It's now official, New Hampton and Waukon heading to the UIC
Beginning with the 2025-26 school year, New Hampton and Turkey Valley will be playing in the same conference, thanks to a decision on Tuesday by the Upper Iowa Conference to accept the applications by New Hampton and Waukon to join the league.
By Bob Fenske
After more than a century in the Northeast Iowa Conference, New Hampton is headed to the Upper Iowa Conference after superintendents in that conference voted Tuesday to accept the applications from New Hampton and Waukon to join the league at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year.
"There is a sense of relief, I think you can say that," New Hampton Superintendent Jay Jurrens said. "We know what we're doing, we know where we're going and who we're going to play. It's been a process, but we knew it would be. I understand the attachment our community has to the NEIC, but this is the right thing for our students."
Jurrens also serves as the superintendent at Turkey Valley, which is a member of the UIC, and he said the lone UIC school to vote against New Hampton and Waukon was West Central, the smallest school in the conference.
The NEIC is the oldest conference in the state of Iowa, and New Hampton was a charter member of the league when it was formed in 1920. But the NEIC's demise was sealed earlier this year when Crestwood applied and was granted admission into the UIC.
With Waverly-Shell Rock departing the conference after this year and Crestwood leaving after the 2024-25 school year, that left just four schools — one less than state law allows for conferences to exist — in the NEIC.
During a meeting early last month in which the UIC accepted Crestwood's application, superintendents also extended an invitation to apply to the conference. On Tuesday, those applications were accepted but UIC superintendents did not make any decision on Decorah's application to the conference.
"A lot of school boards haven't met since we got Decorah's application," Jurrens said, "so we really couldn't have a vote. Ultimately, it's up to the school boards."
Although it hasn't officially been voted on, the UIC will in all likelihood break into two divisions — one for larger schools and the other for smaller schools. The NEIC teams will join North Fayette Valley, MFL MarMac and South Winneshiek in the large-school division while Central Elakder, Clayton Ridge, Kee High, Postville and West Central will make up the small-school division.
"We haven't officially voted on that," Jurrens said, "but I do know that's the intent."
He said in addition to athletics, the UIC also offers other programs for its schools. Jurrens said the conference currently has music, art and speech festivals, "and quite honestly, they have a few more things like that than we did in the NEIC. … That's important because you want your conference to be about more than just athletics."
What remains to be seen is where the NEIC's three largest schools will end up.
Waverly-Shell Rock will compete as an independent next year but has applied to the WaMaC for the following year. Decorah has its application into the UIC while Charles City's hopes of joining the North Central Conference were dashed Monday night when two of that conference's schools voted against bringing the Comets into the NCC.
Charles City Superintendent Anne Lundquist, during a board meeting on Monday, said the next step for the district will be to examine the reasoning behind the denial and work toward a resolution or explore options for another conference altogether.
Meanwhile, work on the new, expanded UIC will begin almost immediately.
"The ADs will start meeting now to get the 25-26 schedule ready," Jurrens said. "It takes time to get everything together and I'm sure we'll use it wisely."
