A school official confirms that Waverly-Shell Rock (WSR) has applied for membership to the Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC).
WSR was recently voted out of the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) as other league schools, including Charles City, Cresco-Crestwood, Decorah, New Hampton and Waukon, demonstrated that WSR had grown much larger than most other schools in the conference, creating competitive imbalance.
The Go-Hawks had been in the NEIC since 1933 and are scheduled to exit the conference at the end of next school year on June 30th of 2023. Waterloo East recently left the Mississippi Valley Conference to join the newly-formed Iowa Alliance Conference, which includes Mason City, leaving the MVC with an odd number of 15 schools.
Since voting WSR out, the NEIC has extended invitations to five schools to join the league in an effort for expansion, including Osage, North Fayette Valley, Sumner-Fredericksburg, MFL-Mar-Mac, and Oelwein, which left the NEIC two years ago.
The Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) has also extended invitations to several schools as they also seek expansion, including the NEIC’s Cresco-Crestwood, New Hampton and Waukon, plus, Oelwein, Osage, Sumner-Fredericksburg, Edgewood-Colesburg, Tripoli, and Starmont.
Both conferences are targeting expansion for the start of the 2023-24 school year.
*Cole Bair of 1650 The Fan in Cedar Falls/Waterloo contributed to this story
