Prep Football- New London’s football program was just one in a growing line of programs that either had to pause or fully cancel their seasons due to injuries, resulting in a lack of numbers. In fact, the Tigers had just secured their second victory of the season two weeks before shuttering up for the season after Highland’s head football coach Corey Quail opted to resign to ensure their season was forfeited.

Before the 2025 season began, KILJ’s local Eight-Player district housing WACO and Winfield-Mt. Union lost Lone Tree as an opponent after the Lions did not have enough players to field a team. Before New London, the state of Iowa had already seen seven schools pause or cancel their football season. Even last year’s Eight-Player state champion Remsen-St. Mary’s had paused their season for two weeks due to a roster size of 17 players. One of their wins this season was against a team, Siouxland Christian, who had to forfeit their entire season before it started.

In comparison, that outmans Class A’s Highland by four players and New London by one player. This was not the first time the Tigers were forced to forfeit a game due to mounting injuries. Two years ago, while still in Eight-Player, New London canceled a week four matchup against Central City to give their roster time to heal. The Iowa High School Athletic Association rules state that a program must present how they can finish a season safely before continuing play.

New London would go on to finish the season and not miss a game in the 2024 season. Nevertheless, the Tigers opted to hop back into Class A’s 11-man football during the offseason. The decision to make the move is more complicated than counting student-athletes who are eager to suit-up for the football season.

New London School District Superintendent Chad Wahls and coach Quail echoed the sentiment of “player safety” when declaring that the season will not continue. The rise in research regarding concussions and more importantly, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), has caused concern amongst parents in letting their children play tackle football.

Despite Iowa’s sport participation numbers being one of the highest in the country, overall, tackle football saw a 5% decline in participation from 2019 to 2023 according to Participation Trends – State of Play 2024. This follows a sharp decline that occurred in the early 2010s; consequences from the National Football League (NFL) ostensibly admitting to interfering in concussion research by pledging money to the Boston University CTE Center (Fainaru and Fainaru-Wada).

Paradoxically, with participation numbers seemingly decreasing, viewership and interest in NCAA Division I-A football and the NFL have been climbing. Additionally, with moves to make the game safer, fans and former players alike hark that violence is the name of the game, including Tom Brady’s stance that the game is “a little softer” than it used to be (Roscher).

To get a better grasp on the situation, I interviewed Trent Swords, who has been coaching high school football in Illinois since 1993, to see what trends he’s witnessed throughout his coaching years and his takeaways from a situation that is occurring all over the country.

Slaten: Has the perception of football changed from when you started coach to now?

Trent: I think people like football as much if not more than when I started coaching. I think parents are more aware of and more concerned about the possibility of injury, which has caused more parents to not encourage their sons to play football. So, I think football is still perceived as a very likeable sport to watch and cheer for but not pushed a much as it used to be.

Slaten: How have numbers fared throughout your high school coaching career?

Trent: It’s kind of interesting. In the fall on 1993 in Ottawa, when I started, there were 50 or so freshman, 13 sophomores, and mid-30s for juniors and seniors. We pulled about 10 freshmen to play sophomore football. Everywhere I ever knew or competed against at that time had at least a freshman team, a sophomore team, and a varsity team (Class 4A for Illinois football). From 1994 until possibly around 2015 we usually had around a total of 110 kids in the program. From that time on, it declined to about 75-80 kids in the program.

2015 was a seminal year for safety and tackle football. Columbia Pictures released the film Concussion a dramatic biopic about forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu navigating the NFL’s attempt to suppress his research about CTE in football players after studying former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster’s brain.

Jeanne Laskas details the trials and tribulations Dr. Omalu went through after receiving Webster’s brain in 2002 in her article Game Brain: Football Players and Concussion. The article will be cited below, it illustrates how far the NFL went to hide the effects of its game

Slaten: You’re now coaching at a smaller Catholic school and despite having stable numbers for your program, how has you season been impacted by other schools hurting for numbers?

Trent: Well, when I had the numbers, we had freshman A and B games, a sophomore game, and then a JV team that were juniors and seniors that did not play in the varsity game. First, we had to get rid of the JV games because of everyone’s numbers declining. Then freshman B games followed by the freshmen and sophomore games altogether, leading to those teams combining to form a JV team. So, a lot of schools now only have the two squads: varsity and JV. Now, some schools don’t have enough numbers to field a team. Schools have had to go to other states and play larger schools.

Coach Swords is currently working as an assistant coach at Marquette High School in Illinois. The Crusaders have had quite the successful decade and a half, posting 13 straight winning season. Unfortunately, scheduling has become a difficult matter.

