A Different Way To See Districts

It's been a while since March, hasn't it? I guess this wild world of blogging is passing me by, mostly ... I mean, I read about all these people who are becoming famous and getting movie/media deals for no other reason than they make their own YouTube channel videos, and my mind boggles. My cousin and I used to make fake radio shows and our own version of the Watergate tapes on cassette back in the '70s. Who would've thought that type of activity could make you famous 40 years later?

Anyway, as summer bears on and I start preparations for another season of high school football, I had the notion to break down the Iowa high school districts in a couple of different ways. I don't know why, just had a thought, and a few hours to kill before work. So, let's start out by looking at Class 3A, which is the class I have the most interaction with.

Iowa re-classifies and re-districts every two years, so 2016-17 becomes a new cycle. Several school districts moved up and down in the classifications, as always happens - but this year the state also changed from 8 districts of 7 teams to 7 districts of 8 (in the classes other than 8-player and 4A; those two are special in their own ways). This increases district games from 6 to 7, which coaches wanted, but also presents some problems of geography in trying to group together 8 schools.

First, and by first I mean last winter when the districts were announced, I made a map grouping the districts by boundary lines. I drew lines on a map of Iowa to divide the state between the districts. This is a common way to view this type of construction; a political map showing congressional districts, for example, might look much like this. Here's the 3A map:

Now, while this is easy to read and understand, it's also a little misleading. Vast tracts of open land far from any of the included schools get included in each district area. It's just the way this map works. It does show, for example, how far-flung a district might be (District 7, for instance) or bizarre choices by the athletic association (the boundary between Districts 4 and 5 is just weird), but it doesn't show the district groupings very well.

Hence, my idea for a "web" style map. Here I would connect the schools in each district with lines. If all 8 schools fit in a type of shape, that's all well and good; but if a school remained inside that shape boundary, I would connect it with the others in a type of webby-looking thing. I think this map works a lot better as far as showing exactly how far apart members of a particular district are, as well as highlighting some real oddities in the district design. Behold:

Here you can see that District 7 really isn't all that much more stretched out than District 1, or 3, or 5, as far as travel. Districts 2 and 6 become much more compact than the boundary map shows. Plus, take another look at that mess between 4 and 5; why, oh why on God's green earth did the state put Clear Creek-Amana in 4 and Solon in 5 when they so obviously should have been switched?

Anyway, that was what I did the first part of this week. I know, such a nerd. Here's a look at the other classes (not 4A; that class doesn't work the same way because you have multiple schools in Sioux City, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids that are in different districts. Drawing those boundaries would be a tremendous pain).

8-player boundary map:

8-player web map:

You can see how western Iowa is a hotbed for 8-player schools, to the point where Districts 6 and 7 practically share some teams.


Class A boundary map:

Class A web map:

Class 1A boundary map:

Class 1A web map:

Some really odd things going on here in central Iowa between Districts 5 and 6, and out in eastern Iowa along Interstate 80 between Districts 3 and 4. Not sure if the state could have done a whole lot better, though; it's just an odd distribution of schools.

Class 2A boundary map:

Class 2A web map:

Here you can really see how Central Lee, down in the southeast corner of the state, is practically on an island by itself. Those road trips to Osceola and Monroe are going to be long hauls. Then again, in District 7 you have places like East Sac County and South Central Calhoun having to get all the way to Shenandoah and Clarinda.

Interesting side note about Central Lee: back when I was in high school in the early 1980s, Central Lee was actually a member of the Blackhawk Conference, along with my high school (Cardinal, Eldon) and places like Harmony, Van Buren, WACO, Pekin, West Burlington and Tri-County. Some conference members started complaining about the cost of travel, so after the 1980-81 school year the conference disbanded. While many of those schools found other conference homes, Cardinal had to go independent for my senior year, so we had road trips to places like Brookfield, Missouri (which is a long freakin' way). So allow me some schadenfreude to see Central Lee (who complained about making conference road trips to Thornburg and therefore helped kill the conference) face road trips to Osceola, Chariton and Monroe. Suck it, Central Lee!