The Lakes Conference is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in mid-sized cities in northwest Iowa. Most of the schools are located in their respective county seats.
Contents
Member schools
The conference's current lineup consists of eight schools from eight different counties in northwestern Iowa. Since Iowa is the only state in the nation that maintains separate governing bodies for boys' and girls' athletics, the classifications are different for each gender. The Iowa High School Athletic Association is divided into classes 1A (smallest schools) to 4A (largest schools) for boys while the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union is divided into classes 1A (smallest schools) to 5A (largest schools).
Sports
The conference offers the following sports:
History
The Lakes Conference dates back to the mid-1940s when Storm Lake, Cherokee, Spirit Lake, Sibley, Sheldon, Emmetsburg, Estherville, and Spencer formed the league. For over four decades, the conference had no membership changes. In the 1980s, Sibley merged with nearby Ocheyedan High School and left the conference in 1990 to join the Siouxland Conference. Estherville also merged with Lincoln Central High School in the mid-1990s to form Estherville-Lincoln Central High School. For the 1993-94 academic year, LeMars was added to the conference lineup.
Hull Western Christian joined the Lakes in 1997-98. Since joining the Lakes, Western Christian has participated in 8 state basketball tournaments and won the 2A championship in 2006-07, becoming the first league school to win the state title since Estherville in 1986-87. They followed this up by repeating as state champs in 2007-08, and winning another title in 2009-10.
In 2009-10, Sheldon left the Lakes to join longtime rival Sibley-Ocheyedan in the Siouxland Conference.
The Lakes Conference sponsored football for over 50 years before the Iowa High School Athletic Association realigned all levels of football into a two-year evolving districts format. Because of this change, many of the schools do not compete against each other in football anymore.
Though all the schools currently compete in either classes 2A or 3A, most were once in the highest level of classification for the Iowa High School Athletic Association. With the addition of a fourth class in the 1980s, however, none of the conference schools met the enrollment requirement to be in this largest class. In addition, most of the schools are currently seeing a slight decline in their enrollment. As recently as 5 years ago seven of the league's eight schools were in class 3A, the second highest class in Iowa. Today LeMars, Storm Lake, and Spencer consistently fall in the top fifteen biggest schools in class 3A while Estherville-Lincoln Central and Spirit Lake often flip between class 2A and class 3A depending on their enrollment for the school year. Hull Western Christian, Cherokee, and Emmetsburg are solidly in class 2A and are not expected to change classes any time soon.
It was announced in 2016 that Emmetsburg, a founding member of the Lakes Conference, would be leaving the conference after the 2016-2017 school year to join the Twin Lakes Conference. Emmetsburg officials sited that school size comparisons and a lack of ability to compete successfully in the Lakes Conference were the two main reasons for the switch. The Lakes Conference are tentatively looking for a replacement member for the conference. If they cannot find one, the conference would have to adjust schedules for nearly every sport and could face some uncertainties in the near future.
State Tournament Success
The Lakes Conference has a very successful history in the state tournament.
Football
Dome Qualifiers:
Emmetsburg:
Semifinalist: 2001, 2011, 2012.
State Runner-up: 1975, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988,
State Champion: 1977, 1979, 1989, 1990, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2008.
Estherville:
State Runner-up: 1987
LeMars:
Semifinalist: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006
State Champion: 1973
Spencer:
Semifinalist: 1990, 1991
State Champion: 1994
Spirit Lake:
State Runner Up: 2011
State Champion: 2012
State Champion: 2015
Western Christian:
State Runner Up: 2015
State Champion: 2016
Volleyball
Western Christian
State Semifinalist: 2009
State Runners-up: 1999, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
State Champions: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2016
LeMars:
State Qualifier: 1996, 2013
Spencer:
State Qualifier: 2006
Boys Basketball
Western Christian is coached by 600+ win Jim Eekhoff.
State Qualifier: 2001
Third Place Finish: 2009
State Runners-up: 2011
State Championships: 1985, 1991, 1996, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016
Cherokee:
State Qualifier: 1952, 1975, 1984
Emmetsburg:
State Qualifier: 2005
Third Place Finish: 1978
Estherville:
State Qualifiers: 1986, 1991
State Champion: 1987
LeMars:
State Qualifier: 1930, 1983, 2015
Third Place Finish: 1957, 2000
State Runner Up: 1942, 2015
Storm Lake:
State Qualifier: 1945, 1956, 1963, 1965, 1969, 1979, 1994
State Runners-up: 1970
State Champion: 1968, 1980
Spencer:
State Qualifier: 1995, 1998, 2003, 2004
State Runner Up: 1976,
Spirit Lake:
State Qualifier: 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1942
State Runner Up: 1920, 1928
Girls Basketball
Six on six state tournament qualifiers:
Estherville:
State Qualifier: 1979
State Champion: 1982
Five on five state tournament qualifiers:
Cherokee:
State Qualifier: 2003
State Semifinalist: 2005
Emmetsburg:
State Qualifier: 1999
Estherville-Lincoln Central:
State Qualifier: 2012
State Runner Up: 1999, 2011
LeMars:
State Qualifier: 2002
Storm Lake:
State Qualifier: 1999, 2010
Spencer:
State Qualifier: 2003, 2004, 2009
Spirit Lake:
State Qualifier: 2006
State Runner Up: 2007
Western Christian:
State Qualifier: 1998, 2000, 2002, 2015
State Runner Up: 2016
State Champion: 2012, 2013, 2014
Boys Soccer
Spencer:
3rd place: 2008
State Champion: 2009
Girls Soccer
Spencer
State Qualifier: 2015
Baseball
Cherokee:
State Qualifier: 2006, 2010
State Semifinalist: 2005, 2009
State Runner Up: 2008
State Champion: 2007
Estherville-Lincoln Central:
State Qualifier: 2008
Storm Lake:
State Qualifier: 2010, 2011
State Runner Up: 2009
Spencer Tigers:
State Champion: 1991, 1997