Their week three matchup saw the Catholic school load up into a bus and travel nearly 300 miles north to play two-time defending District 7 state champion in Wisconsin, Edgar High School. The result was a narrow 9-6 loss to a Wildcat squad that is still undefeated.

Nevertheless, it does conjure up another factor into the decision-making process that is often left behind. The choice to play at a certain level or at all goes beyond just counting student athletes; instead, the forgotten factor that is highlighted by the example above is travel costs. Let’s look at how many miles New London traveled last year compared to their projected travel for this year and next.

While apart of Eight-Player football last year, the Tigers circumnavigated 409.7 miles for their eight-game season. Four of their five road trips measured over 70 miles.

This season, travel was nearly cut in half to 241 miles with just one of their four road trips consisting of a journey over 60 miles. Next year, their four-game road journey would shrink to 131.6 miles with their furthest trip consisting of a road showdown with Cardinal, a mere 51.9 miles away.

Slaten: What factors do you think play into their reduction of numbers?

Trent: Parents encouraging their kids to participate in extra-curricular activities in high school. Quite a few engage in youth sports thinking it will result in college scholarships or a professional career. As it becomes obvious that will not occur, parents see it as a waste of time and money for their child to continue playing sports in high school. In my experience, all sports have a decreased number of participations, so it’s not only football. Additionally, the game demands a certain amount of physicality, so kids and parents see it as a waste of time and money to participate if the kid is not starting, especially for how demanding the sport can be.

Slaten: Do you think this is part of the ebb and flow of high school sport participation or a trend that will continue?

Trent: I am hopeful that it’s just a low point and that parents and schools see the value of participating in sports in high school. There’s a lot to be gained by participating even if you’re not a starter or getting scholarships.

This is not the first time that football has seen a downturn in participation. In fact, 1904 and 1905 saw a combined 37 football-related fatalities, resulting in prominent universities such as Stanford, Northwestern, and Duke to drop football before President Theodore Roosevelt got involved and the rulebook was revised (Klein).

Staying within the 21^st century and just down the road from New London, Danville reentered the football scene in 2023 after seven years of co-oping with other programs. The Bears just hosted their first postseason game in their third consecutive playoff berth.

The community mourns the loss of New London’s 2025 football season, but the game has a habit of finding its way back.

Works Cited

Fainaru, Steve, and Mark Fainaru-Wada. “Congressional Report Says NFL Waged Improper Campaign to Influence Government Study.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 24 May 2016, www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/15667689/congressional-report-finds-nfl-improperly-intervened-brain-research-cost-taxpayers-16-million.

Klein, Christopher. “How the Forward Pass Saved Football.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 28 May 2025, www.history.com/articles/forward-pass-football-invented-origins.

Laskas, Jeanne Marie. “Game Brain: Football Players and Concussions.” GQ, 15 Sept. 2009, www.gq.com/story/nfl-players-brain-dementia-study-memory-concussions.

“The NFL Tried to Intimidate Scientists Studying the Link between Pro Football and Traumatic Brain Injury.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 11 Oct. 2017, www.ucs.org/resources/nfl-tried-intimidate-scientists-studying-link-between-pro-football-and-traumatic-brain.

“Participation Trends – State of Play 2024.” Project Play, 2024, projectplay.org/state-of-play-2024-participation-trends.

Roscher, Liz. “Tom Brady Says NFL Is ‘a Little Softer than It Used to Be.’” Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo!, 22 Sept. 2021, sports.yahoo.com/nfl-buccaneers-tom-brady-says-nfl-is-a-little-softer-than-it-used-to-be-160415290.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAN57wt1cAyWBtu8WvzScLq1MbSfbctEXRt6wknM3sdv8L84Yvk-wmV8z7KexTucX2B4-X7xjehGKGtM386mwB98PUXNNbznY1oSLw8_9waVmxpErQ5xpIsH74PcdB5y6UI0ci9PHINSpYUmCy1RA-S-56QSUgvfj06LLIE1sam18.

Fort Dodge, IA- The 2025 Iowa High School State Cross Country meet at Fort Dodge ran over the weekend and a pair of our local runners found a spot in the top 10 for their respective races and a local team finished in the top 6.

Class 2A Girls

The first race of the two-day event saw two of our local runners participate in freshman Hannah Ritter of Notre Dame/West Burlington and senior Aubree Bunnell of Central Lee, both making their first appearance at the state level.

