I thought it would be nice to try and squeeze in at least one 2A grouping of teams before the new year, so I put together a capsule for the District One teams.  Just to remind you, we are looking at the records of every team from 2000-2009.  Let’s look at the numbers, shall we?

Overall Regular Season Record:

Central Lyon/George-Little Rock 67-23 (three undefeated seasons)

Sioux Center 55-35

Rock Valley/Boyden-Hull 49-23 in 2A (one undefeated season) 12-6 in 3A…61-29 total

Sheldon 37-35 in 2A (one undefeated season) 11-7 in 3A…48-42 total

Sibley-Ocheyedan 24-66

Unity Christian, Orange City 17-19

Western Christian, Hull 17-37

Spirit Lake 3-15 in 2A, 12-60 in 3A…15-75 total

Central Lyon being way out front is not that big of a surprise, but Sioux Center only being 12 games behind them is.  That’s sneaky good.  Rock Valley/Boyden-Hull has won their last 12 regular season games.  A couple of teams dabbled in 3A, but Spirit Lake predominately resided there, having only been a 2A team these last two seasons.  As you can see, the move hasn’t benefitted them yet.  Western Christian has only fielded a team for six seasons, and Unity Christian for four, but they both have an eight-win season under their belt.  What about district play?  Here you go…

Overall District Record:

Central Lyon/GLR 60-10 (six undefeated district seasons)

Rock Valley/Boyden-Hull 41-15 in 2A (one undefeated district season) 9-5 in 3A (one undefeated district season)…50-20 total

Sioux Center 39-31

Sheldon 28-28 in 2A (one undefeated district season) 7-7 in 3A…35-35 total

Sibley-Ocheyedan 16-54

Unity Christian 12-16

Western Christian 12-30

Spirit Lake 3-11 in 2A, 6-50 in 3A…9-61 total

Again, Central Lyon was outstanding.  Sheldon being right at .500 is a little odd.  I thought they would be better than that.  Sioux Center is sneaky again, with a 16-4 non-district record for the decade.  RV/BH has a 10-game district win streak heading into next season.  Here are the postseason totals…

Postseason/Playoff Record:

Substate record, playoff record, years qualified

Central Lyon/GLR 1-0, 12-6, 7 (three semifinals, three finals, ONE TITLE (2006)

Rock Valley/Boyden-Hull 2-0, 3-5, 5 in 2A (one semifinal, one final) x-x, 0-1, 1 in 3A

Sheldon 1-0, 3-2, 2 (one semifinal, one final)

Western Christian 1-1, 1-1, 1

Unity Christian 1-0, 0-1, 1

Sioux Center 0-1, 0-1, 1

This group of teams has had a team in the 2A Finals each of the last five seasons!  Not bad.  Central Lyon won it all in 2006 and finished second in 2007 and 2008.  Sioux Center baffles yet again.  With all those regular season wins, you’d expect more than just the one playoff appearance.  They had two 7-2 seasons and two 6-3 seasons in which they failed to qualify for the playoffs, and lost their only playoff game of the decade in 2001.  Well, one district down, seven more to go for 2A.  Should be fun.      

Since we have some extra time today, why don’t we just put 3A to bed by finishing up with District Eight?  Fittingly, here we find Harlan, the premier football powerhouse in all of Iowa.  We’ve talked about the history, the titles, the mystique, etc…It goes way back, but in just the last decade alone they’ve put up numbers that distance themselves from the pack.  Let’s see how Bladt’s Boys’ have done, and how the other seven teams have fared as well…

Overall Regular Season Record:

Harlan 85-4 (six undefeated seasons)

Creston 52-39 (one undefeated season)

Atlantic 50-40 (one undefeated season)

ADM 39-51

Winterset 39-51

Council Bluffs Lewis Central 36-35 in 3A, 10-8 in 4A as an independent (2004-2005)

Glenwood 33-57

Clarke, Osceola 6-84

Harlan’s six undefeated seasons were joined by four one-loss seasons to make up their decade.  I have them at 7-1 in 2001, so they are one game short of 90 for the decade.  CB Lewis also played only eight games in 2001, so they are short as well.  Creston played ten games in 2000, so they have one more than the norm.  Glenwood started the decade with a 2-7 record then posted 3-6 records every year except 2003 when they went 4-5. That’s seven out of eight seasons with the same record until putting together a 6-3 mark this past season.  Harlan is riding a 14-game overall win streak after winning the 3A title this past season in the last high school game played in the decade.  They also have a 16-game regular season streak in progress.  Let’s see what the district numbers tell us…

Overall District Record:

