By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

SHENANDOAH, Iowa, June 28, 2026 — Please oblige me as I share some hometown news, maybe grieve just a little, and then start celebrating 96 years of mostly great memories.

This coming week, the boys and girls sports teams from my alma mater Shenandoah High School, here in southwest Iowa, will have their last games as members of the Hawkeye Ten Conference.

It was organized in 1930 as the Hawkeye Six, with Shenandoah as one of the founding schools. It grew through the years as the Hawkeye Seven, Eight and Ten, and it is one of the oldest high school activities conferences in the state. One of the best, too, with programs and awards in academics and the arts, as well as emphasizing sportsmanship and good character.

But over the last 20+ years, half the Hawkeye Ten Conference towns and schools grew significantly in population. Shenandoah, which was a town of 7,000 when I was in high school in the early 1960s, has dropped to 4,975. Nearly all of us have known what that would eventually mean, even when we tried not to believe it.

Go, Mustangs! (KMA radio graphic)

One of the first to suggest publicly that SHS should consider a change was Derek Martin, the manager of sports operations for radio KMA, who leads tremendous coverage of sports in the corners of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska.

“Back in January 2023, I wrote (in a column on KMA’s website) that Shenandoah should seek moving out of the Hawkeye Ten Conference,” Martin recalled last week. “I think a lot of it is still valid. A lot of what made sense for Shenandoah back when the Hawkeye Eight was formed and then grew into the Hawkeye Ten has gone by the wayside. There are so many differences between Shenandoah and most other schools in the league that it only makes sense for them to group with other schools more like it.”

Last August, the Shenandoah Schools board of education and administration commendably called public meetings and conducted open discussions of the possibilities.

Jon Weinrich, the SHS assistant principal, activities director and head girls basketball coach, said “with differences in student enrollment numbers and the different levels of competition Hawkeye Ten schools play, you want to play schools more your own size.”

Jon Weinrich, Shenandoah High activities director. (SHS photo)

The school officials’ conclusion?

Goodbye to the Hawkeye Ten. (Right now the league includes, along with Shenandoah, Council Bluffs Lewis Central, Denison-Schleswig, Glenwood, Harlan, Creston, Atlantic, Clarinda, Carroll Kuemper Catholic, Red Oak and Council Bluffs St. Albert. But in this time of conference re-alignment, Lewis Central is also leaving, for the Missouri River Conference, and Carroll High is joining the Hawkeye Ten. Keep reading for Red Oak news.)

When the new school year starts in late summer, Shenandoah will be a member of the 54-year-old, 9-school Western Iowa Conference.

Hello to “the WIC,” as its fans call it. (Right now, that league includes “AHSTW,” which I think is Avoca, Hancock, Shelby, Tennant and Walnut; Audubon; IKM-Manning, which is Irwin, Kirkman and Manilla with Manning; Logan-Magnolia; Missouri Valley; Riverside of Oakland; Treynor; Tri-Center of Neola, and Underwood. But, take note, Audubon and IKM-Manning are leaving the WIC now, and Shenandoah’s old-rival Red Oak is joining the WIC with us.)

Got it all?

Making the move, Weinrich told me Friday night, right after he and his own two kids had been grilling the hotdogs and burgers at a SHS softball game, “is bittersweet for all of us, as we’ll be leaving a lot of friends in the Hawkeye Ten. It probably hasn’t even fully hit us yet. But there’s some excitement, too. New opponents. Different facilities. Road trips to different places.”

The Hawkeye Ten Conference logo, will soon have some changes.

From my remote measurements of the pulse of my hometown and alma mater, acceptance seems widespread.

“As a fifth-generation Shenandoah resident, I was always proud that SHS was a member of a great conference, and I think we did a good job of competing for most of the time,” said Gregg Connell, a 1967 graduate who is the community’s Chamber of Commerce and economic development director and a major sports fan. “But a lot of things change — the economy, population trends, size of families. Dealing with big things like that is always tough. So, now we have a changing of the guard. It happens.”

Looking ahead, Connell said “in the Western Iowa Conference, those are great programs. Most of those communities are close to Council Bluffs and Omaha and are growing. And, you know what? We have a great school here, a great administration and coaches. If they think this move is best for our kids, then I’m 100 percent for them.”

He paused. “But I can’t tell you that there’s not a touch of sadness,” Connell admitted.

I feel it.

I’ve not only been a Hawkeye Ten fan since early boyhood, I competed in it in high school. (Can I brag? Second team all-conference catcher in baseball, 1965.) But I was involved in a way that most former athletes and students were not.

I’ve told you, too many times, how in 1961, springtime of my 8th grade year of school, I became the sportswriter for The Evening Sentinel, the five-day daily newspaper in Shenandoah back then. And that meant that all through high school, I not only covered the Hawkeye Seven Conference games, I was also a member with the the sports editors from the other newspapers in the conference communities of the venerable Hawkeye Seven Press Club.

We’d meet at restaurants around the conference and pick the all-conference teams after lots of campaigning and a little arguing.

You can’t imagine what a thrill it was for a young teenager to share drinks and steaks with a group of mid-to-late career journalists including Merl Eberly of the Clarinda Herald-Journal, Jim Logan of the Red Oak Express, Phil Chinitz of the Atlantic News-Telegraph, Max Sandeman of the Creston News Advertiser, Paul Gauthier of the Adams County Free Press in Corning, and was it Dave Snow of the Glenwood Opinion-Tribune? (On those drinks, it was Pepsis for me and non-drinker Eberly, beers for most of the others.) (And my goodness, as I review our roster, I think I’m the only survivor!)