Ritter finished just inside the top 10 with a 39^th place time of 20 minutes and 47 seconds, while Bunnell was just behind with a time of 20 minutes and 52 seconds, which was good enough for 42^nd place.

Treynor ended up upsetting #1 West Marshall by 30 points to finish with the team title. Albia’s McKenna Montgomery traded in last year’s bronze for this year’s gold medal time of 18 minutes and 20 seconds. A battle that will look to heat over the years is between Monticello’s Mary Grace Lyons, freshman, and Kambrie Dekkers of Unity Christian (sophomore) as they finished in 2^nd and 4^th place, respectively.

Class 2A Boys

Last year, Mediapolis brought a trio of state qualifiers, but this year the Bulldogs brough the entire pack and went from no finishing inside the top 30 to two placing within the top 20 at this year’s meet.

Simon Wendel subtracted 32 seconds off his time from last year to post a mark of 16 minutes and 36 seconds, which slotted him in 7^th place. The senior jumped up 25 spots from last year.

Will Schmidgall’s leap up the rankings was even steeper as the junior went from taking 85^th place last year to turning in a sub-17-minute time of 16 minutes and 52 seconds and claiming 17^th place overall.

The team finished in 13^th place with Logan Frank, Shawn Griffis, Kyle Luna, and Mason Lindeen taking 124^th, 126^th, 128^th, and 132^nd place, respectively.

Another freshman running for Notre Dame/West Burlington was Cavin Denney. Throughout his impressive rookie season, the freshman has seen time in the rankings and managed a time of 17 minutes and 48 seconds, which was good enough for 66^th place.

Grundy Center’s Emerson Vokes successfully defended his title from a year with a time of 15 minutes and 42 seconds, which 36 seconds faster than 2^nd place Denver’s Jesse Gomez. Reigning in the team title was Chariton, posting only 42 points.

Class 3A Girls

The Southeast Conference (SEC) had a quartet competing this season and just like last season Washington’s Iris Dahl came from out of nowhere to lead the pack as her final stretch place her in 20^th with a final mark of 19 minutes and 16 seconds. Emma Horak finished in 95^th place for the Demons.

Mt. Pleasant’s freshman phenom Avery Fedler stated earlier in the season that sometimes she exits the gate too fast and that caught up with her in Fort Dodge. Her opening mile ranked around the same time as some of the top finishers, but a belabored finish put the Panther in 24^th place with a time of 19 minutes and 22 seconds.

Avery Rump of Fort Madison, much like the entire season, was stride-for-stride with Fedler down the stretch, but the results were the same for the senior with Rump finishing a step behind in 25^th place with a time that was one-tenth of a second slower than her SEC counterpart.

Pella continues to rule the trails as the Dutch wrapped up their fourth consecutive state championship behind Marissa Ferebee’s individual title time of 17 minutes and 47 seconds. Ferebee wraps up her high school career with three state individual and team titles.

Class 3A Boys

The SEC is a fan of the number four as another quartet of runners made the pilgrimage north to run at the state meet. Similarly, Washington led the pack with senior Andrew Rees posting a time of 16 minutes and 22 seconds for 18^th place. The Demon took 13^th place last season with a time that was two seconds faster.

Mt. Pleasant’s Silas Hulett, two years after trying the sport for the first time, made his first ever trip to the state meet and turned in a 53^rd place time of 17 minutes and 3 seconds. Fort Madison’s pair of Riley Tripp and Hunter Wiegand took 68^th and 97^th place, respectively.

Quentin Nauman of Western Dubuque, an Oregon commit, has dazzled crowds for the past couple of seasons, including a record-setting day back in the spring for the 2025 Iowa State Track and Field meet. The senior saved his best performance for his last as the senior shattered the state record with a time of 14 minutes and 48 seconds to wrap up his second state title.

Gilbert continued their dominant team showing by taking home their third consecutive team trophy by 30 points.

Class 4A Girls

Class 4A kicked off the Saturday slate of events with Dallas Center-Grimes’ Piper Messerly notching a 1^st place time of 17 minutes and 41 seconds to take her second consecutive state championship. Waukee Northwest usurped Pleasant Valley’s place atop the class, reigning in 67 points for the trophy.

Class 4A Boys

Cedar Falls’ Jaden Merrick vied his time and replaced his silver medal from last year with the gold medal this season with a time of 14 minutes and 54 seconds to put an exclamation point on his senior season.

However, the effort was not enough to produce another team championship, as Indianola shocked everyone by turning in top 35 performances from all five of their scoring runners to win the title by two points.

