While the news headlines have been dominated by stories of high school football teams canceling or forfeiting their seasons due to shrinking rosters and safety concerns, football is far from the only prep sport to see decreasing participation.
Sports Illustrated reported that girls’ basketball is facing a similar plight. In Iowa this season, at least six schools that previously contested girls’ varsity basketball will not field a team.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union announced that Central City High School, Postville High School, Starmont High School, Vinton-Shellsburg High School, West Central High School and Sumner-Fredericksburg High School will not contest varsity games in the 2026-27 season.
The lack of a girls’ varsity program is becoming the norm for some of these schools, such as Central City, which has not fielded a team in three consecutive seasons. But for West Central and Sumner-Fredericksburg, the lack of a team comes as a surprise.
Sumner-Fredericksburg’s team won nine games last season.
"Numbers have been declining for several years, and injuries have added to the situation this year,” said Sumner-Fredericksburg athletic director Mike Quigley. "After many meetings and conversations with administration, ADs and our school board at the last meeting, we decided the best path forward is to play a JV-only schedule and focus on rebuilding our own program rather than co-op."
According to Yahoo Sports, attempting to create a co-op team was not seriously considered, because doing so would require the IGHSAU to factor in the combined student enrollment of both schools when determining which class the team would compete in. Currently, Sumner-Fredericksburg competes in Class 2A, scoring an average of just under 41 points per game, which ranked the team 243rd overall in the state. Creating a co-op and potentially competing in a more competitive class was not the perfect answer.
“The decision was not taken lightly," Quigley said. "We explored several options, and there really wasn't a perfect answer. Ultimately, we felt this was the best decision for the long-term health of our entire 7-12 girls basketball program. Our goal is to rebuild participation, develop our younger players and get our varsity program back on the floor as soon as we can."