Harlan 66-3 (seven undefeated district seasons)

Creston 40-29 (one undefeated district season)

Atlantic 39-30 (one undefeated district season)

ADM 35-35

Winterset 35-35

CB Lewis 28-28

Glenwood 26-43

Clarke 4-66

Ok, 66-3 is just stupid good.  They only played six in 2004, or it would be 67-3!  The last time Harlan lost a district game was 2002 to Atlantic, the eventual 3A State Champions led by Bret Meyer.  Their only regular season loss since then was in 2008 to Sioux City Heelan, the eventual 3A State Champions led by Brandon Wegher.  You must be very, very good to defeat Harlan…Look at ADM and Winterset.  Same overall record, same district record, and they both went 4-16 in non-district games.  These rivals were right together for the decade.  Clarke has only won two district games since 2000.  Harlan has won 49 in a row.  Their 19-1 non-district decade record isn’t shabby, either.  Let’s go to the postseason info now…

Overall Postseason/Playoff Record:

Substate record, playoff record, years qualified

Harlan 2-0, 26-6, 10 (six semifinals, six finals, FOUR TITLES (2003, 2004, 2005, 2009)

Atlantic 0-1, 4-0, 1 (one semifinal, one final, ONE TITLE (2002)

Creston 0-1, 2-4, 4

ADM 1-1, 0-2, 2

Glenwood 0-1

CB Lewis 0-1

Only four of these teams have made the playoffs, and only three of them have won a playoff game, but Atlantic and Harlan have titles.  Atlantic had that magical season and a 13-0 Championship team that went through Harlan to earn it.  They also went for two at the end of the game to win 15-14 in the quarters against a superb Pella team at Pella after trailing the whole game…But what can you say about Harlan and what they’ve accomplished?  They have been unbelievably good seemingly forever and Curt Bladt has been at the helm for 11 of their 12 titles and all eight of their 2^nd place finishes.  He’s coached in 29 playoffs and been in the finals in 19 of them!  Since 1980, they have only missed ONE playoff, back in 1994.  And on, and on, and on…In the four seasons of this past decade that Harlan did not reach the finals, they lost in the quarters.  So, they won at least one playoff game every year of the decade.  That’s it for 3A.  We will start on 2A next.              

District Seven is up next.  Here are the numbers for the decade…

Overall Regular Season Record:

Carroll 67-23 (two undefeated seasons)

Boone 61-29

Dallas Center-Grimes 56-34

Ballard 55-18 in 3A, 10-8 in 2A…65-26 total

Jefferson-Scranton-Paton-Churdan 30-42 in 3A, 17-1 in 2A (one undefeated season)…47-43 total

Perry 27-63

Nevada 16-74

Saydel 6-84

Ballard had a ten-game schedule in 2006, so they have one extra game than the other schools.  The top teams here have been consistent.  Boone, Carroll and Ballard all had only one losing season in the decade, while DC-G only had three.  JSPC was decent, but between the bottom three schools, Perry’s 8-1 record in 2002 was the only winning season.  Carroll is currently riding an 18-game regular season win streak, while Nevada is muddling through a 15-game regular season losing skid…

Overall District Record:

Carroll 51-18 (three undefeated district seasons)

Boone 51-19 (one undefeated district season)

Dallas Center-Grimes 44-26

Ballard 41-15 in 3A, 7-7 in 2A…48-22 total

JSPC 24-31 in 3A, 13-1 in 2A (one undefeated district season in 2A)…37-32 total

Perry 20-50

Nevada 14-56

Saydel 6-64

Carroll and JSPC each had only six district games in 2004, making their totals one less than the other schools.  JSPC enjoyed their temporary move to 2A for 2006 and 2007.  After posting a 2-7 record in 2005, which included a dismal 0-7 district record, they went 9-0 in 2006 and 8-1 in 2007, with 7-0 and 6-1 district records.  Carroll has won 14 district contests in a row, and Nevada has lost 13 straight.  Carroll also posted a 16-5 non-district record for the decade, while Ballard was 14-3 in 3A and 3-1 in 2A for a 17-4 total.  On the flip-side, Saydel went without a non-district win all decade.  0-20…Ouch.  Let’s go to the postseason/playoff numbers…

Overall Postseason/Playoff Record:

Substate record, playoff record, years qualified

Carroll 2-0, 3-6, 6 (one semifinal)

Boone 0-1, 1-5, 5

JSPC 1-0, 0-3, 3 in 3A, x-x, 2-2, 2 in 2A (one semifinal in 2A)

Ballard 1-1, 0-2, 2 in 3A, x-x, 0-1, 1 in 2A

DC-G 0-2, 0-2, 2

Perry x-x, 0-1, 1

Only four playoff wins in 3A between all of these teams and two wins by JSPC in 2A.  Not exactly impressive.  As good as some of these schools have been, that is kind of hard to believe.  Take away Carroll’s semifinal team from this past season, and it’s downright ugly.  Oddly, Ballard went 7-2 in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and did not qualify for the playoffs.  They also went 6-3 in 2005, again failing to qualify.  DC-G had two 7-2 seasons and three 6-3 seasons where they did not qualify.  Wrong place, right time.    

