The athletic split between Collins-Maxwell and Baxter begins after the CMB baseball and softball teams complete their seasons this summer.
Both school districts will play in the Iowa Star Conference in every sport that’s not football. Football is still set up through districts.
Baxter and Collins-Maxwell both petitioned the state to join the eight-player ranks. The Iowa High School Athletic Association granted that request, but both schools will be independents in 2017.
That means administrators at both schools are scrambling to set up a schedule for each program to play. Both schools will not be eligible for the postseason, too.
According to CMB football coach and Baxter Principal Rob Luther, Baxter has seven games scheduled for 2017, and an eighth game still needing to be approved by the state.
According to Luther, Baxter will play West Central (Maynard), Collins-Maxwell, English Valleys, Lone Tree, WACO (Wayland), Midland (Wyoming), Springville and Easton Valley next season. Luther said Colo-NESCO also has agreed to play the Bolts in Week 0, but that game has not yet been approved by the state.
The goal is still to get to nine games, but the Bolts will play seven or eight if that is what they get scheduled.
I have been asked by some former CMB athletes where some of these schools are located.
The location of the games are not yet known, but here is the breakdown of each opponent.
West Central went 0-9 last year. The school is located in Maynard, which is Northeast of Waterloo about 127 miles away from Baxter.
English Valleys would be one of the shorter road trips for the Bolts if that game is at North English. The school is located 14 miles south of Williamsburg and 81 miles from Baxter. English Valleys also went 0-9 in 2016.
Lone Tree went 8-1 and did not make the playoffs. It is located near Spencer, 204 miles away from Baxter.
WACO is located in Wayland, which is 50 miles south of Iowa City. The total distance is 138 miles from Baxter. WACO finished 3-6 in 2016.
Midland is almost the same distance from Baxter that Wayland is. It is located near Anamosa, and Midland was 9-3 and an 8-player state semifinalist last year.
Springville, which finished 5-4 last season, is near Marion and is 110 miles away from Baxter.
Easton Valley is the second farthest school from Baxter. If the Bolts were to have to travel there next season, the trip would be 191 miles. Easton Valley is 50 miles north of Davenport.
The bad news is, the road trips could be pretty long next season.
The good news is the state will re-draw the districts after next season, and the Bolts will likely get placed in a much better situation when it comes to travel.
The separation of CMB also affects those teams which played in the Raiders’ district last year.
Saydel is one of those teams, and the Eagles have picked up a non-district game against Colfax-Mingo. C-M coach Jeff Lietz said the game was agreed to be played in Week 0 by both parties, but they are still waiting for the state’s approval.
The Tigerhawks and the Eagles have played in an early-season Week 0 scrimmage in recent seasons, so a regular season game in 2017 makes a lot of sense.
The game would be a 10th contest for Colfax-Mingo.
In other football news, the Iowa Football Coaches Association released its annual awards and academic all-state honors recently.
The IFCA named Lynnville-Sully’s Jeff Corbett as one of five winners of the Don Taft Junior High Awards.
Six area athletes were named to the academic all-state team, too.
Those honors went to Collins-Maxwell/Baxter’s Blake Coughenour, Toren Schultheis and Brady Kemp, Lynnville-Sully’s Ryan Hofer and Dylan Roozeboom and Prairie CIty-Monroe’s Ethan Thomas.
Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com