Class 1A Girls

WACO’s Josie Dykstra will be a name to keep an eye on over the next two seasons, as the sophomore turned in a 21^st place performance with a time of 19 minutes and 54 seconds. Teammate, and freshman, Macie Carter finished in 59^th place with a mark of 20 minutes and 56 seconds.

Iris Garza put together a nice individual effort for Columbus with a 29^th place time of 20 minutes and 19 seconds. Danville’s Alaina Gourley chopped a second off her time last year and finished seven spots higher at 44^th.

Van Buren County, who has performed well as a team all season, claimed 7^th place with Kayley Snowgren (20:54) and Rylee Philips (20:56) leading the pack in 57^th and 60^th place, respectively. Rory Philips, Adalyn Snowgren, and Gabby Titus claimed 72^nd, 100^th, and 110^th, respectively, to round out the scoring.

South Winneshiek took home the team title, while Lili Denton of St. Albert defended her individual state championship with the only sub-18-minute time.

Class 1A Boys

In the penultimate event of the day, Van Buren County’s Lincoln Bainbridge ripped off a time of 16 minutes and 36 seconds to claim 7^th place overall. An improvement of 37 seconds and 20 spots from last year’s performance. His top ten finish helped the Warriors finish in 12^th place as a team.

Gavin Noll, Landry Loeffler, Leo Jirak, and Reid Kite finished in 59^th, 85^th, 109^th, and 120^th positions, respectively, for the Warriors.

The Columbus boys’ team has been one of the most cohesive teams, consistently running similar times and staying together as a group. That pack mentality led to the Wildcats taking 6^th place as a team with 227 points.

Ryan Villa with a time of 17 minutes and 34 seconds and Cade Storm with a mark of 17 minutes and 46 seconds led the team with finishes of 50^th and 56^th place. Victor Tovar, Kevin Villa, and Drake Marin all finished within 40 seconds of Ryan Villa to place in 64^th, 70^th, and 82^nd, respectively.

Lastly, WACO’s Locken Henderson took 89^th place with a time of 18 minutes and 12 seconds, while Isaac Shinn of Danville grabbed 90^th place with a time of 18 minutes and 13 seconds.

South Winneshiek’s Hugh Conway will be looking to rule the class for the next several years as the sophomore won the individual title with a time of 15 minutes and 50 seconds, which was 12 seconds faster than 2^nd place and 21 seconds faster than the next runner that returns next season.

Riverside edged past Lake Mills for the team championship with 54 points.

Class 1A Boys Wheelchair

Eli Johnson of Bedford was the only participant in the event as he finished with a time of 20 minutes and 25 seconds.

High School Cross Country

The Classes 1A and 4A state meets ran over the weekend and one of our local runners finished in the top 10 in the Class 1A race. 

Starting with the girls’ race, WACO’s Josie Dykstra led the way with a 21st place time of 19 minutes and 54 seconds, while Macie Carter turned in a 59th place performance for the Warriors. 

Iris Garza of Columbus snuck into the top 30 with a 29th place time of 20 minutes and 19 seconds. Danville’s Alaina Gourley clocked a time of 20 minutes and 41 seconds for 44th place. 

As a team, Van Buren County finished in 7th place with 198 points. Kaylee Snowgren led the pack with a 57th place time of 20 minutes and 54 seconds, followed by Rylee Philips, who took 60th place with a time of 20 minutes and 56 seconds. 

On the boys’ side, Lincoln Bainbridge collected a 7th place time of 16 minutes and 36 seconds, which helped Van Buren County take 12th place as a team. Gavin Noll aided the cause with a 59th place finish.

Columbus brought their own team and the Wildcats claimed 6th place behind Ryan Villa’s time of 17 minutes and 34 seconds for 50th place and Cade Storm’s 56th place time of 17 minutes and 40 seconds. The Wildcats compiled 227 points. 

Lastly, Locken Henderson (18:12) of WACO and Isaac Shinn (18:13) of Danville finished in 89th and 90th place, respectively, with the two clocking times a second apart. 

The top finishers for the Classes 2A and 3A meets included Mediapolis’ Simon Wendel’s 7th place time of 16 minutes and 36 seconds for the boys’ Class 2A race. 

Moving over to the girls’ Class 3A race, Avery Fedler of Mt. Pleasant snatched 24th place with a mark of 19 minutes and 22 seconds.

On the boys’ side, Silas Hulett of Mt. Pleasant ran a time of 17 minutes and 3 seconds for 53rd place.

Postseason High School Football

For Class 3A Pod B, Solon will host Winterset on Friday, November 7th, at 7 pm.

