IHSAA assigns new districts to prep football squads

The Iowa High School Athletic Association releases new high school football districts every two seasons.

Programs move up or down classes based on enrollment and a few other factors. A lot of them have remained in the same class for the past several seasons, too.

The new districts were released on Wednesday and four of the five area squads will see a majority of new opponents in the next two-year cycle.

“I like that the districts change every two years,” Newton head football coach Andy Swedenhjelm said. “It mixes up who you see a bit, and the (IHSAA) has done a better job of trying to make the districts more balanced when they can.

“The only negative is we like to prep quite a bit in the offseason for the upcoming season so on realignment years we tend to get a little impatient with not knowing who and what we need to study. But that’s a pretty minor issue.”

While non-district opponents are not yet known, the only team in Newton’s Class 4A district who the Cardinals played last season is Pella.

PCM gets a whole new district in 2A, Colfax-Mingo drops down to Class A and is back in the same district with South Iowa Cedar League rival Lynnville-Sully and Baxter’s 8-man district features five opponents who were not on the Bolts’ schedule last year.

And Zach Hasselbrink, pending board approval, is Baxter’s choice as its next head football coach. Hasselbrink, who has been the defensive coordinator the past several seasons, takes over for long-time head coach Rob Luther, who resigned from his position this past offseason.

“We are going places we haven’t typically been, which is similar to the last cycle,” Hasselbrink said. “It feels like another go round with some quality district opponents who have established programs and success year in and year out.”

Newton (6-4 last year) will be joined in 4A District 4 by Pella, Clear Creek-Amana, Marion, Oskaloosa and Grinnell, which moved up to 4A after Des Moines Hoover announced it would not have a program for this two-year cycle.

Pella finished 11-2 and reached the 4A championship game last year. The Dutch downed Newton 35-28 in district play, but the Cardinals have won two of the past three meetings against their rivals.

Newton is 2-2 against CCA (6-4) since 2014, but the Cardinals won the most recent meeting, 27-0, in 2022.

Both Oskaloosa and Marion are coming off 2-7 seasons. The Cardinals have never played Marion, but the Indians are 4-3 against Newton since 2010. The last meeting between Newton and Oskaloosa ended in a 56-10 Cardinal victory back in 2022.

Grinnell was 6-3 in 3A last season. The Tigers are 6-2 against Newton since 2012, and the most recent two meetings in 2020 ended in Grinnell wins (57-13 and 44-23).

Another change from the last cycle involves two of Newton’s non-district foes the past two seasons — Dallas Center-Grimes and Norwalk, who both moved up to 5A.

“We feel good about our district,” Swedenhjelm said. “It’s filled with teams we are pretty familiar with in general outside of Marion. There are a number of quality teams in there that will be fun to go against. Our kids have been working their tails off and are excited to get going.”

PCM remains in 2A and will be in District 7 with Albia, Centerville, Davis County, South Tama County and Pella Christian.

South Tama is down to 2A after finishing 0-9 in 3A and Pella Christian moves up to 2A after going 3-6 in 1A last season.

The only district opponent who was on PCM’s schedule last season was Pella Christian, but the Mustangs defeated the Eagles, 59-7, in non-district action. The Mustangs are coming off an 11-1 season in which they reached the state semifinals.

Pella Christian leads the series 10-7 since 2008 and the two teams have played every season since then. The Eagles have mostly been in 1A, but the two teams were in the same 2A district in 2010 and 2011.

Albia, Centerville and Davis County have been in PCM’s district in recent years. The Mustangs have registered five straight wins over Albia (4-5), claimed six in a row over Davis County (3-5) and defeated Centerville (4-5) seven straight times.

“I figured it would be something similar to what we’ve had,” PCM head football coach Greg Bonnett said. “Like always, we will take what we get, but I’m excited about it in terms of travel. I like when our fans don’t have to drive 2.5 hours for a game. There are some very good teams with very good coaches in there so I know it will be a tough task to win the district.”

Taking away a traditional non-district opponent in Pella Christian could make things more challenging for PCM in terms of who it has to play in the non-district slate. The Eagles were one the Mustangs could count on playing every year.

