Woodward-Granger accepted as 10th member of Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference

The Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference expanded to eight teams in 2022 and added a ninth school in 2025.

The conference is adding again. This time, the HOIAC welcomes back a familiar face to the league as Woodward-Granger’s request to join the league was approved by all current member schools recently.

“They’re a quality school district that will be a great addition to our conference,” PCM Activities Director Jeremy Swink said. “They are a growing school and currently in our conference’s footprint.”

The addition of Woodward-Granger brings the league to 10 teams, which is much better scheduling-wise, according to Swink.

The Hawks were part of the HOIAC back in the early 2000s when the league was made of six small schools and seven large schools.

Back in 2008-09, Woodward-Granger was part of the small-school division with Ogden, Grandview Park Baptist, Colfax-Mingo, South Hamilton and Colo-NESCO.

PCM was one of the seven large-school teams along with Collins-Maxwell/Baxter, Gilbert, Bondurant-Farrar, Greene County, North Polk and Roland-Story.

Only PCM, South Hamilton, Greene County and Roland-Story remain in the league today.

Nevada joined the HOIAC in 2009-10 and was part of the large-school division.

The version of the HOIAC in 2011-12 consisted of one division and nine schools. CMB’s last year in the conference was 2016-17, the year before the schools split into Baxter and Collins-Maxwell for athletics.

The eight schools in the HOIAC in 2020 were PCM, Gilbert, North Polk, Roland-Story, Saydel, South Hamilton, Nevada and Greene County.

Gilbert and North Polk have since left the league to join the Raccoon River Conference.

West Marshall’s addition in 2021 brought the league to seven schools, Perry made it eight when it joined in 2022 and Grand View Christian was placed in the league this past season to get the number to nine.

The HOIAC by-laws, according to Swink, state that 2/3 of member schools must approve an addition to the league.

“That since been accomplished,” Swink said after PCM’s Board of Education voted to approve Woodward-Granger in its most recent meeting. “They will be part of the conference starting in 2026-27.”

There’s no plan yet to expand the conference past 10 schools, but Swink said there have been formal discussions about shifting back to divisions. That becomes more realistic if the league can get to 12 schools.

The 10-team conference starting in 2026-27 will feature PCM, Saydel, Roland-Story, West Marshall, Grand View Christian, Nevada, Perry, Greene County, South Hamilton and Woodward-Granger.

“At this point, I think one division with 10 teams is a good place to be in,” Swink said.

There also are not any current applications or invitations to the league pending at this time.

Woodward-Granger was not invited but instead reached out and applied or membership.

“The programs they offer, their location, their growing enrollment and their competitiveness were all reasons Woodward-Granger is a good fit in our league,” Greene County Activities Director Dave Wright said. “Bringing them into the league was an easy decision. We’ll now take it one step at a time and do what is best for the member schools of the HOIAC as opportunities present themselves.”