You know, a wonderful thing about being in a conference as long as Shenandoah has been in the Hawkeye Ten, is you really get to know the other communities — not just the athletes, coaches, officials and media — and even the restaurants.

In the 1950s, I thought Sierp’s Junction Café in tiny Tenville (which then was at the junction of U.S. Highways 71 and 34) might have been the headquarters of the Hawkeye Eight Conference. That little town was truly at the crossroads of the conference. Before and after games, you could sit in Sierp’s and see fans from all the other schools in the league. And I’m not sure I’ve ever yet had a hamburger that was as good as the ones they served there.

Sierp’s Junction Cafe at Tenville, Iowa, in the 1950s. (Photo from the “HONK FOR TENVILLE” page on Facebook)

And let’s put Sierp’s and these other restaurants in the Hawkeye Ten Hall of Fame: Van’s Chat & Chew (where I first experienced Thousand Island dressing on a tossed salad!), in Atlantic; Johnny’s Steakhouse, Red Oak; Berning Café, Creston; The Chicken Inn outside Creston; Spot Café, Shenandoah; Mickel’s Café, Harlan; Cronk’s Café, Denison; the 34 Supper Club, outside Emerson; the Ponderosa Truck Stop, at the junction of U.S. Highways 34 and 275, east of Glenwood; J Bruner’s and the Ice House restaurants, Clarinda; Napoli’s Italian Restaurant, Carroll. Others?

I was talking about Hawkeye Ten restaurants the other day with Larry Peterson, the longtime sports editor, now partially retired, in Creston. Fans and scribes move so fast today, Peterson said, “you have to include the McDonald’s Restaurants and Casey’s stores, too. Because I’m always trying to post a story, I’m always looking for good WiFi, and when I can get a McDonald’s burger with that, wow!”

Another call I made to a veteran of life in the Hawkeye Ten was to my favorite Clarinda Cardinal, Pat Eberly, the widow of Merl. Traditionally, Shenandoah’s arch-rival was Clarinda, probably because we shared life in Page County. Pat, even at 90, is still the matriarch of all sports in southwest Iowa.

“Pat,” I said to her, “I’m just calling so you can tell me how really sad you are that Shenandoah is no longer going to be in the Hawkeye Ten with Clarinda.”

She said she indeed feels a little sadness over it.

“To be honest, I will miss Shenandoah in the conference,” she said. “It’s definitely been competitive over the years.”

The two schools do play to play each other regularly in non-conference games.

Then Pat went on to recall as one of her favorite moments of the rivalry being the Saturday morning after Clarinda’s 1970 football victory over Shenandoah. I’d predicted my Mustangs would have a 6-3 season, and wrote before the season that if they didn’t, I’d sit on the front steps of The Evening Sentinel on the morning after the last game and people could break raw eggs on my head. Well, Clarinda won 20-6, Shenandoah ended the season 5-4, and one of the first egg-breakers that Saturday morning was Merl Eberly.

My Shenandoah High classmate Denny Howard, now retired in our hometown after his long career as co-owner of a sporting goods and clothing store, was an All-State player in both basketball and baseball for the Mustangs.

He told me that when he thinks back on his own experiences in the conference, “my memories are of all the great athletes we had to go up against each and every night.

“Atlantic had Ed Podolak, Jim Vollmuth, Dan Gipple, Bill O’Connor and more,” Howard recalled. “Creston had Randy Long, Clarinda had Paul Cade and Kris Peterson, Red Oak had Curt Lange, Jon Nazarene and Steve Carson. Corning had Dave Matthews and Paul Readhead. Glenwood had the Johnson twins. Those are just a few of the top athletes of our era. There were no easy games.”

And that’s basically been true for the 96 years Shenandoah has been in the conference, which produced outstanding athletes that went on to stardom at all levels of college competition in multiple sports.

So, who were the best of the athletes? Who’s your pick for best boy athlete and best girl athlete in the Hawkeye Ten’s 96 years?

Actually, Shenandoah will bow out of the league with one of those, in my opinion: Logan Hughes, a 4-sport superstar for the Shenandoah girls — who’ve been the “Fillies” since girls sports were started in 1973.

(That’s another change coming for SHS athletics: The “Fillies” nickname for girls teams is being retired. “We’ll all be Mustangs,” Weinrich said. “We did some polling and a majority of girls in high school now preferred to be ‘Mustangs.’ I talked to some women around the community who were on the first Fillies teams, and they told me their number one goal back then was not to be the ‘Lady Mustangs.’ They thought ‘Fillies’ was fine at first, but ‘Mustangs’ works better now.”)

Logan Hughes, who graduated in 2019, was KMA radio’s 3-time “Female Athlete of the Year.” She was best known for her basketball play, which brought her scholarships to Missouri Western State University and then Wayne State College in Nebraska.

The best boy athlete so far in the Hawkeye Ten? My pick is Ed Podolak, the 1965 Atlantic grad, who went on to football glory with the Iowa Hawkeyes and then the Kansas City Chiefs. “One thing that tells you how good Podolak was,” said. Gregg Connell, the Shenandoah economic development director, “is he got better at every level. He was good in high school, he was even better for the Hawkeyes, and he was at his best with the Chiefs.”

You can share and defend your choices for best boy and girl athletes in Hawkeye Ten history in the comments below here, or send them directly to me at my email address.

Next step in my assist to my alma mater’s transition?

I’m rounding up some experts on life in the Western Iowa Conference, and I’ll be giving you their insights and tips in a column here later this summer.

Old Shen fan eating an “Offenburger” at the Depot Restaurant in Shenandoah. (Photo by John Offenburger)

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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.