Prep football teams entering new two-year cycle of district alignments

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State titles in seven classes of high school football will be earned Wednesday and Thursday.

Now that the calendar has flipped to August, the countdown to the first Friday night under the lights is in full swing for Iowa high school football teams.[wpedon id=”85410″ align=”left”]

Official practices for all gridders, as well as for cross country, volleyball and girls swimming, will begin Monday. All area football teams will open their respective seasons Aug. 24.

As part of the traditional two-year cycle, the IHSAA in January established new districts for the 2018-2019 seasons, with each team playing nine home and nine away games during the span.

In addition, Classes 1A, 2A, and 3A are now composed of 54 teams each, with each of the classes divided into nine six-team districts. As a result, all teams in 1-3A will play four non-district games before facing their five district foes. All games, district or otherwise, will carry equal weight in determining postseason qualifying.

A total of 16 teams in each class will qualify for the playoffs. District champions will advance, with the remaining at-large slots determined by a new Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). As a result, it is possible for a single district to qualify only their champion, while other districts might send two or three of their teams to the playoffs, everything being dependent on RPI points.

Fans can track RPI points for each team beginning the Monday following week four (Sept. 17).[wpedon id=”85410″ align=”left”]

Perry will be joined by Boone, Carroll, DC-G, Humboldt and Webster City in the new Class 3A District 2. Other area teams in 3A include Ballard, Bondurant-Farrar, Carlisle, Gilbert, North Polk and Norwalk in District 8, with ADM, Creston/O-M, Glenwood, Harlan, Lewis Central and Winterset in D9.

Woodward-Granger, Woodward Academy, Colfax-Mingo, Interstate-35, Pella Christian and Pleasantville comprise the new Class 1A District 7, with District 8 containing Panorama, AC/GC, Clarinda, Mt. Ayr, Van Meter and West Central Valley. Madrid, Ogden, Eagle Grove, Pocahontas Area, South Central Calhoun and South Hamilton will play in District 2.

Greene County drops to Class 2A for the next two seasons and will play in District 9. Other teams in the grouping include Atlantic, Kuemper Catholic, OA-BCIG, Red Oak and Shenandoah.

New head coaches have been named at several area schools. Matt Hardy has been elevated to the head coaching spot at Perry, with Garrison Carter taking over at ADM and Michael Kauzlarich at Panorama. Former longtime Panorama head coach Lyle Alumbaugh retired after last season, but has chosen to join ADM in an assistant’s role.

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