For Class 2A Pod C, Mid-Prairie will take on Van Meter on Friday at 7 pm. 

For Eight-Player Pod D, Iowa Valley will face off against Audubon at home on Thursday, November 6th, at 7 pm for their quarterfinal matchup. 

Despite the loss last Friday night, Mt. Pleasant head coach John Bowlin is excited about the direction of the program,

“Just the expectation to be there every year, the expectation to win you know and it doesn’t come easy. I think, you know, so I tell them all the time. There’s nothing in life that’s worth doing that is easy. You know, it takes a lot of work, and it takes a lot of grinding. And you know when it’s over, you get to really feel what you’ve put in and I think that’s what these guys have done and they know how hard they work to put us there and man, just the support of everybody and seeing everybody excited about football and what these guys are doing is a lot of fun to watch. It just makes the fall go and just makes it a lot of fun.”

Postseason High School Volleyball

In Class 5A, #1 Waukee Northwest will start off today with a noon game against #8 Indianola. #2 Ankeny Centennial will face off against #7 Iowa City West and #4 Dowling Catholic will battle with #5 Ankeny. Rounding out the quarterfinals will be #3 Pleasant Valley attempting to avoid the upset against #6 Valley.

For Class 4A, #1 Clear Creek Amana enters as the favorite as they are tasked with playing #8 Sergeant Bluff-Luton. #7 Marion will look to knock off #2 Sioux Center. #4 Dallas Center-Grimes will square off against #5 North Scott and #3 Pella will take on #6 Norwalk to round out the quarterfinals.

Class 3A will begin at 10 am tomorrow, November 4th, with #1 Western Christian taking on #8 Mt. Vernon. #2 Davenport Assumption will compete against #7 Mid-Prairie. #4 Cherokee and #5 Humboldt will tangle, while #3 Red Oak will face off against #6 Kuemper Catholic.

The Class 1A bracket is now set with #1 Saint Ansgar taking on #8 East Mills at 6 pm on Tuesday. #4 Dunkerton, in their first ever state tournament appearance, will square off against #5 BCLUW. #2 Janesville will clash with #7 Gladbrook-Reinbeck and #3 North Tama will face off against #6 Sidney to end the night.

Over in Class 2A, #1 Denver enters as the favorite with their first match on Tuesday being against #8 Wapsie Valley. #4 Grundy Center will tangle with #5 Beckman Catholic. #7 Aplington-Parkersburg will look to upset perennial powerhouse #2 Dike-New Hartford, while #3 Hinton will contend against #6 Regina Catholic. 

Southeastern Community College

The volleyball team gutted out a five-set victory over Northeast Community College in the Region 11 semifinals over the weekend (25-21, 25-27, 24-26, 25-15, 15-12). Five members of the Blackhawks collected double-digit kills in the comeback victory with Aviana West’s 17 kills leading the effort. SCC will travel to Fort Dodge for the championship match at 7 pm on Wednesday, November 5th, against Iowa Central Community College. 

The men’s soccer team fell to Iowa Lakes Community College in the Region 11 tournament over the weekend, 3-0. The Blackhawks finished the season with a 12-4-3 record. 

The men’s and women’s basketball teams collected 1-1 records to start the season over the weekend.

The women’s team will travel to Carl Sandburg College tomorrow, November 4th, at 5:30 pm.

The men’s team will host the Midwest Classic on Friday, November 7th, with game one at 7 pm.

College Football

For the fourth game in a row, Iowa State was on the wrong end of the final score, losing 24-19 to Arizona State over the weekend. Rocco Becht finished the game with 186 passing yards and two total touchdowns. The Cyclones will make the trip to TCU on Saturday, November 8th, at 2:30 pm. KILJ 98.5 FM and AM 1130 will be on the call.

Iowa will host #6 Oregon on Saturday at 2:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM will be on the call.

This Day in Sports History

1935 – The Philadelphia Eagles beat Boston, 7-6 at Fenway Park; respective quarterbacks combine to throw an NFL record 11 interceptions.

1996 – San Francisco 49ers receiver Jerry Rice grabs 3 passes for 45 yards and a TD to become the first player in NFL history to reach 1,000 career receptions in 24-17 win over New Orleans Saints; finishes career with 1,549.

2013 – Nick Foles connects with Riley Cooper three times to become the 7th passer in NFL history with 7 touchdown tosses in a game during the Philadelphia Eagles’ 49-20 win over the Raiders at Oakland; Foles completes 22 of 28 for 406 yards.