Cornbelt Conference

The Cornbelt Conference is 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. Currently, the conference has 6 teams, but four members will be leaving in 2014, and another is exploring options for whole grade sharing that would end its independent sports program.

The conference began with members in Ruthven, Titonka, Swea City, Sioux Rapids, Marathon, West Bend, Terril, and Graettinger. In 1955, Mallard joined the league. Thompson and Armstrong followed in 1956. For the 1958-59 school year, four schools (Titonka, Armstrong, Swea City, and Thompson) left the league to form the new Stateline Conference. After Sioux Valley was formed from the consolidation of the three very small, rural districts around 1960, they became the eighth member of the league. Everly also joined the league 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 the schools were small and were weighing their options for further consolidation. Sioux Rapids had merged with Rembrandt in 1980, causing the Clay Conference to look at other options. Now, throughout the 1980s, a series of mergers further changed the conference.

In 1984, Ruthven and Ayrshire consolidated. Albert City-Truesdale joined 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 1988, Arnolds Park High School was closed, as its district was merged with Milford to form Okoboji High School. Clay Central and Everly merged the next year, leaving the conference with 11 schools. In 1991, membership was boosted back to 14 despite Sioux Rapids-Rembrandt and Sioux Valley merging to become Sioux Central. The Stateline Conference folded, leaving the Cornbelt to pickup league members Lincoln Central in Gruver, Armstrong-Ringsted, Sentral-Burt of Fenton, and North Kossuth in 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 much larger Estherville High School. South Clay closed its high school for the 1994-95 school year, allowing its students the freedom to attend whichever school they prefer. However, many went to 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.

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