{"id":5082,"date":"2014-07-10T10:22:36","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T15:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=5082"},"modified":"2014-07-10T02:01:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T07:01:58","slug":"ciml-split-all-about-des-moines-vs-suburbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2014\/07\/ciml-split-all-about-des-moines-vs-suburbs\/","title":{"rendered":"CIML split all about Des Moines vs. suburbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news of a potential split<\/a> in the 19-team Central Iowa Metro League* bears some similarities to what went on in college sports the past half-decade. This time, though, it’s the have-nots taking the initiative and separating from the haves.<\/p>\n

The splitters are a pretty obvious group: Five Des Moines high schools that are not<\/em> evenly distributed in student numbers; Ottumwa, which was lumped in with the Des Moines schools** in the football “Metro Conference” until Class 4A was reorganized into districts last year; Marshalltown, which has an easy driving connection to Des Moines and a football team that had a spurt of success in 2009-12; and Indianola, the second-smallest school in the CIML.<\/p>\n

Feeding into the parallel with college football-driven realignment, these schools aren’t as flashy in the facilities arms race and don’t get as much respect media market-wise (ValleyDowling ValleyDowling BattleOfAnkeny ValleyDowling). They also are the ones with the population problem; the Register<\/em> noted Marshalltown and Ottumwa have had double-digit enrollment drops in the past decade. The suburbs, meanwhile, continue going like gangbusters.<\/p>\n

We are talking about the separation of the top of the top; Indianola still has more students in grades 9-11 alone<\/em> than 60% of Iowa’s districts have total<\/em>. I’m a small-school fan, of course, but shakeups at the top are something to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

*How does<\/em> a 19-team conference manage a decent basketball season, anyway? Or do all teams not play each other?<\/p>\n

**In retrospect, that’s really<\/em> why IA 163 needed to be four-laned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news of a potential split in the 19-team Central Iowa Metro League* bears some similarities to what went on in college sports the past half-decade. This time, though, it’s the have-nots taking the initiative and separating from the haves. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geography","category-schools","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5082"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5085,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082\/revisions\/5085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}