Merrily we go, traipsing through the 3A records for the decade.  A Christmas Eve gift of the teams from District Six from the last two seasons.  Here are the numbers for 2000-2009…

Overall Regular Season Record:

Grinnell 71-19 (three undefeated seasons)

Pella 68-22 (two undefeated seasons)

Chariton 47-25 in 3A (two undefeated seasons) 15-3 in 2A…62-28 total

Centerville 47-41 (one undefeated season)

South Tama 41-49 (one undefeated season)

Knoxville 40-49

Norwalk 38-52

Carlisle 29-25 in 3A, 26-10 in 2A…55-35 total

Centerville had a game cancelled in 2004 and played in a short-handed district in 2000, so they played two less games than the norm for the decade.  Knoxville, as far as I can prove, played only eight games in 2001.  I have no idea why or if that is a mistake.  They had a full district schedule, but must have dropped a non-district matchup…?  Anyway, as you can see, these teams fared well for the decade.  Good numbers and a lot of balance without any teams having horrible records.  Five teams had at least one undefeated season, and that’s not bad.  Oddity alert:  South Tama has had a very strange run the last five seasons.  After back-to-back 1-8 seasons in 2005 and 2006, the Trojans put together a 9-0 season in 2007.  They finished 11-1 after running into James Vandenberg and Keokuk in the 3A semifinal, but played them better than Heelan did in the final.  They had a very good team with serious talent.  Then, amazingly, South Tama went 0-9 in 2008 and 1-8 this past season.  Talk about an isolated group of seniors coming together out of the blue for that ‘magical’ season…Just bizarre.  Let’s look at the district numbers…

Overall District Record:

Grinnell 53-17 (thee undefeated district seasons)

Pella 53-17 (two undefeated district seasons)

Chariton 39-17 in 3A (three undefeated district seasons) 12-2 in 2A (one undefeated district season)…51-19 overall

Centerville 34-34 (one undefeated district season)

South Tama 32-38 (one undefeated district season)

Norwalk 28-42

Knoxville 28-42

Carlisle 19-23 in 3A, 19-9 in 2A…38-32 overall

Grinnell and Pella have had a great rivalry this past decade, and they both enjoyed great success.  Three games separated them overall, and they were even in district play.  Carlisle and Chariton have both had success after making the jump to 3A during the decade, but the Chargers have fared better overall, while Carlisle would probably have been better off remaining in 2A.  However, their 2007 squad was one of the best they have ever fielded in a very tough season for 3A.  Grinnell posted a great 18-2 non-district record and Carlisle went 17-3, with a 10-2 record in 3A and a 7-1 tally in 2A play.  Let’s check the postseason numbers…

Postseason/Playoff Record:

Substate record, playoff record, number of appearances

Pella 2-0, 9-7, 7 (three semifinals, one final)

Grinnell 1-1, 7-5, 5 (three semifinals)

South Tama x-x, 3-3, 3 (one semifinal)

Chariton x-x, 3-3, 3 in 3A & x-x, 0-2, 2 in 2A

Carlisle 0-1, 2-1, 1 in 3A (one semifinal) & x-x, 1-2, 2 in 2A

Centerville 2-0, 1-2, 2

Norwalk 0-1

Four teams here have reached the semis in the UNI-Dome, with the 2009 Pella team making it all the way to the finals before losing to Harlan.  Pella and Grinnell again lead the way with the most success.  Of the three semifinals Grinnell participated in, the 2000 game against Harlan was the wildest.  They lost 56-55 in four overtimes, and then Harlan lost to Clear Lake for the title in three overtimes, 23-20.  Pella finished fourth in District Six this past Fall, qualifying for the Substate round with a week nine win that saved them.  Then they made it all the way to the final game.  They may have lost that final game, but they had an amazing run to get there.  Their 35-14 setback to Harlan was the last high school game of the decade played in Iowa.      

