Missouri River Conference
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The Missouri River Activities Conference (also called MRAC) is a high school athletic and activities conference whose members are located in either the Sioux City Metropolitan Area or the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area, both located along the Missouri River on the border of western
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 ...
, United States.


Member schools

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 is divided into classes (from largest to smallest) 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A (A, and 8-player are also included for football only) while the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union is divided into classes (from largest to smallest) 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A. Five of the eight members of the MRAC conference are part of the largest class for boy boys and girls athletics; the exceptions - Bishop Heelan Catholic, Le Mars Community, and Sergeant-Bluff Luton, are part of Class 3A for boys and either class 4A or 3A for girls athletics.


History

For most of their athletics histories, the schools of the Missouri River Activities Conference were in other conferences. Beginning in the early 1970s, Sioux City schools began to compete with schools in
Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls ( ) is the List of cities in South Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the List of United States cities by population, 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha Coun ...
, as a members of the boys-only Sioux Interstate Conference. In the late 1970s, the Sioux Delta Conference was formed between the Sioux City schools, LeMars Community, and Hull Western Christian to facilitate girls' athletic competition. A separate intrastate conference was necessary because the South Dakota High School Athletic Association conducted its girls' basketball tournament in the fall and volleyball tournament in the winter, opposite of many bordering states. From the 1920s to the 1950s C.B. Abraham Lincoln and Sioux City East competed with three Omaha high schools ( Central, South and Tech) and Lincoln High in the Missouri Valley Conference. Sioux City Central, which closed in 1975, was also a member. In spring 1997, the South Dakota High School Activities Association effectively closed its borders to interstate athletic competition, forcing the dissolution of the Sioux Interstate Conference. The Sioux Delta Conference also dissolved that spring as both LeMars Community and Hull Western Christian had by this time found homes in the Lakes Conference, leaving the four Sioux City schools out in the cold. The Council Bluffs schools, meanwhile, were once part of the Omaha metro league which included numerous schools in Nebraska. After bowing out of the Omaha metro league, the two schools became charter members of the River Cities Conference, a league that included Nebraska schools such as Beatrice, Ralston, South Sioux City, Omaha Gross, Omaha Roncalli, and Omaha Skutt. With few options due to their size as 4A football schools, the Sioux City schools and Heelan sought out and were denied membership in both the Central Iowa Metro League and the River Cities Conference. Undaunted, the schools petitioned the Iowa Department of Education for placement in an athletic conference. As a result of those proceedings, the Missouri River Conference was formed to meet the needs of the Sioux City schools, pulling the Council Bluffs schools out of the River Cities Conference to complete the six-school lineup. In 2010, Sergeant Bluff-Luton, a founding member of the War Eagle Conference in 1979, began competing as the league's seventh school. LeMars Community announced in February 2018 that it would be joining the conference as the eighth member for the 2019–2020 academic year, leaving the Lakes Conference. Lewis Central and Glenwood were also invited, but declined, opting to continue competing in the Hawkeye Ten Conference.


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,
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) ...
.


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