The Lakes Conference is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...

whose members are located in mid-sized cities in northwest

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. Most of the schools are located in their respective

county seats A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Member schools

The conference's current lineup consists of six schools from seven different counties 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 Girls ...

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 its c ...

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 Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

, girls' cross-country, girls'

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

* 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 (appr ...

, girls basketball,

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

and boys' swimming. * Spring — Boys'

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

, 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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, girls' soccer, boys'

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, girls' tennis, boys'

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

and girls' golf. * Summer —

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

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. Hull Western Christian and Cherokee are solidly in class 2A and are not expected to change classes any time soon.

Recent conference membership changes

In 2009–10,

Sheldon Sheldon may refer to: * Sheldon (name), a given name and a surname, and a list of people with the name Places Australia * Sheldon, Queensland *Sheldon Forest, New South Wales United Kingdom *Sheldon, Derbyshire, England *Sheldon, Devon, England * ...

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, consisting of schools ranging from the smallest class (1A) to the third largest class (3A), and known for its prominence in small school bask ...

. 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, United States. The population was 3,706 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Palo Alto County. Emmetsburg is located around the southern bay of Five Island Lake. History The tow ...

, 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 state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bo ...

. 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 sub-divisions 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 C ...

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.

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: 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