Mississippi Valley Conference (Iowa)

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, including Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Iowa City and Waterloo-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 16 member schools (Liberty and Western Dubuque joining in 2018) of the Mississippi Valley Conference:

Mississippi Division
School Location Affiliation Mascot Colors Year Founded 9-11 Enrollment (2018-2019)
East Waterloo Public Trojans           1918 (orig. 1874) 744
Jefferson Cedar Rapids Public J-Hawks           1958 1,208
Liberty North Liberty Public Lightning           2017 694
Linn-Mar Marion Public Lions           1959 1,642
Wahlert Catholic Dubuque Private Golden Eagles           1959 390
West Iowa City Public Trojans/Women of Troy           1968 1,091
West Waterloo Public Wahawks           1955 (orig. 1922) 1,368
Xavier Catholic Cedar Rapids Private Saints           1998 491

Valley Division
School Location Affiliation Mascot Colors Year Founded 9-11 Enrollment (2018-2019)
Cedar Falls Cedar Falls Public Tigers           1954 (orig. 1900) 1,147
City Iowa City Public Little Hawks           1937 1,201
Hempstead Dubuque Public Mustangs           1970 1,281
Kennedy Cedar Rapids Public Cougars           1967 1,389
Prairie Cedar Rapids Public Hawks           1956 1,235
Dubuque Dubuque Public Rams           1923 (orig. 1858) 1,168
Washington Cedar Rapids Public Warriors           1957 (orig. 1857) 1,043
Western Dubuque Epworth Public Bobcats           1962 684

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.

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, 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, to become effective in 2018-2019 mark the first expansion of the conference since 1992, with the only change coming in 1998 with Xavier's opening.[1]

Sports

The conference offers the following sports:

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 is a conference based in the Metro East area, the eastern suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. In Wisconsin, the Mississippi Valley Conference is a conference based in the La Crosse area, commonly known as the Coulee Region.

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References
  1. Linder, Jeff, "Western Dubuque will join Mississippi Valley," Cedar Rapids Gazette, January 10, 2017. Accessed 01-10-2017.
  • 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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