxland Conference are closer to Sheldon than the second-closest Lakes Conference school. In 2017

Emmetsburg Emmetsburg is a city in Palo Alto County, Iowa, Palo Alto County, Iowa, United States. The population was 3,706 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Palo Alto County. Emmetsburg is located around th ...

, a founding member of the Lakes Conference, left the conference to join the

Twin Lakes Conference The Twin Lakes Conference is an athletic conference in 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 ...

. Emmetsburg officials cited school size comparisons and a lack of ability to compete successfully in the Lakes Conference as the two main reasons for the switch. In March 2018, Le Mars Community announced that it would be leaving the Lakes Conference to join the Missouri River Activities Conference. Le Mars officials explained that they chose to leave due to the instability of the Lakes Conference, disparity of the sizes of schools in the Lakes Conference, and a lack of consistent high-caliber competition from top to bottom in the conference on a yearly basis. Le Mars Community participated in Lakes Conference competition for the 2018–19 school year before leaving for the Missouri River Activities Conference for the 2019–20 school year. Lakes Conference officials have said that they are working to find other schools to bring the conference back up to seven, eight, or even more members. However, until this happens, the conference will temporarily run as a six-school conference. If no school will agree to join the conference after Le Mars's departure, conference officials will meet to discuss future options, including continuing with six teams or disbanding the conference. On February 15, 2021,

Western Christian Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic Ch ...

announced it would be leaving the conference following the 2021-2022 school year. The school noted it was operating as a geographical outlier, and that distance to the other schools was expensive. The school did not specify which conference it would be joining, it did mention that it was interesting in competing more locally. The school has attempted to join the

, and was denied membership. It will remain independent of conference affiliation for the time being. On December 17 2024 The Siouxland Conference extendend invitations to

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, Estherville–Lincoln Central, Spencer and Storm Lake to join starting with the 2026-27 academic year. The Siouxland Conference officially announced on January 8, 2025 that these schools will officially join the conference on August 1, 2026 along with Spirit Lake and former Lakes Conference member

to form a 16-school superconference.

State tournament success

The Lakes Conference has a very successful history in the state tournaments for various sports.

Football

Spencer: State champions: 1994 Spirit Lake: State champions: 2012, 2015 Western Christian: State champions: 2016

Volleyball

Western Christian State champions: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2016

Boys basketball

Western Christian State championships: 1985, 1991, 1996, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021 Estherville: State championships: 1987 Storm Lake: State championships: 1968, 1980

Girls basketball

Six-on-six: Estherville: State champions: 1982 Five-on-five: Western Christian: State champions: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 Estherville-Lincoln Central: State champions: 2022

Boys soccer

Spencer: State champions: 2009

Baseball

Cherokee: State champions: 2007 Spencer: State champions: 1991, 1997

Softball

Spirit Lake State champions: 2004

References

External links

Official site
{{Iowa High School Athletic Conferences High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States High school sports in Iowa