The Pleasant Valley High School football team has started off strong this year and is currently 4-1. However, PV has had more competition recently than in years past, and here’s why.
Most high school sports are played in a conference style format: PV will typically have games or meets against teams within the MAC conference, including North Scott, Bettendorf, Davenport schools and other various teams in the conference. Since 2014, this style has changed and Iowa currently uses district football.
This irregular type of competition ignores traditional conferences and instead matches teams based on the size and success of their schools. The goal of this system is to keep players safe and engaged in football.
By creating schedules around the past success of a team, there is a smaller chance of having extremely unfair games where kids could be hurt by much stronger competition, and blowouts should be much less common.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association assigns pods of teams who play each other each year. Along with these pods, schools are allowed to request other schools they wish to play outside of their pod.
In past years, PV has had a successful football team, making it to the quarterfinals at state in 2021 and the first round of state in 2022. This success means that PV is matched up with stronger teams for this year’s season.
This type of schedule has drastically changed the amount of MAC teams that PV plays during the season. In 2020, PV still played many MAC teams, but this year the only remaining MAC team on the schedule is Bettendorf.
“You really have no natural rivalries…. It’s not like we’re playing a local school where their kids are gonna come here, our kids are gonna go there, our kids and our families know each other, we compete against each other…. It’s just a different feel,” commented PVHS athletic director D’Anne Kroemer.
Members of the football team have noticed a change in the atmosphere around football at PV.
“I remember my freshman year there was just more excitement for certain games. We still have the Bettendorf game but a lot of people would come watch at North Scott or at Brady Street. Our student section and even some of the parents just can’t watch as many of the games when they’re so far away,” conveyed senior football player Izaac Harvey.
Many of these MAC games had little competition and didn’t help the team in the long run. Kroemer describes the upside of playing more teams outside of the MAC. “I think it helps PV prepare for their ultimate goal, which is, we want to be pod or district champions, we want to be playoff bound, and our goal is to the dome.”
While fans may not be excited about having to travel further to games and have fewer rivalries, the district style schedule will hopefully help PV in the future. With multiple recent state appearances and a strong start to the season against heavy competition, PV will have another chance to compete for the state championship this year.
