Mississippi Valley Conference (Iowa)
The Mississippi Valley Conference (also called MVC) is a high-school athletic conference whose members are located in the metropolitan areas of eastern region of the U.S. state of Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Iowa City and Waterloo-Cedar Falls.
The conference is divided into two divisions: the Mississippi division and the Valley division. Division assignments rotate every two years, and are not geographically-basaed.
At present the MVC comprises all 4A schools with the exception of Dubuque Wahlert, which is categorized as 3A school. Cedar Rapids Xavier, when admitted to the MVC, was a 3A school, but became a 4A school beginning with the 2008-09 school year.
Member schools
There are 14 member schools of the Mississippi Valley Conference until 2017-18 season then 15 schools:
| School | Location | Affiliation | Mascot | Colors | Year Founded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa City West | Iowa City | Public | Trojans/Women of Troy | 1968 | |
| Iowa City High | Iowa City | Public | Little Hawks | 1937 | |
| Cedar Rapids Prairie | Cedar Rapids | Public | Hawks | 1956 | |
| Cedar Rapids Jefferson | Cedar Rapids | Public | J-Hawks | 1958 | |
| Cedar Rapids Washington | Cedar Rapids | Public | Warriors | 1957 (orig. 1857) | |
| Cedar Rapids Kennedy | Cedar Rapids | Public | Cougars | 1967 | |
| Cedar Rapids Xavier | Cedar Rapids | Private | Saints | 1998 | |
| Linn-Mar | Marion | Public | Lions | 1959 | |
| Cedar Falls | Cedar Falls | Public | Tigers | 1954 (orig. 1900) | |
| Waterloo East | Waterloo | Public | Trojans | 1918 (orig. 1874) | |
| Waterloo West | Waterloo | Public | Wahawks | 1955 (orig. 1922) | |
| Dubuque Senior | Dubuque | Public | Rams | 1923 (orig. 1858) | |
| Dubuque Hempstead | Dubuque | Public | Mustangs | 1970 | |
| Dubuque Wahlert | Dubuque | Private | Golden Eagles | 1959 | |
| Liberty High | Iowa City | Public | Lightning | 2017 |
History
Since its founding, the Mississippi Valley Conference was a league composed of metropolitan schools in eastern Iowa. Until 1969, the MVC (as it is known to some locals) also included Quad-City area schools in both Iowa and Illinois; this list included Davenport High (since 1960, Davenport Central) and Davenport West in Iowa; and Illinois Quad-City area schools East Moline (now United Township), Moline and Rock Island. Clinton High School was also a member of the conference, as were Jefferson and Washington of Cedar Rapids, Iowa City High and Dubuque Senior (known for years simply as Dubuque). Cedar Rapids Kennedy joined immediately upon its opening in 1967.
The league was reorganized in 1969, with the five Quad-City area schools leaving to form a new league (the Quad-City Metro Conference, along with Catholic schools Davenport Assumption and Rock Island Alleman). The six remaining schools were joined by newcomers Bettendorf, Muscatine and Iowa City West (the latter which opened in 1968). Early in 1970, the newly opened Dubuque Hempstead was admitted to the conference.
One member - Muscatine - gained infamy during the 1970s when it lost 44 consecutive football games, including 40 straight league games between 1973 and 1977.1
The league reorganized again in 1978 when Bettendorf, Clinton and Muscatine left to join the newly formed Mississippi Athletic Conference; Dubuque Wahlert joined at that time to make the MVC an eight-team conference.
Since the 1980s, the MVC's membership has grown and has been at its current 14-school membership since the mid-1990s. The most recent additions have been Waterloo East, Waterloo West, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids Regis in 1992. Regis joined the conference at the beginning of the 1992-1993 school year and was subsequently closed and merged with Cedar Rapids LaSalle High School to form Cedar Rapids Xavier High School. Periodically conference membership is reviewed based on school population trends.2
Starting in 2017-18 school year: Liberty (Iowa City) High will be a new member in the Mississippi Valley Conference.
Sports
The conference offers the following sports:
- Fall — Football, volleyball, boys' cross-country, girls' cross-country, boys' golf and girls' swimming.
- Winter — Boys' basketball, girls' basketball, bowling, wrestling and boys' swimming.
- Spring — Boys' track and field, girls' track and field, boys' soccer, girls' soccer, boys' tennis, girls' tennis and girls' golf.
- Summer — Baseball and softball.
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 sophomore and varsity levels only.
In other states
Two other states have high-school athletic conferences named Mississippi Valley Conference. In Illinois, the Mississippi Valley Conference is a conference based in the Metro East area, the eastern suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. In Wisconsin, the Mississippi Valley Conference is a conference based in the La Crosse area, commonly known as the Coulee Region.
References
- 1"Thank God it's over!" Sports article from the Muscatine Journal, September 10, 1978.
- 2"Xavier grows into a Class 4A school" Sports article from the Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 12, 2008.
