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25-653: The Twin Lakes conference was founded in 1932. The league's original members were the following: By the early 1960's the lineup was: Over time, all of the members merged with other nearby schools. The league also added Sac City, as smaller schools like Twin Rivers and Gilmore City-Bradgate left the conference. Albert City-Truesdale left the conference in the mid-80s, and the league added Prairie of Gowrie (later merged with Cedar Valley to become Prairie Valley) and Lake City (which later merged with Lohrville and became Southern Cal). In

50-619: A bid to the Twin Lakes Conference. It attempted to leave the conference effective 2010–11 sports season in hopes of joining a league with larger schools, but was unable to find a home for their athletics teams so remained in the conference for another season. For the 2011–12 school year a merger with the Twin Lakes was announced and the five remaining members of the Northwest Conference joined the Twin Lakes as

75-433: A decade of stability and 1A basketball dominance, the conference lost one school, Albert City-Truesdale, in 2004. The school had originally planned to share sports and other activities with Sioux Central High School, but instead the district opted to close its high school. In 2008, there was another change in membership. Sac City left the conference, as they consolidated with WLVA to form East Sac County High School and joined

100-742: A joint operation as Southeast Valley. Cornbelt Conference The Cornbelt Conference was one of the oldest high school athletic conferences in Iowa. Tracing its history to the 1930s, the Cornbelt has always been a conference filled by smaller schools. Beginning in the late 1970s, frequent membership changes happened because the league consisted of some of the smallest schools in the state. The conference had 6 teams, but four members left in 2014, and another explored options for whole grade sharing that would end its independent sports program. The conference disbanded in 2015. The eight original members of

125-730: A separate district, also joined Algona. The conference disbanded thereafter. Northwest Conference (Iowa) The Northwest Conference was a high school athletic conference in Iowa . Over the years membership ranged anywhere from five to nine schools. The conference was known over the years as one of the best 1A basketball conferences in Iowa. Traditional powers Newell-Fonda and Pomeroy-Palmer combined for 14 state appearances and six state titles between 1990 and 2004. The conference also sponsored volleyball , women's basketball, men's and women's golf , men's and women's track , baseball , softball , and cross country . The Northwest Conference

150-667: The Twin Lakes . Another former Twin Lakes member, Laurens-Marathon, would replace them for the next season. In 2008, the real attrition began. Pomeroy-Palmer left the conference to join with neighboring Pocahontas Area Community School District, reducing membership to seven. For the 2009–10 school year membership dipped to six, as Schaller-Crestland joined with neighboring Galva–Holstein Community School District for all sports but volleyball effective 2009–10 and began full-grade sharing in 2010–11. The final blow to

175-414: The Cornbelt to pickup league members Lincoln Central of Gruver, Armstrong-Ringsted, Sentral-Burt of Fenton, and North Kossuth of Swea City. Membership decreased back to 12 the next season as West Bend merged with Mallard and Lincoln Central left the conference after one season to merge with the much larger Estherville Community Schools. South Clay closed its high school in 1994, allowing its students to choose

200-540: The Northwest Conference, became the first school from the Northwest to actively seek membership into the conference in the summer of 2009. The Northwest had seen many of their schools join with others schools and were bound to see more mergers in the near future. After years of talk, in February 2011, the Twin Lakes agreed to merge with the Northwest Conference effective the 2011–12 school year. The new league maintained

225-516: The Twin Lakes (North Division) in 2014. Harris-Lake Park joined the War Eagle Conference, along with independent Trinity Christian of Hull; the next year, Clay Central-Everly followed suit. This left Corwith-Wesley/LuVerne which, despite the whole-grade arrangement, remained one of Iowa's smallest high schools. In 2015, the partnership formally ended; Corwith-Wesley dissolved and was absorved by Algona, and LuVerne, though opting to remain

250-444: The Twin Lakes Conference. The five schools remained associated as the conference's northern/western division. The Northwest Conference was noted for its successful Class 1A basketball teams for most of its history. Throughout the 15 years the conference existed five difference members qualified for the state basketball tournament, accumulating a total of 12 appearances 6 state titles during those years. The six state titles were tied for

275-487: The Twin Lakes moniker. Alta–Aurelia, Newell-Fonda, Laurens-Marathon, Sioux Central and Storm Lake St. Mary's joined the conference, which split into two divisions, one maintaining the traditional Northwest conference schools and the other keeping the 6 current Twin Lakes members. In 2014–15, the expanded again. GTRA and West Bend–Mallard became members of the league, leaving their homes in the now-defunct Cornbelt Conference . Prairie Valley and Southeast Webster-Grand agreed to

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300-474: The conference came the next season, as Alta and Aurelia reverted to sharing sports in 2010–11 and announced plans to combine high schools and middle schools in 2011–12. Throughout the final years of the conference, Sioux Central, which became easily the biggest school in the conference when it absorbed most of what was once the Albert City-Truesdale high school in 2005, actively campaigned for

325-693: The conference expanded from 8 to 12 schools, as for the third time, it picked up members of a disbanding conference; namely, the North Star Conference and exiting members Vemtura, Twin River Valley (a merger of Twin Rivers of Bode and Gilmore City-Bradgate until 2010, when each went its separate way,) Corwith-Wesley/LuVerne (a long-term partnership, the two districts never formally merged,) and Woden-Crystal Lake/Titonka (another partnership, and absorbed by Forest City and Algona, respectively, in 2011.) Despite this additional boost in membership,