Time for more 3A football teams.  Today we look at the teams that made up District Five the last two seasons and their records for the decade.  Here are the numbers for 2000-2009…

Overall Regular Season Record:

Fairfield 59-29

Mount Pleasant 58-31 (one undefeated season)

Oskaloosa 50-40

Washington 48-41

Williamsburg 40-14 in 3A (one undefeated season) 31-5 in 2A (two undefeated seasons)

Keokuk 38-51

Clear Creek-Amana 27-45 in 3A, 7-11 in 2A

Fort Madison 22-67

Ok, first off you might notice the total numbers are a little strange.  Five of the teams were in a short-handed district in 2000 and ended up only playing eight games instead of nine.  Also, Fairfield, which was one of those teams, had a 2004 game cancelled.  Odd numbers aside, there’s not much to talk about here except for the fact that Williamsburg has done really well since moving up to 3A and they were doing great in 2A.  71-19 is their total for the decade, and any total over 70 is ICS-approved as “elite”.  On to the district numbers…

Overall District Record:

Fairfield 46-22 (one undefeated district season)

Mount Pleasant 46-23 (one undefeated district season)

Oskaloosa 43-27 (two undefeated district seasons)

Washington 40-29

Williamsburg 32-10 in 3A (two undefeated district seasons) 26-2 in 2A (two undefeated district seasons)

Keokuk 27-42

Clear Creek-Amana 19-37 in 3A, 5-9 in 2A

Fort Madison 18-51

Again, Fairfield is on top, but when you factor in Williamsburg’s 2A numbers, the Red Raiders fared much better for the decade.  58-12 is a solid district tally, and their 26-2 district total in 2A play is fantastic.  Both teams were 13-7 in non-district play. 

Playoff/Postseason Record:

Substate record, playoff record, number of appearances

Keokuk x-x, 4-2, 3 (one semifinal, one final, ONE TITLE 2007)

Williamsburg 1-1, 2-3, 3 in 3A (one semifinal) x-x, 4-4, 4 (one semifinal, one final)

Mount Pleasant 1-0, 2-3, 3

Fairfield 0-1, 2-5, 5 (one semifinal)

Washington 0-1, 1-2, 2

Oskaloosa 0-1, 1-3, 3

Clear Creek-Amana 1-1, 0-1, 1

Keokuk has had a lackluster overall decade, but they broke through in 2007 to win it all with a very talented team.  Williamsburg had a tremendous team in 2002 that lost a thriller to Emmetsburg in the 2A final, and they reached the semis in 3A in 2005.  Fairfield has qualified five times, reaching the semis in 2004.  Not a lot of playoff wins, but a couple of really nice teams that were on our immediate radar at ICS.  This grouping of teams also brought us some of our favorite players of the decade for 3A.  Keokuk’s James Vandenberg was as fine of a quarterback that I have personally seen in high school football.  He wasn’t a one-man team, but he carried them to a title and made others better.  Williamsburg’s Dustin Baethke was the leader of that 2002 team and one of the absolute best running backs in the entire state for the decade.  You can add ‘ever’ to that sentence, for that matter.  Also, Osky didn’t have a great decade, but they had Tyler Sash, who could do it all.    

Why not try and squeeze another group of schools in before the weekend?  I thought it was a good idea as well.  Today we look at the teams that made up 3A District Four the last two seasons and their performance over the last decade.  Let’s go straight to the numbers…

Overall Regular Season Records:

Marion 72-18 (two undefeated seasons)

Benton, Van Horne 54-36

Central Clinton, DeWitt 53-37 (one undefeated season)

Maquoketa 41-49

Mount Vernon 38-34 in 3A, 17-1 in 2A (one undefeated season in 2A)

Vinton-Shellsburg 27-63

Union, LaPorte City 19-35 in 3A, 21-15 in 2A

Anamosa 12-42 in 3A, 11-25 in 2A

Very bland numbers here, really.  However, Marion had a nice decade with only seven losses over the last seven seasons.  The two seasons following Mount Vernon’s jump to 3A from 2A (2002, 2003) were their last great seasons, with a 16-2 record after going 17-1 in their last two 2A campaigns.  Let’s look at the district numbers…

Overall District Records:

Marion 53-17 (three undefeated district seasons)

Benton, Van Horne 42-28 (one undefeated district season)

Central Clinton, DeWitt 41-29 (two undefeated district seasons)

Mount Vernon 35-21 in 3A (one undefeated district season), 14-0 in 2A

Maquoketa 32-38

Vinton-Shellsburg 20-50

Union, LaPorte City 13-29 in 3A, 15-13 in 2A

Anamosa 9-33 in 3A, 11-17 in 2A

The reason for Marion’s nice overall record for the decade?  An outstanding non-district record of 19-1.  They did well in district play, but one non-district loss in ten years is nice.  Mount Vernon left 2A with two undefeated district seasons to start the decade.  Other 2A teams were quite happy about that.  Moving on to the postseason…

