Northwest Conference (Iowa)

The Northwest Conference was a high school athletic conference in Iowa. Over the years membership ranged anywhere from five to nine schools. The conference was known over the years as one of the best 1A basketball conferences in Iowa.^{[citation needed]} Traditional powers Newell-Fonda and Pomeroy-Palmer combined for 14 state appearances and six state titles between 1990 and 2004. The conference also sponsored volleyball, women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's track, baseball, softball, and cross country.

Member schools

• Alta-Aurelia, 2010-2011
• Laurens-Marathon, 2007-2011
• Newell-Fonda, 1996-2011
• Sioux Central, 1996-2011
• Storm Lake St. Mary's, 1996-2011
• Alta, 1996-2010 (combined with Aurelia)
• Aurelia, 1996-2010 (combined with Alta)
• Schaller-Crestland, 1996–2010
• Pomeroy-Palmer, 1996–2008
• Sac City, 1996–2007
• Albert City-Truesdale, 1996-2005 (combined with Sioux Central)

History

The Northwest Conference was formed for the 1996-97 athletic year. The conference was formed to meet the needs of nine small 1A schools located in the heart of Northwestern Iowa. After Alta and Aurelia ended a 6 year sports-only sharing agreement, the bigger Twin Lakes Conference was not seen as a good fit for them. Newell-Fonda, Pomeroy-Palmer, and Schaller-Crestland had long histories in the Bo-Coon conference, which had recently dissolved. So the conference was created in 1995 with three of the smaller Twin Lakes Conference schools (Alta, Aurelia, and Sac City), two Cornbelt conference schools who had been longtime rivals of Alta and Aurelia respecitively (Sioux Central and Albert City-Truesdale), three old Bo-Coon schools who had recently merged with other nearby schools (Schaller-Crestland, Pomeroy-Palmer, and Newell-Fonda), and longtime independent Storm Lake St. Mary's. After over a decade of stability and 1A basketball dominance, the conference lost one school, Sac City in 2007, as they combined with WLVA to form East Sac County High School. Another former Twin Lakes member, Laurens-Marathon, would replace them for the next season. In 2008, Pomeroy-Palmer left the conference to join with neighboring Pochahontas Area School District. Sioux Central, which became easily the biggest school in the conference when it merged with Albert City-Truesdale in 2005, attempted to leave the conference effective 2010-11 sports season in hopes of joining a league with larger schools, but was unable to find a home for their athletics teams so remained in the conference for another season. Meanwhile, Schaller-Crestland joined with neighboring Galva-Holstein Community School District for all sports but volleyball effective 2009-10 and began full-grade sharing in 2010-11. With Alta and Aurelia reverting to sharing sports in 2010-11 and planning to combine high schools and middle schools in 2011-12, the conference was effectively brought to an end.

Storm Lake Jamboree

From the formation of the conference, the Storm Lake Times has sponsored an annual basketball preseason challenge held the weekend before the season tips off. Each of the schools in the Northwest Conference plays an exhibition game against another area school, one after another, until the night is capped with one Northwest Conference school (typically the preseason favorite) facing the much larger Storm Lake High School. The Jamboree is held for both boys and girls and although it does not count on any team's record, the exhibition games have given area teams a good idea of what to expect for the upcoming season.

Future

Beginning in the 2011-12 school year, the Northwest Conference will become the northern/western division of the older, more established Twin Lakes Conference, as the two leagues merge. This change was brought on after Sioux Central actively campaigned to join the Twin Lakes for almost two years and other league members agreed to accept the merger, keeping them safe with a home for the foreseeable future.

References

• http://www.northwestconferenceiowa.org/g5-bin/client.cgi?G5genie=69