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Spencer, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – On August 21st of 2024, It was released that Cherokee, Estherville Lincoln Central, and Spirit Lake intended to petition to leave the Lakes Conference. After all-five schools explored options for either finding a new league, or expanding the Lakes Conference, it was announced on January 8th of 2025 that all five schools, along with independent Western Christian of Hull, had accepted invitations to the Siouxland Conference. The move effectively ended an over 100-year-old Conference.
On June 25th of 2026, the Lakes Conference officially came to a close with the final Baseball and Softball matchups. Northwest Iowa Now reached out to many current and former coaches who led Lakes Conference teams over the years to both celebrate the League that was and send it off in to the sunset with some memories.
The Lakes Conference also included Emmetsburg, Le Mars, Sheldon, Sibley-Ocheyedan, and Western Christian of Hull over the league’s long history. Membership slowly dwindled till the conference’s five schools were absorbed by the Siouxland. Steve Bomgaars, former Mayor of the City of Spencer, who also attended Spencer community schools and coached the Boys Golf Team later on, talked about some of the reasons why schools left the Lakes.
Clint Young coached wrestling at one of those schools, Emmetsburg, that eventually left. Young points out the growth of some of the schools, while others saw enrollment decline as a big reason membership couldn’t stay consistent in to the 21st Century.
Young was at the helm of one of Iowa’s great wrestling dynasties in Emmetsburg. As dominant as Emmetsburg was, the Lakes Conference was a tough path every year.
Cherokee’s Scott Koch a coach for a great Braves Baseball team that saw multiple trips to the State Tournament, a State Championship, and multiple eventual Major League Baseball Players. Koch credits a lot of Cherokee’s baseball success to the competitive schedule they faced.
Bomgaars says the competitiveness in Golf was as high as anywhere in the State, and a big reason for that was the courses these teams saw each other on.
Koch says although competitiveness was high, the relationships were just as important.
One of the first coaches Northwest Iowa Now reached out to for this project was Don Martindale. Martindale had a great run as head coach of Estherville Lincoln Central Girls Basketball. ELC was consistently in the State Tournament, including a State Championship run in 2022. Martindale also was a coach at Spencer, and he talked about the relationships between Coaches in a tight-knit league.
2024-2025 was Martindale’s last season at the helm of Estherville Lincoln Central, a year that saw ELC, Cherokee, and Spirit Lake all break in to the Class 3A State Tournament for Girls Basketball.
High School Football no longer uses Conferences to schedule regular season games. That system ended in 1992. When the Lakes Conference did include Football, Emmetsburg won State Championships in 77, 79, 89, and 90 and qualified for the postseason 18 times. Sibley also won a title in 1978 with 3 postseason qualifications. Spencer advanced in to the postseason 6 times, including a couple of Runner-Ups in 90 and 91. Spirit Lake was a postseason qualifier twice in that time. Gary Swensen was head coach for Spencer for all of those Qualifications. A big deal in the Lakes Conference at that time was when Spencer and Emmetsburg would collide.
Tennis tends to be a quote-on-quote “large school” sport, but the Lakes Conference had three medium-to-small sized schools sponsoring it toward the end. Spirit Lake/Okoboji girls coach Bob O’Hara has been around since the beginning of Tennis in the Lakes Conference.
The Siouxland Conference for Tennis will just be the former Lakes Schools at the start, as no current Siouxland Members carry it. O’Hara and other Lakes Conference coaches are looking to change that in the future.
The Lakes Conference isn’t the first, or the last league that will either dissolve or be absorbed. In the last few years, there has been massive realignment in every part of the State, usually for the exact same reasons we are seeing the Lakes Conference go. A lot of these issues, enrollment, competitiveness, travel, etc. were why the Iowa High School Athletic Association opted to do away with Conference scheduling in Football. Northwest Iowa Now asked Gary Swensen if he believes that is the future for other sports in Iowa.
While it is sad to see the Lakes Conference come to a close, the history remains, the great competitiveness this league had come to be known for, and the relationships between coaches and athletes. The Book closes on the Lakes Conference, but it’s sequel, or crossover if you will, begins August 10th. Cherokee and Storm Lake travel to Spirit Lake to take on SL/O, and Estherville Lincoln Central hosts Spencer in Girls Tennis, officially beginning the New Siouxland Conference.