Postseason/Playoff Records:

Substate record, playoff record, years qualified

Mount Vernon x-x, 6-4, 4 (two semifinals, two finals) x-x, 2-2, 2 in 2A (one semifinal)

Central Clinton, DeWitt 0-1, 2-2, 2

Marion 1-1, 0-4, 4

Benton, Van Horne 0-1, 0-2, 2

Union, LaPorte City 1-1, 0-1, 1

Vinton-Shellsburg 0-1, 0-1, 1

Anamosa x-x, 0-1, 1

Maquoketa 0-1, x-x, 0

Hmmm.  Not exactly a hotbead of postseason success here.  Short of Mount Vernon’s early run, these teams have mostly missed out on postseason happiness.  Central Clinton, DeWitt won games in 2007 and 2003, and that’s it.  Marion has come up surprisingly short for as well as they have done in the regular season.  Jim Bellamy had four solid Mustang teams to start the decade though.  Mount Vernon was solid in 2A and then made two straight 3A finals in 2002 and 2003.  They are only 0-2 since.

Here we go again…More 3A football records for the decade.  This time we look at the teams that competed in District Three the past two seasons.  All eight schools remained in 3A for the entire decade, so there was no bouncing around.  Here are the numbers…

Overall Regular Season Records:

Decorah 64-26 (two undefeated seasons)

Manchester, West Delaware 61-29 (one undefeated season)

New Hampton 58-32

Epworth, Western Dubuque 49-41

Oelwein 48-42 (one undefeated season)

Crestwood, Cresco 47-43

Waukon 44-46

Independence 17-73

Nothing outstanding, but still, only two teams under .500, and Waukon was only one win away from breaking even.  On a down note, Indy hasn’t won since late 2006.

Overall District Records:

Decorah 49-21 (two undefeated district seasons)

New Hampton 48-22 (one undefeated district season)

Manchester, West Delaware 45-25 (one undefeated district season)

Oelwein 36-34 (one undefeated district season)

Epworth, Western Dubuque 36-34

Crestwood, Cresco 36-34

Waukon 32-38

Independence 10-60

Again, fairly similar records and only two schools under .500 for the decade.  Manchester, West Delaware posted a nice 16-4 non-district record for the decade, while Decorah clocked in at 15-5.  Let’s go to the postseason numbers and see how these teams fared…

Overall Postseason/Playoff Records:

Substate record, playoff record, years qualified

Decorah 2-0, 8-5, 5 (two semifinals, two finals)

Epworth, Western Dubuque x-x, 6-1, 2 (two semifinals, one final, one TITLE 2001)

Manchester, West Delaware 1-1, 3-3, 3 (one semifinal, one final)

New Hampton 2-0, 3-6, 6 (one semifinal)

Crestwood, Cresco 1-0, 1-1, 1

Oelwein 0-1, 1-2, 2

Waukon x-x, 1-2, 2

Well, not many total appearances, but look at the results…Four different finals, six semis and a state title between four different schools.  Outside of Dubuque, not many fans can name that 2001 Epworth title team in a discussion of champions, but they got it done.  West Delaware had a nice team that reached the finals in 2005, and Decorah has earned their place in Iowa history with their past success.  Good, solid football schools.  Here’s hoping Indy turns it around soon!

Here’s a little more 3A information about records for the decade.  This time, it’s the teams that made up District Two the past two seasons.  Here are their football records for 2000-2009…

Overall Regular Season Records:

Clear Lake 83-7 (six undefeated seasons)

Waverly-Shell Rock 46-44

Charles City 41-49

Algona 40-50

Webster City 33-57

Forest City 28-62

Hampton-Dumont 16-38 in 3A, 26-10 in 2A (two undefeated seasons in 2A)

Iowa Falls-Alden 15-21 in 3A, 7-11 in 2A, 20-16 in 2A as Iowa Falls only.  (Alden from 2000-2003 will be covered later in a section about consolidation/program sharing, etc.)

Looks like Clear Lake had a pretty nice decade.  Very impressive record.  They have also won their last 23 regular season games, tops in 3A.  Hampton-Dumont enjoyed their second stint of the decade in 2A when they dropped down in 2006 and 2007.  Two 9-0 seasons sandwiched in between seven sub-.500 seasons.  Let’s move on to the district records…

Overall District Records:

Clear Lake 66-4 (six undefeated district seasons)

Waverly-Shell Rock 37-33

Charles City 35-35

Algona 33-37

Webster City 28-42

Forest City 16-54

Hampton-Dumont 12-30 in 3A, 20-8 in 2A (two undefeated district seasons in 2A)

Iowa Falls-Alden 10-18 in 3A, 6-8 in 2A, 18-10 in 2A as Iowa Falls only.