350-520: The conference was created in 1996 with three of the smaller Twin Lakes Conference schools (Alta, Aurelia, and Sac City), two Cornbelt conference schools who had been longtime rivals of Alta and Aurelia respectively (Sioux Central and Albert City-Truesdale), three old Bo-Coon schools who had recently merged with other nearby schools (Schaller-Crestland, Pomeroy-Palmer, and Newell-Fonda), and longtime independent Storm Lake St. Mary's. After nearly

375-525: The conference were Ruthven, Titonka, Swea City, Sioux Rapids, Marathon, West Bend, Terril, and Graettinger. In 1955, Mallard joined the league. Thompson and Armstrong followed in 1956. In 1958, Titonka, Armstrong, Swea City, and Thompson left the league, to help form the State Line Conference. Sioux Valley was created in 1959 from the consolidation of Peterson and Linn Grove, along with tiny rural districts Brooke, Cornell, and Highview, to become

400-543: The conference with just six members for the 2012–13 school year. North Union, by far the largest school in the conference, immediately sought to find a new home for its athletic teams, and in 2014, it opted to join the North Iowa Conference. This move left the other schools in the undesirable position of operating a five-team conference. As a result, that same year, each of the five began applying to other leagues. G-T/R-A and West Bend-Mallard were accepted into

425-564: The early 90s, Rockwell City merged with Lytton. In 1991, the league added Alta–Aurelia and WLVA. In 1996, Alta–Aurelia and Sac City left the conference to help found the Northwest Conference. In 2004, Southeast Webster-Grand was added to the conference from the recently disbanded North Star Conference. Laurens-Marathon left in 2007 for the Northwest Conference, the same year WLVA and Sac City merged to become East Sac County High School. In 2010, RC-L and Southern Cal began sharing all sports, after previously sharing baseball. Sioux Central, formerly of

450-560: The eighth member of the Cornbelt Conference. Everly also joined the conference during the 1970s. In 1981 the league added all six remaining members of the Clay Conference to the fold. Due to Marathon's departure in 1977 to join with Laurens, this left the league at 14 schools: the eight existing league schools, as well as Ayrshire, South Clay, Clay Central, Ocheyedan, Harris-Lake Park, and Arnolds Park. Still, many of

475-472: The league continued to dwindle as a result of successive consolidations. Sentral and North Kossuth merged in 2007, becoming North Sentral Kossuth. Twin River Valley left in 2010, and W-CL/T in 2011. In 2012, Ventura merged with Garner-Hayfield of the North Iowa Conference. Meanwhile, North Sentral Kossuth's merger agreement to share sports with Armstrong-Ringsted under the name North Union, and a similar agreement between Greattinger-Terril and Ruthven-Ayrshire, left

500-478: The league from the Twin Lakes to keep membership at 14. The next season Ocheyedan left the league to merge with a larger school, Sibley. In 1987, Arnolds Park merged with Milford to form Okoboji High School . Clay Central and Everly began whole-grade sharing in 1989, leaving the conference with 11 members. In 1991, membership was boosted back to 14 despite Sioux Rapids-Rembrandt and Sioux Valley merging to become Sioux Central. The State Line Conference disbanded, leaving

525-483: The new north/west division. From the formation of the conference, the schools, in conjunction with the Storm Lake Times , sponsored an annual basketball preseason challenge held the weekend before the season tip-off. Each of the schools in the Northwest Conference played an exhibition game against another area school, one after another, until the night was capped with one Northwest Conference school (typically

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550-403: The preseason favorite) facing the host, much larger Lakes Conference member Storm Lake High School . The Jamboree was held for both boys and girls and although it did not count on any team's record, the exhibition games served to provide area teams a good idea of what to expect for the upcoming season. Beginning in the 2011–12 school year, all five Northwest Conference schools became members of

575-738: The school they wished to attend; most chose to attend Sioux Central. Membership dipped to eight in 1996–97. Albert City-Truesdale and Sioux Central left the league to help found the Northwest Conference . Meanwhile, Terril began sharing sports with Ruthven-Ayrshire under the name Lakeland. The eight team league persisted until 2005, although there were some changes in sharing agreements. The Burt Community School ended its partnership with Sentral, and merged with Algona, leaving Sentral by itself. Ruthven-Ayrshire began competing once again without Terril. Terril, still hurting for numbers, entered into sports sharing agreement with Graettinger. In 2005,

600-479: The schools were quite small, and were weighing their options for further consolidation. After Sioux Rapids merged with Rembrandt in 1980, the Clay Conference began to look at other options. Throughout the 1980s, a series of mergers further changed the conference. In 1984, the Ayrshire district began sending students elsewhere, then joined Ruthven to form Ruthven-Ayrshire Community School. Albert City-Truesdale joined

625-479: Was formed for the 1996–97 athletic year. The conference was formed to meet the needs of nine small 1A schools located in the heart of Northwestern Iowa. After Alta and Aurelia ended a 7-year sports-only sharing agreement, the bigger Twin Lakes Conference was not seen as a good fit for them. Newell-Fonda, Pomeroy-Palmer, and Schaller-Crestland had long histories in the Bo-Coon conference, which had recently dissolved. So

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