Almost every smaller school in the area immediately surrounding Perry are members of the West Central Activities Conference, and when interscholastic competitions begin later this month those schools will welcome two new additions to their league — Interstate-35 and Pleasantville.
The Roadrunners and Trojans asked to join the WCAC two years ago and were happily admitted by the then 10-team league. The inclusion of the two new schools means the WCAC will now be split into two six-team divisions, East and West, with the result a change in scheduling, at least for basketball, baseball and softball.
The new WCAC East will include Des Moines Christian, Earlham, I-35, Pleasantville, Van Meter and Woodward Academy, with the WCAC West featuring AC/GC, Madrid, Ogden, Panorama, West Central Valley and Woodward-Granger.
In several sports scheduling will be unaffected, as teams will simply play each other once, and on a home-and-away basis. For example, if W-G volleyball visits Van Meter in 2018, Van Meter will turn around and visit W-G in 2019.
In boys basketball, teams will host, and visit, the five schools in their own division, and play the six cross-division teams once per season on a home-and-away basis, creating a 16-game league slate.
The situation in girls basketball is different, as the Woodward Academy does not have a girls basketball program, thus creating fewer games. The overall WCAC champion will be determined by fewest total league losses, as opposed to best overall league record, which will settle who wins the boys WCAC crown.[wpedon id=”85410″ align=”left”]
Baseball will follow the same format as boys basketball and softball the same as for girls basketball, and for the same reasons.
Although the conference is now split into two divisions, only one WCAC league champion per sport will be crowned in each sport.
The new WCAC East:
The new WCAC West:
