The Mississippi Valley Conference (also called MVC) is a high-school athletic conference whose members are located in the metropolitan areas of eastern region of the U.S. state of

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, 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: Wiscon ...

, including

Cedar Rapids Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. It ...

Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

and

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

- Cedar Falls. The conference is divided into two divisions: the Mississippi division and the Valley division. Division assignments rotate every two years, and are not geographically-based. At present the MVC comprises all 4A schools with the exception of Dubuque Wahlert, which is categorized as 3A school. Cedar Rapids Xavier, when admitted to the MVC, was a 3A school, but became a 4A school beginning with the 2008-09 school year. As of 2014-2015, Xavier switched back to 3A and Western Dubuque high school, also a 3A school, beginning in 2019.

Member schools

There are 15 member schools of the Mississippi Valley Conference:

Mississippi Division

Valley Division

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. Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Prairie leave the disbanded East Iowa Conference and join the Mississippi Valley conference for 1986-87 school year Waterloo East, Waterloo West, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids Regis joined the conference in 1992. Regis was later merged with Cedar Rapids LaSalle High School to form Cedar Rapids Xavier High School. Periodically conference membership is reviewed based on school population trends.² In 2016,

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

, a new high school part of the Iowa City Community School District, applied for membership in the Mississippi Valley Conference. In January 2017, Western Dubuque accepted an invitation to join the league, joining from the WaMaC Conference. The additions became effective with the 2018-2019 school year, marking the first expansion of the conference since 1992, with the only change coming in 1998 with Xavier's opening. In the spring of 2021, Waterloo East's request to depart the conference after the 2021-2022 school year was approved by the Waterloo School District, to join the new Iowa Alliance Conference that also includes 10 former Central Iowa Metro League schools. East's move came after a trend where the Trojans ranked near or at the bottom of the conference's all-sports rankings as well as decreasing sports participation.Wind, Andrew, "Waterloo school board approves East High request to join newly formed sports conference," '' The Courier'', June 14, 2021. Accessed 06-15-2021

/ref> Waterloo West did not pursue a change at this time, and no other MVC school has made an indication of plans to switch to any new conference.

Sports

The conference offers the following sports: * Fall — American football, Football,

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 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 ...

and girls' swimming. * Winter — Boys'

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, girls' basketball,

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thoug ...

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 eve ...

, girls' track and field, boys' soccer, 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 c ...

, girls' tennis 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 ...

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 ...

. 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 Varsity may refer to: *University, an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in various academic disciplines Places *Varsity, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta, Canada * Varsity Lakes ...

levels only.

In other states

Two other states have high-school athletic conferences named Mississippi Valley Conference. In

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

, the Mississippi Valley Conference is a conference based in the Metro East area, the eastern suburbs of St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. In Wisconsin, the Mississippi Valley Conference is a conference based in the La Crosse area, commonly known as the Coulee Region.

References

* 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.

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mississippi Valley Conference (Iowa) High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States High school sports in Iowa