Nothing too surprising here.  After seeing the overall records, it makes sense that Clear Lake would also be the best team in district play.  What a record for the Lions.  They also managed a 17-3 non-district record and are currently riding a 19-game district win streak.  Not shabby.  Now, let’s look at the postseason/playoff numbers…

Overall Postseason/Playoff Records:

Substate record, playoff record, years qualified

Clear Lake 2-0, 17-9, 10 (five semifinals, two finals, ONE TITLE (2000)

Waverly-Shell Rock x-x, 3-3, 3

Charles City 1-1, 0-2, 2

Webster City 1-1, 0-1, 1

Algona 0-1, 0-1, 1

Hampton-Dumont 0-1, 2-2, 2 (both playoff appearances were in 2A)

Iowa Falls-Alden qualified as Iowa Falls only in 2A in 2001 and lost (0-1)

Again, Clear Lake stands out with a solid postseason record.  Clearly, they are one of the better teams of the decade in any class.  They started the decade out with a title, qualified for the playoffs every year, and made the semifinals half the years of the decade.  Their title was a 3-overtime thriller over Harlan, 23-20.         

On to 3A…I will list the 3A teams based on the last two seasons of district classification.  For example, today I will list the teams that made up District One the last two seasons.  Sioux City Heelan was in District One, but they were covered in our 4A discussion of the Missouri River teams.  Their 3A information was included there.  The other seven teams will be in this listing.  Something to keep in mind as we go through these records is the fact that many teams moved up or down with re-classification through the years, so I will indicate that when necessary.  Without further ado, here are the teams and their records…

Overall Record:

LeMars 67-23 (one undefeated season)

Denison-Schleswig 57-33 (one undefeated season)

Spencer 48-42

MOC-FV 48-44 (ten game schedules in 04, 05)

Storm Lake 33-57

Estherville-Lincoln Central 28-44 in 3A, 15-3 in 2A (06, 07) *43-47 overall

Sgt. Bluff-Luton 14-22 in 3A, 21-33 in 2A (00-05) *35-55 overall

District Record:

LeMars 56-14 (two undefeated district seasons)

Denison-Schleswig 42-27 (one undefeated district season) *6 district games in 04

Spencer 39-31

MOC-FV 37-33 (one undefeated district season)

Storm Lake 25-45

Estherville-Lincoln Central 22-34 in 3A, 14-0 in 2A *36-34 overall

Sgt. Bluff-Luton 10-18 in 3A, 15-27 in 2A *25-45 overall

Looks like Estherville-Lincoln Central wouldn’t mind going back to 2A! 

Postseason/Playoff Record:

Substate record, playoff record, years qualified

LeMars 0-1, 8-6, 6 (four semifinals)

Denison-Schleswig 1-0, 3-4, 4

Spencer 1-0, 0-2, 2

MOC-FV 0-2, 0-3, 3

Sgt. Bluff-Luton 1-0, 0-1, 1 in 3A, (x-x, 1-1, 1 in 2A)

Estherville-Lincoln Central (x-x, 2-2, 2 in 2A)

Finishing our look back at the decade that was in 4A football, today we focus on the Mississippi Valley Conference.  Like the Mississippi Athletic Conference, these teams only play against each other during the regular season and all games are conference games.  However, there are 14 teams, so they are split up into two divisions, the Mississippi and the Valley.  Each division obviously has seven teams, and they shuffle them around every two years just to mix it up a little.  Each team plays all the other six teams in their division and three from the other division to make up their nine game regular season.  Let’s take a look at the numbers for each school from 2000-2009…

Overall Conference/Regular Season Record 2000-2009:

Cedar Falls 78-12 (three undefeated seasons)

Iowa City High 76-14 (four undefeated seasons)

Cedar Rapids Washington 63-27 (two undefeated seasons)

Cedar Rapids Xavier 59-31 (one undefeated season)

Cedar Rapids Prairie 57-33

Dubuque Hempstead 57-33

Cedar Rapids Kennedy 50-40

Dubuque Wahlert 41-49

Iowa City West 36-54

Waterloo West 34-56

Cedar Rapids Jefferson 31-59 (one undefeated season)

Linn-Mar 28-62

Dubuque Senior 16-74

Waterloo East 4-86

No surprise here with Cedar Falls and Iowa City High at the top of the list.  These two schools are fixtures in the playoffs and both have rock solid programs.  How about CR Jeff having an undefeated season inside of only 31 wins for the decade?  In 2000, they were 9-0, but haven’t finished better than 4-5 since.  Waterloo East didn’t win a game for the first six and a half years of the decade.  A 50+ losing streak buried them.  Seven 0-9 seasons in the decade…Amazing.  Let’s hope they fare much better in the next ten years. 

