River Valley Conference (Iowa)

The River Valley Conference (RVC) is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in smaller communities in eastern Iowa. The conference roughly spans from the Iowa City metropolitan area to the southwest, to Bellevue in northeastern Jackson County on the northeast. The RVC was founded in the 2013-2014 school year.[1]

RVC School Locations
River Valley Conference
RVC
Established2013
AssociationIHSAA / IGHSAU
Members14
Sports fielded
  • 21
    • men's: 11
    • women's: 10
RegionEastern Iowa
Websitewww.rivervalleyconference.org

Member Schools

There are 14 full members of the River Valley Conference. Each of those schools are in Class 2A, Iowa's second smallest enrollment class. Anamosa joined the conference in the 2018-2019 school year to bring the total to the current 14 schools.

InstitutionLocationMascotColorsAffiliation9-11 Enrollment (2019-2020)[2]
Anamosa Anamosa Raiders     Public 289
Bellevue Bellevue Comets     Public 163
Camanche Camanche Indians       Public 231
Cascade (Western Dubuque CSD) Cascade Cougars     Public 175
Durant Durant Wildcats     Public 167
Mid-Prairie Wellman Golden Hawks     Public 294
Monticello Monticello Panthers     Public 301
North Cedar Stanwood Knights       Public 152
Northeast Goose Lake Rebels     Public 205
Regina Catholic Iowa City Regals     Private 159
Tipton Tipton Tigers     Public 241
West Branch West Branch Bears     Public 179
West Liberty West Liberty Comets     Public 284
Wilton Wilton Beavers     Public 187

Sports

The school fields athletic teams in 21 sports, including:[3]

  • Summer: Baseball and softball.
  • Fall: Football, volleyball, boys' and girls' swimming, and boys' and girls' cross country.
  • Winter: Boys' and girls' basketball, boys' and girls' bowling, and wrestling.
  • Spring: Boys' and girls' track and field; boys' and girls' tennis, boys' and girls' soccer, and boys' and girls' golf.

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 varsity levels only. Some schools do not offer all 21 sports. Bowling, Soccer, Swimming and Tennis are the most common exclusions.

History

The River Valley Conference traces its history to 2008, when it was formed as the Cedar Valley Conference. That year, the seven original schools left the former Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference, which was dissolved. Four member schools from the old EIHC — Clear Creek-Amana, Mount Vernon, Solon and Williamsburg — were growing in size and placed in the WaMaC Conference. The seven remaining schools joined North Cedar High School, (which had been in the Big East Conference) in forming the new CVC.

Starting with the 2013-2014 school year, former Big East members Bellevue, Camanche and Northeast were placed in the CVC, along with Cascade and Monticello.[4] The events that eventually resulted in the changes began in the early 2010s, when Camanche began petitioning to leave the Big East for the CVC, and CVC member schools denied them admission, citing travel distances. The Iowa Department of Education eventually was asked to help resolve the dilemma. Not all CVC athletic directors and coaches welcomed the Iowa Department of Education's decision, expressing concerns about travel distances, loss of classroom time and gate receipts for some contests.[5]

As a result of the changes, the CVC was renamed the River Valley Conference for the 2013-2014 school year.[6]

In January 2017, Anamosa, a member of the WaMaC Conference, announced it would be joining the RVC, effective in 2018-2019, bringing the league to 14 schools.[7]

References
  1. [https://sites.google.com/site/iahsaasports/conferences/current-conferences/cedar-valley-conference
  2. "BEDS Enrollment" (PDF). Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  3. River Valley Conference
  4. Batterson, Steve (May 30, 2012). "Iowa Ruling Splits Up Big East Conference". Quad-City Times. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
  5. Coss, Matt (May 29, 2012). "Conference affiliation: Cedar Valley Conference to become 13-team league". Muscatine Journal. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
  6. [https://sites.google.com/site/iahsaasports/conferences/current-conferences/cedar-valley-conference
  7. Linder, Jeff, "Western Dubuque will join Mississippi Valley," Cedar Rapids Gazette, January 10, 2017. Accessed 01-10-2017.
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