June 19, 2025
Bulldog Families,
This being only my second year as the Riverside superintendent, I have only known the Western Iowa Conference [WIC] as a nine-member group, and this structure has served us well. We, as a conference, provide competition for each other in all sports and our conference prepares our teams to compete during all post-season pathways as evidenced by successes of our conference schools. However, the WIC has undergone various changes over time, with schools joining or departing in response to evolving needs of either the conference or individual districts.
Currently, conference realignment has often been in the news across the State of Iowa and college conferences across the nation, and the Western Iowa Conference has not been immune to the conversations. In recent years, school districts in southwest Iowa have requested initial consideration to become part of the Western Iowa Conference [WIC]. Those requests have not gathered strong consideration and have resulted in no formal requests.
Recently at least four [4] WIC schools were approached to gauge their interest in departing our conference. Although the Western Iowa Conference serves us well, other districts may have different beliefs. If each of those invitations were to be accepted that would leave Riverside with only five [5] conference schools to compete against. If even one or two accepted, we would be required to find more non-conference games to fill our schedules, which could prove difficult.
To be proactive during an uncertain time, the Western Iowa Conference began to have conversations on how we might be able to first maintain membership of all current conference schools and then determine how we might look to reasonably expand. Many factors went into the evaluation of who may be a good partner for our conference. Factors considered, but not limited to, were district size, furthest distance necessary for travel, number of activities sponsored, and levels of competition in each sport. With the uncertainty surrounding the WIC and other neighboring conferences, due to conference changes and sharing agreements between school districts, we, as a conference, did decide to extend invitations to the following schools to gauge their interest in joining the Western Iowa Conference: ACGC, Earlham, MVAOCOU, Nodaway Valley, Panorama, Red Oak, Shenandoah, Southwest Valley, West Central Valley, and Westwood, Sloan.
At this time, schools have until August 1, 2025, to reach out to our conference with a formal request to join, and at that point the schools will be considered, and a conference vote will be held to formally approve any additions to the conference. Please note that any changes to the conference will not immediately occur, as conference schedules need to be honored and preparation for an expanded conference will begin. This means the inaugural season for a newly formed expanded WIC will be during the 2027-2028 school year. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions regarding the process or with feedback.
Respectfully,
Dr. Stephanie Anderson, Riverside Superintendent