Here are the postseason/playoff numbers for these schools…

Postseason/Playoff Records 2000-2009:

School, Substate Record, Playoff Record, Years Qualified

Iowa City High 2-0, 13-8, 9 (four semifinals, two finals, ONE TITLE 09)

Cedar Falls 2-0, 12-8, 8 (three semifinals, two finals)

Cedar Rapids Xavier 2-0, 7-5, 6 (one semifinal, one final, ONE TITLE 06)

Cedar Rapids Washington 2-0, 7-6, 6 (two semifinals, one final)

Iowa City West 0-1, 3-2, 2 (one semifinal)

Cedar Rapids Kennedy 1-1, 1-4, 4

Dubuque Hempstead 2-0, 1-4, 4

Linn-Mar 1-0, 0-1, 1

Cedar Rapids Jefferson 0-1, 0-1, 1

Dubuque Wahlert 1-0, 0-2, 2

Cedar Rapids Prairie 1-1, 0-7, 7

Again, no surprise with the success of Iowa City High and Cedar Falls.  But how about Xavier breaking through with a title in 2006 and Washington making it to a final as well?  Also, it’s kind of overlooked that Iowa City West made the semis in 2002.  The hard luck award goes to Prairie, though.  Always decent, sometimes very good, but 0-for-the-decade in the playoffs.  Seven times in, seven losses.  That is hard to accomplish. 

That does it for 4A.  Here are some current streaks to end on…

Overall Win Streak:

14- Iowa City High.  Last loss: 27-3 Cedar Rapids Xavier Nov 3, 2008

Regular Season Win Streak:

19- Iowa City High.  Last loss: 20-3 Cedar Falls Oct 19, 2007

Conference Win Streak:

19- Iowa City High.  Last loss: 20-3 Cedar Falls Oct 19, 2007

Overall Losing Streak:

14- Davenport North.  Last win: 30-6 Davenport West Sept 19, 2008

Conference Losing Streak:

14- Davenport North.  Last win: 30-6 Davenport West Sept 19, 2008

Non-Playoff Teams Ending Season w/Winning Streak:

1- Muscatine   

On the Eastern half of the state, the 4A schools are split up into the Mississippi Athletic Conference and the Mississippi Valley Conference.  Today, we will look at the decade numbers for the schools in the Athletic Conference.  One constant with the Eastern schools that differs from those in the West is the fact that ALL of their games are conference games.  In the Athletic Conference, there are ten teams and they each play one another for a nine game conference and regular season schedule.  They do not play teams from the Valley Conference in the regular season.  So, with that in mind, here are the records of the Athletic Conference teams from 2000-2009…

Conference/Regular Season Records:

Bettendorf 83-7 (four undefeated seasons)

Davenport Assumption 70-20 (three undefeated seasons)

North Scott 64-26 (one undefeated season)

Muscatine 54-36

Pleasant Valley 51-39

Clinton 39-51 (one undefeated season)

Burlington 36-54

Davenport Central 20-70

Davenport North 18-72

Davenport West 15-75

Yeah, Bettendorf sorta ran the show for the decade…83-7! Yikes.  Their ‘worst’ season was 2002 when they slumped for their only 7-2 season.  However, it motivated the Bulldogs, because they made it to the title game that season before losing to Valley. 

On the flipside of Bettendorf’s success, Davenport North and Davenport West failed to reach .500 in any season of the decade.  Davenport Central finished 5-4 this past season to avoid the same fate.  Now let’s look at the postseason/playoff records of these teams…

Postseason Records, listed by team, substate record, playoff record and years qualifying:

Bettendorf 1-1, 20-7, 9 (six semifinals, four finals, TWO TITLES 04, 07)

Davenport Assumption 0-2, 6-6, 6 (one semifinal)

Muscatine 0-1, 3-6, 6 (one semifinal)

Clinton 1-1, 1-1, 1

Pleasant Valley 0-2, 0-4, 4

North Scott 0-2, 0-3, 3

Burlington 0-2, 0-1, 1

Davenport Central 0-1

That’s 20-7 for Bettendorf, 10-21 for the rest of the conference combined.  Oddly, Bettendorf ended the decade by losing at home to a 4-5 Cedar Rapids Kennedy team in the substate after posting an 8-1 regular season.  That meant 2009 was the only season the Bulldogs failed to qualify for the playoffs in the decade.  We will finish up our look back at the 4A teams with the Valley Conference next time.      

