Cardinal leaves SEISC to move into South Central

Eight is better than seven. The South Central Conference will expand to eight teams in the fall of 2022 when Cardinal will be welcomed into the league.

The Comets have been a member of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference, originally in the West Division, currently in the South Division, since it was formed in 1991.

Cardinal will join Albia, Centerville, Chariton, Clarke (Osceola), Davis County (Bloomfield), Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont and Knoxville in the South Central Conference.

"I don’t think the SCC vote was unanimous, but it was just one school against,“ Miller said. ”I would say about 75 percent of the Super Conference school understood what we were doing, and they get it. About 25 percent asked, 'Why are you doing this?’“

Cardinal’s growth has made it a Class 2A school in most athletics, with the exception of football and wrestling. Football is not a conference-affiliated sport. When Cardinal won a district title in baseball in 2020, it was in a district with Pella Christian, EBF, Albia and Davis County.

“If you look at baseball, softball, basketball and even track, when we get to districts we are playing those teams so it just made sense to schedule them instead of Super Conference teams,” Cardinal football coach Landon Miller said. “Our athletic director and superintendent reached out to ADs and got some feedback. I believe the positives outweigh the negatives by far.”

While it will be the smallest school in the conference, it is constantly increasing in size. The smaller size could be a motivating factor for Comet coaches and athletes to perform at a high level. Cardinal is currently graduating about 65 kids in a class whereas other SCC schools graduate 85-120.

The fifth grade through kindergarten currently at Cardinal all have at least 80 kids in the respective classes.

“When I got here four years ago, it was 45, Miller said. ”So its growing exponentially.“

Cardinal is the farthest west school in the SEISC. It will be the farthest east school in the SCC.

The decision to switch conferences benefits students and family members with less travel. Shorter road trips could mean fresher athletes as well as new rivalry opportunities while still maintaining those from the SEISC, most notably Van Buren County and Pekin.

There is such a disparity of sized schools in the SEISC that many don’t field junior varsity teams. SCC schools often have a freshmen team as well as JV.

Back when these conferences were created, the landscape of schools was different. Some conferences have not changed as the landscape changed.

“Conferences should be living, breathing entities, not stationary and static,” Miller said. “People don’t want change, but change is good.”