- Mississippi Valley Conference (Iowa)
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The Mississippi Valley Conference (also called MVC) is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in the metropolitan areas of eastern Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Iowa City and Waterloo-Cedar Falls.
The Iowa-based conference is divided into two segments: the Mississippi division and the Valley division. At present the MVC comprises all 4A schools with the exception of Dubuque Wahlert, who is categorized as 3A school, and Cedar Rapids Xavier, also a 3A school, but who will become classed as a 4A school beginning in the 2008-09 school year.
Contents
Member schools
There are 14 members of the Mississippi Valley Conference:
Institution Location Founded Affiliation Enrollment Mascot Division Cedar Falls Cedar Falls 1900 Public 1,164 Tigers Mississippi Jefferson Cedar Rapids 1958 Public 1,651 J-Hawks Valley Kennedy Cedar Rapids 1967 Public 1,887 Cougars Valley Washington Cedar Rapids 1956 (orig. 1875) Public 1,626 Warriors Valley Prairie Cedar Rapids 1954 Public 1,052 Hawks Mississippi Xavier Cedar Rapids 1998 Catholic 759 Saints Valley Hempstead Dubuque 1970 Public 1,718 Mustangs Mississippi Senior Dubuque 1866 (orig. 1858) Public 1,551 Rams Valley Wahlert Dubuque 1959 Catholic Appx. 600 Golden Eagles Mississippi City Iowa City 1938 Public 1,526 Little Hawks Mississippi West Iowa City 1968 Public 1,838 Trojans/ Women of Troy Mississippi Linn-Mar Marion 1959 Public 1,731 Lions Mississippi East Waterloo 1874 Public 1,298 Trojans Valley West Waterloo 1955 Public 1,804 Wahawks Valley History
Since its founding, the Mississippi Valley Conference was a league composed of metropolitan schools in eastern Iowa. Until 1969, the MVC (as it is known to some locals) also included Quad-City area schools in both Iowa and Illinois; this list included Davenport High (since 1960, Davenport Central) and Davenport West in Iowa; and Illinois Quad-City area schools East Moline (now United Township), Moline and Rock Island. Clinton High School was also a member of the conference, as were Jefferson and Washington of Cedar Rapids, Iowa City High and Dubuque Senior (known for years simply as Dubuque). Cedar Rapids Kennedy joined immediately upon its opening in 1967.
The league was reorganized in 1969, with the five Quad-City area schools leaving to form a new league (the Quad-City Metro Conference, along with Catholic schools Davenport Assumption and Rock Island Alleman). The six remaining schools were joined by newcomers Bettendorf, Muscatine and Iowa City West (the latter which opened in 1968). Early in 1970, the newly opened Dubuque Hempstead was admitted to the conference.
One member - Muscatine - gained infamy during the 1970s when it lost 44 consecutive football games, including 40 straight league games between 1973 and 1977.1
The league reorganized again in 1978 when Bettendorf, Clinton and Muscatine left to join the newly formed Mississippi Athletic Conference; Dubuque Wahlert joined at that time to make the MVC an eight-team conference.
Since the 1980s, the MVC's membership has grown and has been at its current 14-school membership since the mid-1990s. The most recent additions have been Waterloo East, Waterloo West, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids Regis in 1992. Regis joined the conference at the beginning of the 1992-1993 school year and was subsequently closed and merged with Cedar Rapids LaSalle High School to form Cedar Rapids Xavier High School. Cedar Rapids Xavier enters 4A sports competition and tournament play beginning with the 2008-09 school year. Previously the school competed within the Mississippi Valley Conference 4A schedule but played at the 3A state tournament level.2
Sports
The conference offers the following sports:
- Fall — Football, volleyball, boys' cross-country, girls' cross-country, boys' golf and girls' swimming.
- Winter — Boys' basketball, girls' basketball, bowling, wrestling and boys' swimming.
- Spring — Boys' track and field, girls' track and field, boys' soccer, girls' soccer, boys' tennis, girls' tennis and girls' golf.
- Summer — Baseball and softball.
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.
In other states
Two other states have high school athletic conferences named Mississippi Valley Conference. In Illinois, the Mississippi Valley Conference (Illinois) is a conference based in the Metro East area, the eastern suburbs of Saint Louis, Missouri. In Wisconsin, the Mississippi Valley Conference (Wisconsin) is a conference based in the La Crosse, Wisconsin area, commonly known as the Coulee Region.
External links
Sources
- 1"Thank God it's over!" Sports article from the Muscatine Journal, September 10, 1978.
- 2"Xavier grows into a Class 4A school" Sports article from the Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 12, 2008.
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Categories:- High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States
- High school sports in Iowa
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