NCC or Top of Iowa Conference? Which is better for the Eagles?

As many of you are already aware of by now, a petition has been circulating concerning the Eagle Grove sports teams and their current conference affiliation. The desire, on the part of Laurie Nelson who started the petition, is to leave the Top of Iowa Conference (TOI) and go back to the North Central Conference (NCC). She cites competitiveness and travel distances as two main reasons, which we will delve into later. First, let’s look at how the conference came into being.

The 2013-14 school year was the last sports year for the Eagle teams in the NCC, as they had started the process of going into what is now the former North Iowa Conference (NIC). At that time, the NIC consisted of Garner-Hayfield/Ventura, Osage, Forest City, Lake Mills, Belmond-Klemme, West Hancock, Newman Catholic and North Iowa.

The Eagle teams played in the NIC for one full school sports year, with the talk of an 18-team ‘super conference’ for the following year. That league would include teams from the now former Corn Bowl Conference. Those were North Butler, West Fork, Rockford, St. Ansgar, Northwood-Kensett, Central Springs, Nashua-Plainfield and Riceville. Also coming in would be Bishop Garrigan (from the NCC) and North Union (conference at the time unknown). The state’s newest conference would be named Top of Iowa, with schools divided up by size into East and West Divisions. Play was set to begin with the 2015-16 school year.

“People here assumed we were going to a smaller conference that would give our kids an advantage,” said Nelson. “Now it turns out to be just as tough if not more so. Our expenses went up dramatically, and the kids get home later. I don’t know if the school realized the ramifications of the travel distance.”

She goes on to state, as all Eagle fans should already know, that we want our kids to be winners and that it is stressful enough being a student-athlete in today’s world without all this. “The number one thing to me, and a lot of other parents and alumni, is the tradition of being in the NCC,” said Nelson. “This is the 100th anniversary of the conference, and we should have been a part of that being an original member. It will be like coming home again to go back.”

She admits that she has been a bit surprised by the response, which has given her over 440 signatures as of this writing. “Many of the NCC people that have signed have said we want you back, please come back,” said Nelson. She has been amazed in getting signers from Hampton, Fort Dodge, Webster City and even all the way from California. A number of those are former student-athletes here. “The NCC is all about tradition, a generation to generation thing,” said Nelson. “Many of the kids we competed against became good friends with the Eagle Grove kids, and some still stay in touch.” She would like to see the meeting when she presents it to the Board of Education (currently scheduled for March 9) to be held at a larger location to be sure they can accommodate the expected larger crowd.

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