Continuing our look back, we have the Missouri River Conference schools today.  This conference has had it rough in the last decade.  No team has made it past the quarterfinals of the playoffs and no team has a winning postseason record.  Basically, these teams travel a lot and win very little.  Only Sioux City Heelan had a winning record in non-conference games, going 16-8 from 2000 through 2005.  The other five teams had a combined 64-156 non-conference record for the decade.  Sioux City Heelan opted out of 4A and went down to 3A starting in the 2006 season.  When we look at the numbers, it’s easy to see why the rest of the conference was happy to see them go…

Overall Regular Season Record 2000-2009:

Sioux City Heelan 76-14 (45-9 in 4A 2000-2005) (31-5 in 3A 2006-2009)

Sioux City East 48-42

Sioux City North 43-47

Council Bluffs Lincoln 38-52

Council Bluffs Jefferson 24-66

Sioux City West 12-78

…Heelan had an undefeated season in 4A and an undefeated season in 3A, but no other school managed to do it.  In fact, only Sioux City East in 2005 went 8-1.  They also went 7-2 in 2001 and 2000.  Sioux City North was the only other school to have a 7-2 season, in 2007.

Conference Record 2000-2009:

Sioux City East 30-16 (two undefeated conference seasons)

Sioux City Heelan 29-1 (five undefeated conference seasons)

Council Bluffs Lincoln 25-21

Sioux City North 24-22 (one undefeated conference season)

Council Bluffs Jefferson 15-31 (one undefeated conference season)

Sioux City West 7-39

…Yes, the four non-Heelan undefeated conference seasons came AFTER Heelan departed for 3A.  Heelan went 5-0 in 2000 conference play before dropping their only Missouri Conference loss of the decade, a 2001 loss to Sioux City East.  Heelan then rolled off four straight undefeated conference seasons to say goodbye to the Missouri River Conference and 4A.  Oh by the way, they have a 26-2 record in 3A District play.  In that first year of playing 3A, Heelan lost district games to LeMars and Spencer to finish 5-2 in District One.  They were 21-0 in district games to finish out the decade.

Now for the playoff records…

Not much to talk about here.  It has been very tough for teams to qualify out of the Missouri River Conference unless they win it.  That was an automatic ticket before the advent of the substate round.  Now, a team has a better chance of qualifying for substate, giving more teams from the conference a shot at the playoffs.  But they haven’t taken advantage of it yet.  The conference has a combined 0-5 record in the two seasons of substate play, so they have actually failed to advance a team to the playoffs since 2007.  Not that it has hindered their winning playoffs ways.  The teams combined for a 6-12 record in the playoffs from 2000 through 2007 with four of the wins belonging to Sioux City Heelan.  Their playoff record since Heelan left for 3A after the 2005 season?  An underwhelming 1-2.  Impress your friends by telling them that Sioux City East is the last Missouri River Conference team to win a playoff game, upsetting Dowling in the first round in 2006.  Sioux City North was the last team to qualify, resulting in a first-round exit in 2007…

Overall Postseason/Playoff Record 2000-2009:

Team, Substate Record, Playoff Record and Years Qualifying

Sioux City East, 0-1, 2-4, 4

Sioux City North, 0-1, 0-1, 1

Council Bluffs Lincoln, 0-2, 0-1, 1

Council Bluffs Jefferson, 0-1

Sioux City Heelan, x-x, 4-6, 6 *In 4A only

Sioux City Heelan has fared much better in 3A.  After being edged out of the playoffs in their first 3A season in 2006, Heelan has posted an 8-2 playoff record and a 2-0 substate tally.  In 2007, Heelan advanced to the 3A Final but came up short against James Vandenberg and Keokuk.  In 2008, it all came together for a run that capped a perfect 14-0 season and a championship.  In 2009 they managed a first round win before bowing to Harlan in the quarterfinals.  Heelan also has a very impressive nugget on their resume…They are the only team since Atlantic in 2002 to defeat Harlan in the regular season, doing so in 2008.  They lost to Harlan in the regular season in 2007, but knocked them out of the playoffs in a rematch later that year.  After their 2008 regular season win, Heelan again dumped Harlan in the 2008 playoffs.  That was Harlan’s last defeat.  So, Harlan has lost three games since the beginning of the 2007 season, all to Heelan.  Not bad.