“The non-district schedule has traditionally been tough for us to find mutually agreed upon matchups,” Bonnett said. “Since Pella Christian is not an option this time around, it’s a game of seeing who fits where and how it all shakes out.”

Colfax-Mingo and Lynnville-Sully will be joined in Class A District 6 by BGM, Earlham, Madrid, Martensdale-St. Marys and North Mahaska.

Two of those programs were in different classes last year. The Tigerhawks move down after going 1-7 in 1A and BGM moves back into 11-man football after finishing 4-5 in 8-man last season.

“Class A is what I grew up in and is my favorite brand of football so I’m very excited about it,” Colfax-Mingo head football coach Drake Buscherfield said. “The district having four SICL schools should make for some fun rivalry games. Each school in the district besides Earlham (41) had 31-36 kids on their roster last year, which is nice to see.”

While Colfax-Mingo’s district features nobody it played last season, Lynnville-Sully’s schedule includes a trio of familiar foes in North Mahaska, Madrid and Martensdale-St. Marys.

The Hawks went 5-4 last season. Two of those wins came against the SICL rival Warhawks (4-4) and Martensdale-St. Marys (0-8). They also lost to district champion Madrid, which finished 9-3.

The Tigerhawks have bounced back and forth from A to 1A in the last several seasons. They are back in Class A for the first time since the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

Colfax-Mingo and North Mahaska have alternated wins in their last six meetings.

The Tigerhawks last faced Martensdale-St. Marys in 2020 and defeated the Blue Devils 41-23.

Madrid is 2-0 against C-M since 2021, and the Tigerhawks are 0-4 against BGM since 2014, but they haven’t played each other since 2017.

The most recent meeting between Colfax-Mingo and Earlham (6-3 last year) resulted in a 29-6 postseason win for the Tigerhawks in 2015. It’s Colfax-Mingo’s only playoff win.

Lynnville-Sully is 6-3 against Colfax-Mingo since 2014. The two teams last played each other in 2022.

Madrid has won two straight against Lynnville-Sully, but the Hawks have won the two most recent meetings against both Martensdale-St. Marys and North Mahaska.

Earlham is 2-1 against the Hawks since 2008, but Lynnville-Sully defeated the Cardinals, 49-16, in the opening round of the 2022 playoffs.

BGM is 7-3 against Lynnville-Sully since 2010, but the Hawks won the two most recent meetings, 32-7 and 20-12, in 2017 and 2016, respectively.

“Looks like a great district,” Lynnville-Sully head football coach Mike Parkinson said. “It should be tough, but I’m glad we have some SICL schools in there.”

Baxter will be part of Class 8-man District 7 along with Melcher-Dallas, Montezuma, Moravia, Southeast Warren, Twin Cedars and Wayne, which drops down to 8-man after going 5-4 in Class A last season.

The Bolts are coming off a 3-5 season. The only team which faced Baxter the past two seasons was Montezuma, which is 3-1 against the Bolts since 2021. The Braves (10-2) defeated Baxter 55-44 last season.

Baxter has never faced Wayne or Southeast Warren. And the last meeting between the Bolts and Moravia ended in a 36-21 Baxter win in 2020.

The Bolts have had no issues against Melcher-Dallas (2-8) or Twin Cedars (0-9) since 2019.

Baxter’s last two meetings against the Sabers resulted in wins of 82-6 and 72-0, but Twin Cedars defeated the Bolts 66-64 in 2018.

Melcher-Dallas downed Baxter 52-0 in 2018, but the Bolts have since registered wins of 64-0, 68-0 and 74-3.

“We’ve played Melcher-Dallas and Twin Cedars in a previous district cycle,” Hasselbrink said. “Montezuma has become a common foe over the years, which has led to some great battles and they bring back some top-end talent.

“We have some previous exposure to Southeast Warren as Coach Rowlands brings his team to our annual 5-on-5 event every year. Unknowns to us are Moravia and Wayne, but it looks like Wayne had a solid team in Class A last year. So we expect them to be tough, and Moravia has had some success in 8-man as well.”