Missouri River Conference

The Missouri River Activities Conference (also called MRAC) is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in the metropolitan areas of western Iowa, with all of the schools being from either Sioux City or Council Bluffs.

The metro-based conference includes 7 teams, five of which compete at the Iowa High School Athletic Association's highest level, 4A. The exceptions, Sioux City Heelan and Sergeant Bluff-Luton, competes in 3A, the next largest class.

Member schools

The seven members:

Institution Location Colors Affiliation 2012-2013 9-11 Enrollment[1] Mascot
Council Bluffs, Abraham Lincoln Council Bluffs           Public 996 Lynx
Council Bluffs, Thomas Jefferson Council Bluffs           Public 973 Yellow Jackets
Sergeant Bluff-Luton Sergeant Bluff           Public 336 Warriors
Sioux City, East Sioux City           Public 988 Black Raiders
Bishop Heelan Catholic Sioux City           Private 402 Crusaders
Sioux City, North Sioux City           Public 1,033 Stars
Sioux City, West Sioux City           Public 890 Wolverines

History

For most of their athletics histories, the schools of the Missouri River Activities Conference were in other conferences. Beginning in the early 1970s, Sioux City schools began to compete with schools in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as a members of the boys-only Sioux Interstate Conference. In the late 1970s, the Sioux Delta Conference was formed between the Sioux City schools, LeMars Community, and Hull Western Christian to facilitate girls' athletic competition. A separate intrastate conference was necessary because the South Dakota High School Athletic Association conducted its girls' basketball tournament in the fall and volleyball tournament in the winter, opposite of many bordering states.

From the 1920s to the 1950s C.B. Abraham Lincoln and Sioux City East competed with three Omaha high schools (Central, South and Tech) and Lincoln High in the Missouri Valley Conference. Sioux City Central, which closed in 1975, was also a member.

In spring 1997, the South Dakota High School Activities Association effectively closed its borders to interstate athletic competition, forcing the dissolution of the Sioux Interstate Conference. The Sioux Delta Conference also dissolved that spring as both LeMars Community and Hull Western Christian had by this time found homes in the Lakes Conference, leaving the four Sioux City schools out in the cold.

The Council Bluffs schools, meanwhile, were once part of the Omaha metro league which included numerous schools in Nebraska. After bowing out of the Omaha metro league, the two schools became charter members of the River Cities Conference, a league that included Nebraska schools such as Beatrice, Ralston, South Sioux City, Omaha Gross, Omaha Roncalli, and Omaha Skutt.

With few options due to their size as 4A football schools, the Sioux City schools and Heelan sought out and were denied membership in both the Central Iowa Metro League and the River Cities Conference. Undaunted, the schools petitioned the Iowa Department of Education for placement in an athletic conference. As a result of those proceedings, the Missouri River Conference was formed to meet the needs of the Sioux City schools, pulling the Council Bluffs schools out of the River Cities Conference to complete the six-school lineup.

In 2010, Sergeant Bluff-Luton, a founding member of the War Eagle Conference in 1979, began competing as the league's seventh school.[2]

Sports

The conference offers the following sports:

References

  1. ↑ "Iowa High School Athletic Association BEDS Document" (PDF). Retrieved October 6, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Sergeant Bluff Luton To Join MRAC In 2010". KQEN News radio 1240. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 3 January 2014.

External links

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