Columbus, Highland, Pekin are district foes

The Iowa High School Athletic Association's new class, 5A, for the 2021 school year has made other classes smaller and enlarged playoff qualifiers while taking a game from the regular season for Classes A and 1A.

The best thing about the 2021-22 Class A District 5 is Iowa City Regina, the reigning Class A state champion, has moved up to Class 1A.

Class A teams Columbus and Highland were in a district with Regina, Wapello, North Cedar and Lisbon last season. This coming season, it will be Pekin moving down from 1A and Class A Alburnett joining Columbus, Highland, Wapello, North Cedar and Lisbon.

'We weren't really surprised by the district,” Columbus head coach Dave Lekwa said. 'We knew Regina was moving up and we'd lose them. We saw Pekin moving down and thought there was a good chance they'd join us.”

Pekin was on the edge of the enrollment figures with a BEDS number of 159 and is one of the 10 largest Class A schools along with Alburnett and North Cedar, both 157. Columbus is at 146, Lisbon 134, Highland 127 and Wapello 126.

The district size has changed from the past with seven teams in a district instead of six. The top four of a district make the playoffs.

'Regardless of the system the state decides, there will be pros and cons,” Blakely said. 'I didn't have a big problem with the way we were doing things. I value the playoff system as being worth qualifying for.”

There will be just an eight-game regular season for Class A. With the extra district game, that allows for just two non-district opponents. Schools submit a list of preferred non-district opponents but the state has the ultimate decision as to who teams will play for the non-district games.

'At the end of the day, we will play who they put on our schedule and control what we can control,” Pekin head coach Brent Blakely said.

Pekin and Highland were in the same district in 2018-19 and Highland won close battles, 23-21 at Pekin in 2018 and 25-24 at Highland on a last second touchdown in 2019. Highland played Alburnett in 2018 (18-8) and 2019 (32-21) and the Huskies won both of those games over the Pirates.

Travel time has increased minimally for the district teams. Regina was 38 miles from Columbus. Alburnett is 77 and Pekin is 50.

'Other than Wapello and Highland, there is definitely some traveling,” Lekwa said. 'The other four teams are around an hour plus away, but that's to be expected with a smaller class.”

The 2020 season was Lekwa's first with the Wildcats and produced quite a bit of offense. By the second game, the Wildcats had seven rushing touchdowns and two receiving for 60 points. In 10 games in 2019, Columbus scored 58 points on seven passing touchdowns and three rushing TDs.

'I am really looking forward to our first true offseason with this staff and players,” Lekwa said. 'The competition will be high next fall and we're excited for it.”

Class A

' Teams: 56

' Districts: 8

' Teams per district: 7

' Playoff qualifiers: 32

' Automatic qualifiers: 32, top four per district

' At-large berths: None

' Regular-season games (per team): 8

' District games (per team): 6

' Non-district games (per team): 2

Union area District 5: (Last two seasons overall record)

Columbus (2020 in A-6 2-6; 2019 in 1A-5, 1-9)

Highland (2020 in A-6, 1-6; 2019 in A-6, 5-4)

Pekin (2020 in 1A-6, 3-4; 2019 in A-6, 2-7)

Alburnett (2020 in A-5, 6-3; 2019 in A-5, 1-8)

Lisbon (2020 in A-6, 7-3; 2019 in A-5, 4-5)

North Cedar (2020 in A-6, 1-6; 2019 in 1A-4)

Wapello (2020 in A-6, 4-4; 2019 in 1A-5, 5-4)

TOTALS LAST SEASON AND CLASS A RANK

TDs Total Yards Passing comp-att-yards-td-int Rushes-Yards

Columbus 25 33rd 2,412 43rd 19-44-321 (51st)-4-6 307-1,604 25th

Highland 26 29th 2,494 40th 19-61-149- (57th)-2-4 255-1,708 21st

Pekin in 1A 20 36th 2,760 35th 20-61-244- (50th)-1-2 342-2,126 13th

Alburnett 26 29th 2,657 34th 60-148-738 (29th)-5-5 359-1,519 31st

Lisbon 52 7th 4,326 6th 31-58-547- (42nd)-9-1 453-3,108 5th

North Cedar 14 54th 1,904 53rd 62-144- (1,020)-9-13 157-421 59th

Wapello 40 13th 3,664 12th 90-136-1,354- (11th)-18-2 214-1,749 20th